Taiwan

Taiwan ({{zh-tspw|t=臺灣 or 台灣|s=台湾|p=Táiwān|w=T'ai-wan}}; Taiwanese: Tâi-oân) is an island in East Asia located off the coast of mainland China, south of Japan and north of the Philippines. "Taiwan" is commonly used to refer to the territories currently governed by the Republic of China (ROC), which include the Taiwan island group (including Lanyu (Orchid Island) and Green Island), the Pescadores in the Taiwan Strait, Quemoy and Matsu off the coast of mainland Fujian, and Taiping and the Pratas in the South China Sea.

History

Main article: History of Taiwan

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Prehistory and early settlement

Evidence of human settlement in Taiwan dates back 30,000 years, although the first inhabitants of Taiwan may have been genetically distinct from any groups currently on the island. About 4,000 years ago, ancestors of current Taiwanese aborigines settled Taiwan. These aborigines are genetically related to Malay and Polynesians, and linguists classify their language as Austronesian. Records indicate that Han Chinese settled in Penghu since the 1100s, but it was not until later that people other than aborigines permanently settled in the main island of Taiwan.

Related Topics:
Taiwanese aborigines - Austronesian - Penghu

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Records from ancient China indicate that Han Chinese might have known of the existence of the main island of Taiwan since the Three Kingdoms period (third century), having assigned offshore islands in the vicinity names like Greater and Minor Liuqiu (Ryukyu), though none of these names have been definitively matched to the main island of Taiwan. It has been claimed but not verified that the Ming Dynasty admiral Zheng He visited Taiwan between 1403 and 1424.

Related Topics:
Han - Three Kingdoms - Third century - Ryukyu - Ming Dynasty - Admiral - Zheng He

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In the 15th century, a Portuguese ship sighted the main island of Taiwan and dubbed it "Ilha Formosa", which means "Beautiful Island." The Portuguese made no attempt to colonize Taiwan. In 1624, the Dutch established a commercial base on Taiwan and began to import workers from Fujian and Penghu as laborers, many of whom settled. The Dutch made Taiwan a colony with its colonial capital at Tainan.

Related Topics:
Portuguese - Dutch - Fujian - Penghu - Tainan

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Koxinga and imperial Chinese rule

Ming naval and troop forces defeated the Dutch from the island in 1662, subsequently expelling the Dutch government and military. They were led by Lord Cheng Cheng-Kung (also known as Lord Koxinga), a pirate turned Ming navy commander. Following the fall of the Ming dynasty, Cheng retreated to Taiwan as a self-styled Ming loyalist, and established the Kingdom of Tungning (1662–1683). Cheng establishing his capital at Tainan and he and his heirs continued to launch raids on the east coast of mainland China well into the Qing dynasty, in an attempt to recover the mainland.

Related Topics:
Ming - Dutch - 1662 - Koxinga - Kingdom of Tungning

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In 1683, the Qing dynasty defeated the Cheng holdout, and formally annexed Taiwan, placing it under the jurisdiction of Fujian province. Following the defeat of Cheng's grandson to an armada led by Admiral Shi Lang, Cheng's followers were expatriated to the farthest reaches of the Qing empire, leaving approximately 7,000 Han on Taiwan. The Qing government wrestled with its Taiwan policy to reduce piracy and vagrancy in the area, which led to a series of edicts to manage immigration and respect aboriginal land rights. Illegal immigrants from Fujian continued to enter Taiwan as renters of the large plots of aboriginal lands under contracts that usually involved marriage, while the border between taxpaying lands and "savage" lands migrated east, with some aborigines 'Sinicizing' while others retreated into the mountains. During this time, there were a number of conflicts involving Han Chinese from different regions of China, and between Han Chinese and aborigines. The bulk of Taiwan's population today, the "native" Taiwanese, claim descent from these migrants.

Related Topics:
Qing dynasty - Fujian - Han - Taiwanese

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In 1887, the Qing government of China made Taiwan a province by itself, the 20th in the country, with capital at Taipei. The move was accompanied by a modernization drive that included the building of the first railroad and the beginning of a postal service in Taiwan.

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Japanese colonial rule

Following its defeat in the First Sino-Japanese War (1894-1895), Qing China ceded Taiwan and Penghu (the Pescadores) to Japan, on terms dictated by the latter. Inhabitants wishing to remain Qing subjects were given a 2-year grace period to sell their property and move to the mainland.

