📰 Taiwan · page 2

Following the fall of the Ming dynasty in Beijing in 1644, Koxinga (Zheng Chenggong) pledged allegiance to the Yongli Emperor and attacked the Qing dynasty along the southeastern coast of China.[122]85 In 1661, under increasing Qing pressure, he moved his forces from his base in Xiamen to Taiwan, expelling the Dutch the following year.86 The Dutch retook the northern fortress at Keelung in 1664, but left the island in 1668 in the face of indigenous resistance.[123][124]87

The Zheng regime, known as the Kingdom of Tungning, proclaimed its loyalty to the overthrown Ming, but ruled independently.[125][126][127][128]88 However, Zheng Jing's return to China to participate in the Revolt of the Three Feudatories paved the way for the Qing invasion and occupation of Taiwan in 1683.[129][130]89

Qing rule (1683–1895)

Main article: Taiwan under Qing rule

Following the defeat of Koxinga's grandson by an armada led by Admiral Shi Lang in 1683, the Qing dynasty formally annexed Taiwan in May 1684, making it a prefecture of Fujian province while retaining its administrative seat (now Tainan) under Koxinga as the capital.[131][132][133]90

The Qing government generally tried to restrict migration to Taiwan throughout the duration of its administration because it believed that Taiwan could not sustain too large a population without leading to conflict.91 After the defeat of the Kingdom of Tungning, most of its population in Taiwan was sent back to the mainland, leaving the official population count at only 50,000, including 10,000 troops.92 Despite official restrictions, officials in Taiwan solicited settlers from the mainland, causing tens of thousands of annual arrivals by 1711.93 A permit system was officially recorded in 1712, but it likely existed as early as 1684; its restrictions included only allowing those to enter who had property on the mainland, family in Taiwan, and who were not accompanied by wives or children.94 Many of the first male migrants married local Indigenous women.95 Over the 18th century, restrictions were relaxed as the Qing realized that they were unenforceable.96 In 1732, families were allowed to move to Taiwan.[134][135]97 By 1811, there were more than two million Han settlers in Taiwan, and profitable sugar and rice production industries provided exports to the mainland.[136][137][138]98 In 1875, restrictions on entering Taiwan were repealed.[139]99

Three counties nominally covered the entire western plains, but actual control was restricted to a smaller area.100 A government permit was required for settlers to go beyond the Dajia River.101 Qing administration expanded across the western plains area over the 18th century due to continued illegal crossings and settlement.[140]102 The Taiwanese Indigenous peoples were categorized by the Qing administration into acculturated aborigines who had adopted Han culture and non-acculturated aborigines who had not.103 The Qing did little to administer or subjugate them.104 When Taiwan was annexed, there were 46 aboriginal villages under its control, likely inherited from the Kingdom of Tungning.105 During the early Qianlong period there were 93 acculturated villages and 61 non-acculturated villages that paid taxes.106 In response to the Zhu Yigui settler rebellion in 1722, separation of aboriginals and settlers became official policy via 54 stelae used to mark the frontier boundary.107 The markings were changed four times over the latter half of the 18th century due to continued settler encroachment.108 Two aboriginal affairs sub-prefects, one for the north and one for the south, were appointed in 1766.[141]109

During the 200 years of Qing rule in Taiwan, the Plains Indigenous peoples rarely rebelled against the government and the mountain Indigenous peoples were left to their own devices until the last 20 years of Qing rule.110 Most of the more than 100 rebellions during the Qing period, such as the Lin Shuangwen rebellion, were caused by Han settlers.[142][143]111 Their frequency was evoked by the common saying "every three years an uprising, every five years a rebellion" (三年一反、五年一亂), primarily in reference to the period between 1820 and 1850.[144][145][146]112

Many officials stationed in Taiwan called for an active colonization policy over the 19th century.113 In 1788, Taiwan Prefect Yang Tingli supported the efforts of a settler named Wu Sha to claim land held by the Kavalan people.114 In 1797, Wu Sha was able to recruit settlers with financial support from the local government but was unable to officially register the land.115 In the early 1800s, local officials convinced the emperor to officially incorporate the area by playing up the issue of piracy if the land was left alone.[147]116 In 1814, some settlers attempted to colonize central Taiwan by fabricating rights to lease aboriginal land.117 They were evicted by government troops two years later.118 Local officials continued to advocate for the colonization of the area but were ignored.[148]119

