History of Taiwan

Taiwan first became a part of Chinese history in 1206 when it became a protectorate of China. There was little interest in Taiwan as a territory until the 17th century when the Dutch threatened to take over the Pescadores Islands, located in the Taiwan Strait. As a substitute for the islands, China offered the Dutch Taiwan.

The Dutch colonized Taiwan for 37 years, and managed to drive the Spanish out when they threatened to colonize Northern Taiwan. The reign of the Dutch did not last, for with the Chinese Civil War that led to the fall of the Ming Dynasty, the fleeing military sought Taiwan as a refuge. The Chinese were able to expel the Dutch, and hoped to use Taiwan as a place to launch their counter-attack. This attempt failed, and Taiwan formally became a part of the Chinese Empire in 1683.

With the Sino-French War (1884-1885), the Chinese realized that there was a need to fortify Taiwan in order to protect China's interest. They made it a separate province in 1887, and began the process of making it stronger both militarily and administratively.

Ten years after the Sino-French War, the Sino-Japanese War broke out and lasted from 1894-1895. With Japan's decisive victory over China, Japan forced China to cede Taiwan with the Treaty of Shimonoseki. In order to try and prevent the Japanese take over of the island, China declared Taiwan the independent "Republic of Taiwan" in 1895. The struggle to stop Japanese take over was in vain, and Taiwan became to part of the Japanese Empire that same year. For fifty years the Japanese ruled Taiwan, until the conclusion of World War II when the Allies return Taiwan to the Republic of China on October 25, 1945.

The short lived Republic of Taiwan still had their national flag of a lion. (www.taiwandc.org/history.htm)

When Taiwan was first returned to China, there was a possibility for peaceful incorporation due to the fact that 98% of the population was Han Chinese. The Nationalist of China were somewhat wary of the Taiwan people for many had fought against China with Japan. It was clear that the Chinese wanted the reunion with Taiwan, yet they were not quite sure how to approach this issue.

When the Chinese Civil War between the Nationalists and the Communists broke out, the process of joining China and Taiwan was put on hold with the internal strife on both sides of the strait. As the war was being fought on the mainland, Taiwan also felt the political strife between the warring parties. An example of such discord was in 1947 with the rioting against the Nationalist governor, General Chen Yi. Troops were sent in to quell the protests, and did so violently, killing thousands of Taiwanese.

When it became clear that the Nationalists were not going to win the war on the Chinese mainland, they fled to Taiwan in the hopes that they would be able regroup and launch a counter-attack, which failed. Taipei became the capital of the Republic of China in 1949, while the mainland of China became the People's Republic of China.

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