Related Topics:
First Sino-Japanese War - Qing - Penghu - Japan

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On May 25, 1895, the Republic of Taiwan was formed with a dynastic name of "Forever Qing" and with capital at Tainan, to resist impending Japanese rule. Japanese forces entered the capital and quelled this resistance on October 21, 1895. As opposed to elsewhere in Asia, Japan attempted to use Taiwan as a model colony and was instrumental in the industrialization of the island; they extended the railroads that had just sprung up in late Qing rule, built a sanitation system and a public school system, among other things. Still, the Chinese-speaking residents and aborigines were classified as second and third class citizens. Large scale violence continued in the first decade of rule. Around 1935, the Japanese began an island-wide assimilation project to bind the island more firmly to the Japanese Empire. By 1945, just before Japan lost World War II, desperate plans were in place to incorporate popular representation of Taiwan into the Japanese Diet to end colonial rule of the island.

Related Topics:
May 25 - 1895 - Republic of Taiwan - Tainan - October 21 - Japanese Empire - World War II

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Japan's rule of Taiwan came to an end with its defeat in World War II. Its signing of the Instrument of Surrender on August 15, 1945, signalled that Taiwan was to be returned to China, one of the Allied objectives from the wartime declarations. On October 25, 1945, ROC troops accepted the formal surrender of Japanese military forces in Taipei.

Related Topics:
World War II - Instrument of Surrender - August 15 - 1945 - Allied - October 25

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Republic of China era

The ROC administration announced October 25, 1945, as "Taiwan Retrocession Day." Reportedly, they were greeted as liberators by the island residents. However, the ROC military administration on Taiwan under Chen Yi, was extremely corrupt. This corruption, compounded with a period of hyperinflation, unrest due to the Chinese Civil War, and distrust due to political and cultural differences that had developed between natives and newcomers in the years of Japanese rule, quickly led to the loss of popular support for the new administration. This culminated in a series of severe clashes between the ROC administration and "native" Taiwanese, in turn leading to the bloody 228 incident and the reign of white terror.

Related Topics:
Chen Yi - Taiwanese - 228 incident - White terror

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At the same time, the Chinese Civil War was in progress. In 1949, the Kuomintang (Nationalist Party or KMT), which at the time controlled the government of the ROC, retreated to Taiwan after continued military defeats at the hands of the Communist Party of China drove it from most parts of the mainland. Some 1.3 million refugees from mainland China arrived in Taiwan around that time. Initially, the United States abandoned the KMT and expected that Taiwan would fall to the Communists. However, in 1950, North Korea invaded South Korea, and in the context of the Cold War, US President Harry S. Truman intervened again and dispatched the 7th Fleet into the Taiwan Straits to "neutralize" the Straits.

Related Topics:
Chinese Civil War - Kuomintang - Communist Party of China - Mainland China - North Korea - South Korea - Cold War - Harry S. Truman - Taiwan Strait

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In the San Francisco Peace Treaty, which came into force on April 28, 1952, and the Treaty of Taipei, concluded hours before that date, Japan formally renounced all right, claim and title to Formosa (Taiwan) and the Pescadores (Peng-hu), and renounced all treaties signed with China before 1942. Both treaties remained silent about who would take control of the island, in part to avoid taking sides in the ongoing Chinese Civil War. Advocates of Taiwan independence have used this omission to justify self-determination.

Related Topics:
San Francisco Peace Treaty - April 28 - 1952 - Treaty of Taipei - Chinese Civil War - Self-determination

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During the 1960s and 1970s, Taiwan began to develop a prosperous and dynamic economy, becoming one of the East Asian Tigers while maintaining an authoritarian, one-party government. Because of the Cold War, most Western nations and the United Nations regarded the Republic of China government on Taiwan as the sole legitimate government of China until the 1970s, when most nations began switching recognition to the People's Republic of China.

Related Topics:
East Asian Tigers - Cold War - United Nations - Republic of China - People's Republic of China

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During the presidency of Chiang Ching-kuo, from 1975 to 1987, Taiwan's political system began a gradual liberalization. Martial law, which had been in effect since 1948, was lifted in 1987. Upon Chiang's death, Vice President Lee Teng-hui succeeded him as president of the ROC and chairman of the KMT, and effective one-party rule was ended in 1991. Lee became the first "native Taiwanese" to become the president during KMT rule. In 2000, President Chen Shui-bian of the opposition Democratic Progressive Party was elected, creating the first peaceful democratic transition in power. After surviving a suspicious shooting which the opposition claims was staged to win sympathy votes the night before the 2004 election, Chen was re-elected by a slim margin. Medical and police investigative experts have verified that the wounds sustained by President Chen and Vice President Annette Lu are real, and no evidence has been found suggesting that the shooting was staged.

Related Topics:
Chiang Ching-kuo - Martial law - Lee Teng-hui - 1991 - Chen Shui-bian - Democratic Progressive Party

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See also

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• Timeline of Taiwanese history
• History of the Republic of China
• History of China