Taiwan Under the Qing Empire

In 1683 the Qing court debated whether to keep Taiwan at all. Keeping it meant keeping people out: crossing needed a permit, families could not come, and stowaways crossed the Black Ditch below deck. Settlers dug canals with family fortunes.

Zhu Yigui, a duck farmer, took the capital in 1721 and was captured two months later. Lin Shuangwen's revolt in 1786 lasted over a year. Settlers bought plains land contract by contract, and the boundary kept retreating into the hills.

The pirate Cai Qian raided the coast until he sank his own ship in 1809. Merchant guilds shipped rice and sugar across the strait. Settlers fought over water and land; after an 1853 feud, the losers built Dadaocheng.

Treaties in 1858 and 1860 opened four ports; Formosa Oolong sold in New York. In 1867 the Rover's crew was killed off Hengchun, and officials said the area was beyond their control. Six years later, Beijing told Japan that too.

Japan attacked the Mudan villages in 1874. The Qing cut roads into the mountains and lifted the ban on crossing. France held Keelung in 1884. Taiwan became a province in 1885, and within ten years Shimonoseki handed it to Japan.