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Saturday, March 12, 2016

Taiwan, Cool Facts #104

<= 103. Singapore                                                                                                            105. China =>



1. Formosa Island

Taiwan was previously known as the island of Formosa. The reason for this lies in the past when the Portuguese sighted the island of Taiwan and called it the Ilha Formosa, meaning beautiful island. The name Formosa replaced other names in European literature and was still in use in the early 20th century.




2. Kingdom of Tungning

In 1644 the Ming Dynasty fell after the Manchu attacked and established the Qing Dynasty. At the time the Dutch ruled the current Taiwan.

In 1662 general Koxinga managed to capture Fort Zeelandia in Taiwan and expel the Dutch government and military from the island. Koxinga was a Ming loyalist whose intention was to use the island of Taiwan to restore the Ming government by using the island as a base of operations to train and settle his troops.

Koxinga established the Kingdom of Tungning, which ruled Taiwan until 1683 when the Qing Dynasty of the Manchus defeated Koxinga. The Kingdom of Tungning was the first time Taiwan had a Chinese rule in the island and that's why Koxinga is viewed as the founding father of Chinese Taiwan.

Timeline of Taiwan: 

1624-1662 Dutch Formosa
1662-1683 Kingdom of Tungning 
1683-1895 Qing Dynasty


Koxinga or Zhen Chenggong founder of Chinese Taiwan

3. Japanese occupation

Between 1894-1895 the Qing Dynasty of China and the Empire of Japan fought the First Sino-Japanese War primarily about the control of Korea. China lost that war and was forced to cede Taiwan to Japan in the Treaty of Shimonoseki.

Taiwan resisted the cession to Japan and established the short-lived Republic of Formosa. The resistance movement was quickly suppressed by the Japanese troops but there were later some big uprisings against the Japanese occupation in Taiwan.

Uprisings against the Japanese rule: 

1907 Beipu uprising: first armed uprising against the Japanese rule
1915 Tapani incident: one of the biggest uprisings in Taiwan against the Japanese rule
1930 Wushe incident: against the Japanese rule which was unsuccessful like the previous ones

During the occupation Japan improved the island's economy, industry and many other areas because Taiwan was its first overseas colony and Japan wanted to turn the island into a "model colony". They also tried to change the culture of Taiwan.

In 1945 Japan's occupation ended when it lost the Second World War and it lost all of its colonies. Taiwan was placed under the control of the Republic of China. 

Timeline of Taiwan: 

1683-1895 Qing Dynasty
1895 Republic of Formosa 
1895-1945 Japanese rule
1954 - present Republic of China rule 

Empire of Japan in 1942

4. Birth of Taiwan 

The Chinese civil war had started in 1927 when the communists with Mao Zedong tried to overthrow the Kuomintang-led government of Republic of China.

In 1949 the government fled to the island of Taiwan with Chiang Kai-shek as the communists gained full control of the mainland. Taipei became the temporary capital of the Republic of China.

Republic of China got to keep the seat of China in the UN thanks to USA's support but after a voting in 1971 it lost the seat to the People's Republic of China. These are the background why Taiwan aka Republic of China thinks that China aka People's Republic of China belongs to it and vice versa.

Most of the world's countries recognize only the People's Republic of China as only 23 countries recognize Taiwan.





5. Taiwanese Aborigines

There are over half a million Taiwanese aborigines living in Taiwan. They are Austronesian peoples with linguistic and genetic ties to Austronesian ethnic groups like those of the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Madagascar and Oceania.

Some historical linguists consider Taiwan as the original homeland of the Austronesian language family. The 26 known aborigine languages are called the Formosan languages and at least 10 are now extinct, 5 dying and several others are endangered. 

Taiwanese Amis people before World War II

Timeline

500s Since this time Chinese moved from the mainland to the island of Taiwan
1430 Ming Dynasty annexed Taiwan to China
1542 The Portuguese visited the island and gave it the name "Ilha Formosa" beautiful island
1622 The Dutch attempted to establish a trading post on the Penghu islands but they were militarily defeated and driven off by the Ming Dynasty troops
1624 The Dutch established the fort of Fort Zeelandia in Tayouan
1626 The Spanish landed and occupied northern Taiwan until 1642 when the last Spanish fortress fell to Dutch forces
1644 The Ming Dynasty fell in China
1662 Ming loyalist general Koxinga captured Fort Zeelandia and expelled the Dutch government and military from the island
1662-1683 Koxinga's Kingdom of Tungning with Tainan as capital
1683 Qing Dynasty annexed Taiwan
1884 Fights during the Sino-French War on Taiwanese islands until 1885
1894-1895 Qing Dynasty China lost in the First Sino-Japanese War and ceded Taiwan, Penghu and Liaodong Peninsula to Japan by the Treaty of Shimonoseki
1895 Japanese forces quelled the Taiwanese resistance of Japanese rule
1907 Beipu uprising first armed uprising against the Japanese rule
1915 Tapani incident one of the biggest uprisings in Taiwan against the Japanese rule
1930 Wushe incident against the Japanese rule which was unsuccessful like the previous ones
1945 Taiwan was restored to China after the end of the world war
1949 Chiang Kai-shek evacuated the government of Republic of China to Taiwan as Mao Zedong's communists won the Chinese civil war 
1949 Martial law was declared in Taiwan and continued until 1987
1950s Land reforms, investments on education and technology started transforming Taiwan
1971 Taiwan, Republic of China lost its seat in the UN to People's Republic of China representing China in the UN
1975 Chiang Kai-shek died and his son Chiang Ching-kuo followed as the president
1988 First non-emigrant, Lee Teng-hui, became the president
1996 First direct presidential election as Lee Teng-hui gets re-elected

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