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History of Taiwan

A country in East Asia where large-scale Han Chinese immigration began under Dutch colonial rule in the 17th century.. 4 eras, 1624 to today.

Dutch Formosa, 1624–1662 Draft, not yet reviewed

The island of Taiwan, also commonly known as Formosa, was partly under colonial rule by the Dutch Republic from 1624 to 1662. The Dutch East India Company established its presence on Formosa to trade with neighboring Ming China and Tokugawa Japan, and to interdict Portuguese and Spanish trade and colonial activities in East Asia. The Dutch were not universally welcomed, and uprisings by both Taiwanese indigenous peoples and recent Han arrivals were quelled by the Dutch military on more than one occasion. The colonial period was brought to an end after the 1662 siege of Fort Zeelandia by Koxinga's army who promptly dismantled the Dutch colony, expelled the Dutch and established the Ming loyalist, anti-Qing Kingdom of Tungning.

Seat of power: Fort Zeelandia

Rulers

Kingdom of Tungning, 1661–1683 Draft, not yet reviewed

The Kingdom of Tungning was a dynastic maritime state that ruled part of southwestern Taiwan and the Penghu islands between 1662 and 1683. It is the first predominantly ethnic Han state in the history of Taiwan. The kingdom was founded by Koxinga (Zheng Chenggong), a Southern Ming loyalist, who attacked the Dutch fortress in 1661 and expelled Dutch forces from Taiwan. Until its annexation by the Qing dynasty in 1683, the kingdom was ruled by Koxinga's heirs, the House of Koxinga.

Seat of power: Tainan

Rulers

Taiwan under Japanese rule, 1895–1945 Draft, not yet reviewed

The island of Taiwan, along with the Penghu Islands, became an annexed territory of the Empire of Japan in 1895, when the Qing dynasty ceded Fujian-Taiwan Province in the Treaty of Shimonoseki after the Japanese victory in the First Sino-Japanese War. After Japanese forces crushed the consequent Republic of Formosa resistance movement, Japan ruled Taiwan for 50 years. Japan, which aimed to turn Taiwan into a showpiece model colony, made efforts to improve the island's economy, public works, industry, cultural Japanization (1937 to 1945), and support the necessities of Japanese military aggression in the Asia-Pacific. Japanese administrative rule of Taiwan ended in October 1945, after Japan surrendered to end World War II in August of that year and the territory was placed under the control of the Republic of China (ROC).

Seat of power: Taihoku

Rulers

Taiwan, 1945 to today Draft, not yet reviewed

The Republic of China, controlled by Chiang Kai-shek and the Kuomintang (KMT), assumed control following the surrender of Japan in World War II. With the loss of mainland China to the Communists in the Chinese Civil War, the government of the Republic of China moved to Taiwan in 1949. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the ROC transitioned from a one-party state under martial law to a multi-party democracy, with democratically elected presidents beginning in 1996. The political and international status of Taiwan is contentious.

Seat of power: Taipei

Rulers

Text adapted from the Wikipedia articles listed as sources, CC BY-SA 4.0.