Chronicle
Across the centuries
From 1624 to today — 8 eras of Taiwan's history in 182 volumes, read in order or entered anywhere.
1624–1662
The Age of Exploration
Two forts: sugar, deerskin, souls.
38 years · 18 volumes
Read this era
Vol. 1 · Start here
An Account of the Eastern Barbarians
Before the Dutch arrived, the southwest coast of Taiwan was far from quiet. Every winter fishing boats from Zhangzhou and Quanzhou followed the mullet across, merchants came ashore to trade with the villages for deerskins, and pirates and wokou raiders used the coast to hide from government troops. In 1574 the pirate Lin Feng attacked Manila with sixty or seventy warships, three thousand men and four hundred Japanese soldiers. When he failed, he fell back to Wanggang. In September the following year he raided the fishing boats around Chihkan for the third time, for close to a month, before returning to Guangdong. In December the Ming commander Hu Shouren crushed him in the waters off Tamsui.
Vol. 2
Two Years in Penghu
Vol. 3
The Dutch Arrival
Vol. 4
Fort Zeelandia
Vol. 5
Spanish Northern Taiwan
Vol. 6
The Hamada Yahee Incident
Vol. 7
Indigenous Encounters
Vol. 8
The Madou She War
Vol. 9
The Cave on Lamey
Vol. 10
The Gold of Pimaba
Vol. 11
The Staff With the Silver Head
Vol. 12
The Sinckan Script
Vol. 13
The Banishment of the Inibs
Vol. 14
The Deer That Built an Empire
Vol. 15
The Last Bastion of San Salvador
Vol. 16
The Guo Huaiyi Rebellion
Vol. 17
A Map That Changed a Dynasty
Vol. 18
The Siege of Fort Zeelandia
1662–1683
The Kingdom of Tungning
A base for an invasion that never came.
21 years · 15 volumes
Read this era
Vol. 1 · Start here
Koxinga's Kingdom
In May 1661, following the successful landing of Zheng Koxinga’s twenty-five thousand elite troops at the Luermen channels, this emerald island—governed by the Dutch for thirty-eight years—witnessed the dawn of its very first Han Chinese regime. At this historical crossroads, though Fort Zeelandia remained locked in a fierce defense under the Dutch Governor, Frederick Coyett, the Prince of Yanping could not wait to commence his grand nation-building project upon the coastal plains. He decreed that the captured Fort Provintia in Chikan be transformed into the "Chengtian Prefecture," serving as the supreme imperial capital of the Ming Dynasty’s overseas orthodoxy, while establishing Tianxing and Wannian counties to the north and south. In a grand proclamation, Koxinga formally christened the island "Dongdu" (The Eastern Capital of the Ming). This was never meant to be a mere temporary refuge; it was a sovereign kingdom carved out of the wilderness by a desperate warlord whose mainland dreams had fractured, a final, sacred sanctuary for a fallen empire.
Vol. 2
A King Imprisoned by Wrath
Vol. 3
The Eastern Conquest
Vol. 4
Zheng Jing's Reforms
Vol. 5
The Architect of Tungning
Vol. 6
The Dutch Came Back
Vol. 7
Han Settlement
Vol. 8
Vanishing Plain Warriors
Vol. 9
The Anping Secret Pact
Vol. 10
The Last Imperial Dream
Vol. 11
The Tears of Lady Dong
Vol. 12
The Twilight of the Boy King
Vol. 13
The Ultimate Duel
Vol. 14
Prince Ningjing's Martyrdom
Vol. 15
The Fall of Tungning
1683–1895
Taiwan Under the Qing Empire
Half the map blank, half the years in revolt.
212 years · 34 volumes
Read this era
Vol. 1 · Start here
Qing Incorporation
In 1683, Qing admiral Shi Lang defeated the remnants of the Zheng dynasty at the Battle of Penghu, bringing Taiwan under Qing sovereignty for the first time. The annexation was far from inevitable — a fierce debate erupted at the imperial court over whether to retain or abandon this distant island. Minister Shi Lang argued that Taiwan's strategic position made it essential for coastal defense, while others viewed it as a lawless frontier not worth the administrative burden. Emperor Kangxi ultimately sided with retention, incorporating Taiwan as a prefecture of Fujian Province.
