Taiwan endured dramatic political and social transformations during the seventeenth century. The Dutch East India Company made several attempts to establish an outpost on the southwestern coast. It finally succeeded in 1624, near what is now Tainan, and not long after, their Spanish rivals set up their own base in the north, near modern Keelung. Southeastern Chinese began to settle in more substantial numbers, especially after the Spanish withdrew and the Dutch were driven out by a merchant-pirate named Zheng Chenggong (also known as Koxinga). His regime was also short-lived, finally surrendering to the might of Qing China in 1683.
Over the next two centuries, the non-indigenous population expanded dramatically, spreading across the entire western coast and gradually assimilating or displacing the Indigenous Peoples. Taiwan’s society and economy became well-integrated with southeastern China, but settlers often clashed with the government, each other, and the indigenous. Renewed European interest in the latter nineteenth century stimulated the production of tea and other commodities, and the extension of Qing rule into the interior. Meiji Japan’s imperialist government also turned its attention to Taiwan, eventually forcing the Qing government to cede it at the end of the Sino-Japanese War (1894-95).
The Japanese colonial government used its strong military, police, and bureaucracy to suppress resistance and enforce the adoption of Japanese language, and loyalty to Japan and its Emperor. Taiwan joined in the process of globalization, as expanding quantities of resources and manufactures entered and left the island through newly built modern ports. Especially in the growing cities, education expanded and living standards improved, and people sought participation in democratic government. Taiwanese also experienced the horrors of World War II, with mostly indigenous soldiers among the Japanese military in Southeast Asia and urban dwellers facing the Allied aerial bombing campaign.
The Republic of China gained sovereignty over Taiwan after Japan’s defeat and, over the next four decades, the country followed two very different pathways. One was marked by the economic miracle, a time of remarkable growth in productivity, new industries and infrastructure, and improving educational and financial achievements for most people. The other was defined by political repression, iron-fisted rule, and the imprisonment and sometimes deaths of suspected enemies of the state. A very slow process of democratization sped up with Taiwan’s separation from most of the global diplomatic community in the 1970s and 1980s, and with the end of martial law in 1987. Since then, Taiwan has seen the expansion of political rights, ongoing economic development and security concerns, and the growth of a vibrant civil society as the Taiwanese grapple with the legacies, negative and positive, of their collective past.