The Qing took on a more active colonization policy after 1874 when Japan invaded Indigenous territory in southern Taiwan and the Qing government was forced to pay an indemnity for them to leave.[149]120 The administration of Taiwan was expanded with new prefectures, sub-prefectures, and counties.121 Mountain roads were constructed to make inner Taiwan more accessible.122 Restrictions on entering Taiwan were ended in 1875 and agencies for recruiting settlers were established on the mainland, but efforts to promote settlement ended soon after.[150]123 In 1884, Keelung in northern Taiwan was occupied during the Sino-French War but the French forces failed to advance any further inland while their victory at Penghu in 1885 resulted in disease and retreat soon afterward as the war ended.124 Colonization efforts were renewed under Liu Mingchuan.125 In 1887, Taiwan's status was upgraded to a province.126 Taipei corpus became the permanent capital in 1893.127 Liu's efforts to increase revenues on Taiwan's produce were hampered by foreign pressure not to increase levies.128 A land reform was implemented, increasing revenue which still fell short of expectation.[151][152][153]129 Modern technologies such as electric lighting, a railway, telegraph lines, steamship service, and industrial machinery were introduced under Liu's governance, but several of these projects had mixed results.130 A campaign to formally subjugate the Indigenous peoples ended with the loss of a third of the army after fierce resistance from the Mkgogan and Msbtunux peoples.131 Liu resigned in 1891 due to criticism of these costly projects.[154][155][131][156]132

By the end of the Qing period, the western plains were fully developed as farmland with about 2.5 million Chinese settlers.133 The mountainous areas were still largely autonomous under the control of Indigenous peoples.134 Indigenous land loss under the Qing occurred at a relatively slow pace due to the absence of state-sponsored land deprivation for the majority of Qing rule.[157][158]135

Japanese rule (1895–1945)

Main article: Taiwan under Japanese rule

Following the Qing defeat in the First Sino-Japanese War (1894–1895), Taiwan, its associated islands, and the Penghu archipelago were ceded to Japan by the Treaty of Shimonoseki.[159]136 Inhabitants wishing to remain Qing subjects had to move to mainland China within a two-year grace period, which few saw as feasible.[160]137 Estimates say around 4,000 to 6,000 departed before the expiration of the grace period, and 200,000 to 300,000 followed during the subsequent disorder.[161][137][162]138 On 25 May 1895, a group of pro-Qing high officials proclaimed the Republic of Formosa to resist impending Japanese rule.139 Japanese forces entered the capital at Tainan and quelled this resistance on 21 October 1895.[163]140 About 6,000 inhabitants died in the initial fighting and some 14,000 died in the first year of Japanese rule.141 Another 12,000 "bandit-rebels" were killed from 1898 to 1902.[164][165][166]142 Subsequent rebellions against the Japanese (the Beipu uprising of 1907, the Tapani incident of 1915, and the Musha incident of 1930) were unsuccessful but demonstrated opposition to Japanese rule.143

The colonial period was instrumental to the industrialization of the island, with its expansion of railways and other transport networks, the building of an extensive sanitation system, the establishment of a formal education system, and an end to the practice of headhunting.[167][168]144 The resources of Taiwan were used to aid the development of Japan.145 The production of cash crops such as sugar greatly increased, and large areas were therefore diverted from the production of rice.[169]146 By 1939, Taiwan was the seventh-greatest sugar producer in the world.[170]147

The Han and Indigenous populations were classified as second- and third-class citizens, and many prestigious government and business positions were closed to them.[171]148 After suppressing Han guerrillas in the first decade of their rule, Japanese authorities engaged in bloody campaigns against the Indigenous people residing in mountainous regions, culminating in the Musha Incident of 1930.[172]149 Intellectuals and laborers who participated in left-wing movements were also arrested and massacred (e.g. Chiang Wei-shui and Masanosuke Watanabe).[173]150 Around 1936, the Japanese governor-general Seizō Kobayashi began an island-wide assimilation project.[174]151 Chinese-language newspapers were abolished.152 National Shinto religion was promoted in parallel with suppression of traditional Taiwanese beliefs.153 By late 1940, when temple destruction in Taiwan had ended, the number of native temples had decreased by a third.154 Starting from 1940, families were also encouraged to adopt Japanese surnames (a policy called kaiseimei), although only slightly more than 2% had done so by 1943, and possibly about 7% by August 1945.[174]155 By 1938, 309,000 Japanese were residing in Taiwan.[175]156 During the Second World War, the island was developed into a naval and air base while its agriculture, industry, and commerce suffered.[176][177]157 Air attacks and the subsequent invasion of the Philippines corpus were launched from Taiwan.158 The Imperial Japanese Navy operated heavily from Taiwanese ports, and its think tank "South Strike Group" was based at Taihoku Imperial University.159 Military bases and industrial centers, such as Kaohsiung and Keelung, became targets of heavy Allied bombings, which destroyed many of the factories, dams, and transport facilities built by the Japanese.[178][177]160 In October 1944, the Formosa Air Battle was fought between American carriers and Japanese forces in Taiwan.161 Over 200,000 Taiwanese served in the Japanese military, with over 30,000 casualties.[179]162 Over 2,000 women, euphemistically called "comfort women", were forced into sexual slavery for Imperial Japanese troops.[180]163