Vol. 2
Gathering Sulphur at Beitou
Vol. 3
Crossing the Black Ditch
Vol. 4
Dispatches from the Frontier Sea
Vol. 5
The Birth of Hsinchu
Vol. 6
The Babao Canal
Vol. 7
The Liugong Canal
Vol. 8
The Duck Lord's Revolt
Vol. 9
Seven Camps on the East Bank
Vol. 10
The Dajiaxi Uprising
Vol. 11
The Land Brokers
Vol. 12
Rebellions and Unrest
Vol. 13
How Chiayi Got Its Name
Vol. 14
Wu Sha Opens the Kavalan Plain
Vol. 15
The Opening of Kavalan
Vol. 16
King of the Black Flag
Vol. 17
The Caogong Canal
Vol. 18
Dazhongye and the Shrines
Vol. 19
The Golden Ports
Vol. 20
The Literati of Hsinchu
Vol. 21
The Subgroup Feuds
Vol. 22
Opening of Treaty Ports
Vol. 23
Observers at the Edge of Empire
Vol. 24
Red Flags and White
Vol. 25
The Medical Mission in Southern Taiwan
Vol. 26
The Rover Incident
Vol. 27
The Aboriginal Frontier
Vol. 28
Sovereignty of the Mountains
Vol. 29
Opening the Mountains
Vol. 30
Three Months at Kaliawan
Vol. 31
The Sino-French War in Taiwan
Vol. 32
Taiwan as a Province
Vol. 33
First Steam Locomotive
Vol. 34
The Last Generation of Gentry
1895–1945
The Japanese Colonial Era
Registers, railways, schools — then war.
50 years · 30 volumes
Read this era
Vol. 1 · Start here
The Treaty of Shimonoseki
On April 17, 1895, the Treaty of Shimonoseki ended the First Sino-Japanese War and ceded Taiwan and the Penghu Islands to Japan in perpetuity. The decision was made without any consultation of Taiwan's inhabitants — their fate was sealed in a conference room in the Japanese port city of Shimonoseki, where Qing envoy Li Hongzhang and Japanese Prime Minister Itō Hirobumi negotiated the terms of China's surrender. For the Qing court, Taiwan was a disposable bargaining chip; for the two million people living on the island, it was a catastrophe.
Vol. 2
The Yiwei War
Vol. 3
The Yunlin Massacre
Vol. 4
The Flatfish's Eyes
Vol. 5
Armed Resistance
Vol. 6
The Opium War
Vol. 7
Modern Infrastructure
Vol. 8
The Greatest Thief
Vol. 9
The Miaoli Trials
Vol. 10
The Taroko War
Vol. 11
Sun Moon Lake Hydropower
Vol. 12
The Chianan Canal Miracle
Vol. 13
Taiwan Parliament Petition
Vol. 14
Awakening the Taiwanese Soul
Vol. 15
The Chih-ching Incident
Vol. 16
The New Literature Movement
Vol. 17
The Erhlin Incident
Vol. 18
Horai Rice
Vol. 19
The Taiwanese People's Party
Vol. 20
The Taiten Exhibition
Vol. 21
Seediq Bale
Vol. 22
The Koshien Dream
Vol. 23
The Guandaoshan Earthquake
Vol. 24
Fifty Days of the Exposition
Vol. 25
Kōminka Movement
Vol. 26
Wartime Mobilization
Vol. 27
Beneath Jinguashi
Vol. 28
The Takasago Volunteers
Vol. 29
Orphan of Asia
Vol. 30
The Raid on Taipei
1945–1949
The Early Postwar Years
Welcome arches to gunfire in 17 months.
4 years · 18 volumes
Read this era
Vol. 1 · Start here
From Cairo to Taipei
In November 1943, the leaders of China, the United States, and Great Britain reached a consensus at the Cairo Conference, declaring that "all territories Japan has stolen from the Chinese, such as Manchuria, Formosa, and the Pescadores, shall be restored to the Republic of China." Although not a formal treaty, this declaration became the political foundation for post-war territorial rearrangement in East Asia.
Vol. 2
Surrender and Takeover
Vol. 3
The Shibuya Incident
Vol. 4
Homecoming of the Overseas
Vol. 5
De-Japanization
Vol. 6
The Parliamentary System
Vol. 7
The Constitutional Convention
Vol. 8
The Early Economic Crisis
Vol. 9
The February 28 Incident
Vol. 10
March at the Port of Keelung
Vol. 11
The 27 Brigade
Vol. 12
The Battle of Wuniulan
Vol. 13
The Penghu Incident of 13 July
Vol. 14
The Dilemma of Native Elites
Vol. 15
Chiang Kai-shek's Diary
Vol. 16
Voices from Elite Diaries
Vol. 17
The American Perspective
Vol. 18
1949
1950–1979
Authoritarian Era
Fastest growth, least that could be said.
