The Age of Exploration

In 1622 the Dutch East India Company failed to take Macau and fortified Penghu. After a Ming siege they moved in 1624 to Tayouan, built Fort Zeelandia and traded deerskins, silk and sugar. Two years later, Spain took Keelung.

The Siraya villages were already at war, and the Dutch took sides. In 1635 the Company burned Mattau. The next year Lamey islanders were smoked out of a cave and carried off. Deerskins went to Japan by the ten thousand.

In 1642 the Dutch drove Spain from Keelung. The head tax on Chinese settlers kept rising; Guo Huaiyi's revolt in 1652 left thousands dead. In 1661 Koxinga's fleet rode a spring tide into the lagoon. Nine months later, Zeelandia surrendered.