After Japan's surrender, most Japanese residents were expelled.[181]164

Republic of China (1945–present)

Main article: Republic of China (1912–1949), History of Taiwan (1945–present)

See also: History of the Republic of China, Chinese Civil War

While Taiwan was under Japanese rule, the Republic of China was founded on mainland China on 1 January 1912 following the Xinhai Revolution of 1911.[182]165 Central authority waxed and waned in response to warlordism (1915–28), Japanese invasion (1937–45), and the Chinese Civil War (1927–49), with central authority strongest during the Nanjing decade (1927–37), when most of China came under the control of the Kuomintang (KMT).[183]166 During World War II, the 1943 Cairo Declaration specified that Formosa and the Pescadores be returned by Japan to the ROC;[184][185] the terms were later repeated in the 1945 Potsdam Declaration[186] that Japan agreed to carry out in its instrument of surrender.[187][188]167 On 25 October 1945, Japan surrendered Taiwan to the ROC, and in the Treaty of San Francisco, Japan formally renounced their claims to the islands, though without specifying to whom they were surrendered.[189][190][191][192][193]168 In 1952, Japan and the ROC signed a peace treaty.[194]169

The ROC appointed General Chen Yi garrison commander and administrator of Taiwan.170 While initially enthusiastic about the return of Chinese administration and the Three Principles of the People, Formosans grew increasingly dissatisfied about being excluded from higher positions, the postponement of local elections even after the enactment of a constitution on the mainland, the smuggling of valuables off the island, the expropriation of businesses into government-operated monopolies, and the hyperinflation of 1945–1949.[195][196][197][198]171 The shooting of a civilian on 28 February 1947 triggered island-wide unrest, which was suppressed with military force in what is now called the February 28 incident.[199][200]172 Mainstream estimates of the number killed range from 18,000 to 30,000.[201][202][203]173 Chen was replaced by Wei Tao-ming, who made an effort to undo previous mismanagement by re-appointing a good proportion of islanders and re-privatizing businesses.[204]174

After the end of World War II, the Chinese Civil War resumed.175 A series of Chinese Communist offensives in 1949 led to the capture of its capital Nanjing on 23 April and the subsequent defeat of the Nationalists on the mainland.176 The Communists founded the People's Republic of China on 1 October.[205]177 On 7 December 1949, Chiang Kai-shek evacuated his Nationalist government to Taiwan and made Taipei the temporary capital of the ROC.[206]178 Some 2 million people, mainly soldiers, members of the ruling Kuomintang and intellectual and business elites, were evacuated to Taiwan, adding to the earlier population of approximately six million.179 These people and their descendants became known in Taiwan as waishengren (外省人).180 The ROC government took to Taipei many national treasures and much of China's gold and foreign currency reserves.[207][208][209]181 Most of the gold was used to pay soldiers' salaries,[210] with some used to issue the New Taiwan dollar, part of a price stabilization program to slow inflation in Taiwan.[211][212]182

After losing control of mainland China in 1949, the ROC retained control of Taiwan and Penghu (Taiwan, ROC), parts of Fujian (Fujian, ROC)—specifically Kinmen, Wuqiu (now part of Kinmen) and the Matsu Islands and two major islands in the South China Sea.183 The ROC also briefly retained control of the entirety of Hainan, parts of Zhejiang (Chekiang)—specifically the Dachen Islands and Yijiangshan Islands—and portions of Tibet, Qinghai, Xinjiang and Yunnan.184 The Communists captured Hainan in 1950, captured the Dachen Islands and Yijiangshan Islands during the First Taiwan Strait Crisis in 1955 and defeated the ROC revolts in Northwest China in 1958.185 ROC forces entered Burma and Thailand in the 1950s and were defeated by Communists in 1961.186 Since losing control of mainland China, the Kuomintang continued to claim sovereignty over 'all of China', which it defined to include mainland China (including Tibet), Taiwan (including Penghu), Outer Mongolia, and other minor territories.187

Martial law era (1949–1987)

See also: Martial law in Taiwan, Taiwan Miracle