Taiwan: Interesting Facts

In 1544, the Portuguese passed by Taiwan and called it “Formosa”, which means beautiful.

In 1623 the Dutch went to Taiwan and established a base there as a way to trade with Japan. The Dutch drove out the Spanish settlement on the northwest coast of Taiwan.

In 1661, Koxinga of the Ming Dynasty drove the Dutch out of the southwestern part of Taiwan. Koxinga then set up a Chinese government that ruled Taiwan until the Qing took over in 1683.

When the Qing took over Taiwan, they didn’t want to conquer the island, just destroy the regime that Koxinga set up. The emperor was convinced to conquer Taiwan after Shi Lang and other supporters talked to him.

The Qing ruled Taiwan as a prefecture, then, in 1875, they divided Taiwan into two prefectures: the north and the south.

In 1885, Taiwan was made into a separate Chinese province.

From 1683 to 1760 the Qing limited immigration to Taiwan, but in the 1760’s the limitations were relaxed and by 1811 there were more than two million Chinese immigrants in Taiwan.

In 1875 the Taipei Government was founded, under the command of the Fujian province.

In 1840 the British invaded Taiwan during the Opium War, and in 1884 the French invaded Taiwan again during the Sino-French War. Due to the invasions, the Qing began to build coastal defenses.

Liu Mingchan was the first governor of Taiwan and he divided Taiwan into eleven counties.

The Japanese took over Taiwan after the First Sino-Japanese War in 1894-95, and the Treaty of Shimonoseki was signed, ceding Taiwan to Japan.

The Japanese ruled Taiwan in three stages. First Japan treated Taiwan tyrannically, then the Japanese had a period that aimed to treat all people alike, and finally, after the second world war, a period that aimed to turn Taiwanese people into loyal subjects of the Japanese emperor.

In 1937 Japan had a war with China, which made Taiwan manufacture industrial materials.

In 1942, when the United States entered the war against Japan, the Chinese government under the KMT renounced all treaties signed with Japan and demanded Taiwan’s return to China.

1945, Japan surrendered and gave Taiwan back to China.

After the war, the KMT ruled Taiwan and was very corrupt compared with Japan’s rule, and it led to resentment of the mainland.

There was a civil war underway that began in the 1930’s between Chiang Kai-Shek and the Communist party led by Mao Zedong.

When the civil war ended in 1949, around 2 million refugees fled to Taiwan, and Chiang Kai-Shek created a ROC (republic of china) capital in Taiwan, moving it from Nanjing.

After Chiang Kai-Shek, Chiang Ching-kuo succeeded to the leadership of the KMT.

Ching-kuo allowed opposition parties to form, and in 1986, the Democratic Progressive Party formed.

In 2000, the election of Chen Shui-bian from the Democratic Progressive Party marked the end of KMT rule, and he was re-elected in 2004.

In 2008, Ma Ying-jeou was elected, which means the KMT retook the office of president.