29 years · 23 volumes
Read this era
Vol. 1 · Start here
Cold War Frontline
After the Korean War erupted in June 1950, the United States reversed the Truman administration's earlier position of strategic abandonment and reincorporated Taiwan into its Asia-Pacific anti-communist defense line. Within days, President Truman ordered the Seventh Fleet to neutralize the Taiwan Strait, simultaneously protecting the Chiang Kai-shek regime from a PLA invasion it could not have repelled and restraining KMT counter-attacks against the mainland. The 1954 Sino-American Mutual Defense Treaty institutionalized this commitment, stationing U.S. advisors, signals-intelligence facilities, and fighter squadrons on Taiwanese soil, and the massive American aid that accompanied it poured into Taiwan, stabilizing the embattled KMT regime and laying the foundation for Taiwan's economic development.
Vol. 2
Three Chia of Paddy
Vol. 3
Party-State Governance
Vol. 4
Forty Years Behind the Bamboo Fence
Vol. 5
The White Terror
Vol. 6
Disillusioned Intellectuals
Vol. 7
The Luku Incident
Vol. 8
Purge of Indigenous Elites
Vol. 9
Thirty Kilograms
Vol. 10
Military Power Purge
Vol. 11
The 823 Artillery Battle
Vol. 12
The August 7 Flood
Vol. 13
Thirty-Six Years Under the Lampshade
Vol. 14
Cross-Ethnic Alliance
Vol. 15
A Declaration of Independence
Vol. 16
Red Leaf and the Baseball Fever
Vol. 17
Nine Years of Compulsory Education
Vol. 18
The Taiyuan Incident
Vol. 19
Losing the Seat: The UN and the Diplomatic Dominoes
Vol. 20
The Gaozhong No. 6
Vol. 21
The Economic Miracle
Vol. 22
Cultural Control
Vol. 23
The Zhongli Incident
1980–1999
Democratic Transition
Party bans, press bans, martial law: gone.
19 years · 23 volumes
Read this era
Vol. 1 · Start here
The Dangwai Movement
Under one-party authoritarian rule, a group of courageous Taiwanese chose to seek political participation outside the KMT system. "Dangwai" (literally "outside the party") — originally a neutral administrative term describing non-KMT candidates permitted to contest limited local offices — gradually evolved into a sweeping democratic movement that coordinated lawyers, professors, journalists, shopkeepers, and former political prisoners into something approaching a shadow opposition without the legal right to call itself one.
Vol. 2
The Kaohsiung Incident
Vol. 3
The Lin Family Massacre
Vol. 4
The Chen Wen-cheng Incident
Vol. 5
A Hundred Thousand Drums on Orchid Island
Vol. 6
In Our Time
Vol. 7
The Henry Liu Murder and the Tenth Credit Collapse
Vol. 8
Birth of the Opposition
Vol. 9
Lifting Martial Law
Vol. 10
A Hundred Flowers Bloom
Vol. 11
Give Us Back Our Land
Vol. 12
Siege at the West Gate
Vol. 13
The Plant Yilan Did Not Keep
Vol. 14
The February 28 Redress Movement
Vol. 15
A Hundred Percent Freedom
Vol. 16
The Succession and the February Crisis
Vol. 17
Lilies in the Square
Vol. 18
The End of Mobilization and the Remaking of Parliament
Vol. 19
The Ground Made at Mailiao
Vol. 20
The Independent Taiwan Association Case and the End of Sedition
Vol. 21
Six Boxes on a Paper Card
Vol. 22
The People Choose
Vol. 23
The 921 Earthquake
2000–Present
Modern Taiwan
Power changed hands three times.
26 years · 21 volumes
Read this era
Vol. 1 · Start here
The First Party Turnover
By the late 1990s, Taiwan's political landscape stood at an unprecedented crossroads. More than half a century of uninterrupted Kuomintang rule had weathered the lifting of martial law in 1987, the full re-election of the legislature, and the first direct presidential election in 1996. Yet the island's democratic transition remained incomplete so long as no opposition party had ever assumed the highest office. Internal fissures within the KMT, disillusionment with "black gold" politics, and the maturing organizational strength of the Democratic Progressive Party converged to set the stage for a pivotal contest.
Vol. 2
The SARS Storm
Vol. 3
The Shooting on the Nineteenth of March
Vol. 4
Taipei 101
Vol. 5
The Red Shirts and the Trial
Vol. 6
One Island, One Day
Vol. 7
A Letter from the Cape
Vol. 8
Morakot and the Village of Xiaolin
Vol. 9
The White Shirts and Hung Chung-chiu
Vol. 10
Beyond Beauty: Taiwan From Above
Vol. 11
Sunflowers in the Chamber
Vol. 12
Treasures Beneath the Skies
Vol. 13
The First Woman President, and an Apology
Vol. 14
Love Without Distinction
Vol. 15
The Boat Was Home
Vol. 16
Three Years of the Pandemic
Vol. 17
The Silicon Shield
Vol. 18
Cross-Strait Dynamics
Vol. 19
Transitional Justice
Vol. 20
The Voices of the Land
Vol. 21
Taiwanese Identity — Who Am I?