Timeline

Sovereignty & Foreign Relations

Shifting sovereignty from Qing incorporation to cross-strait relations

Spanish Northern Taiwan

In the pale dawn of 1626, as the Pacific monsoons swept across the northeastern cape of Formosa, several towering Spanish galleons flying the red-and-yellow imperial banners glided into the magnificent natural harbor known today as Keelung. Under the direct decrees of the Governor-General in Manila, these Catholic adventurers crossed the treacherous Luzon Strait to launch a forceful military landing on the island of Jilong (modern-day Heping Island). In the eyes of the Spaniards, this was far more than a routine voyage of discovery; it was a desperate, high-stakes geopolitical gambit engineered by Manila to counter the rapidly expanding global trade monopoly of the Dutch East India Company in southern Taiwan. The Spanish pioneers immediately constructed a massive redoubt of stone and heavy timber—Fort San Salvador—before extending their governing tentacles westward to Tamsui to erect Fort San Domingo. The cold steel and religious fervor of the Age of Sail had violently shattered the millennium-long slumber of northern Taiwan.

The Hamada Yahee Incident

In the early seventeenth century, Taiwan was not yet the Chinese island that would later be ruled by Koxinga. Along its southern coast flew the flag of the Dutch East India Company. In 1624, the Dutch constructed Fort Zeelandia on the sandy peninsula of Anping, bringing Taiwan into their rapidly expanding trade network across East Asia.

The Last Bastion of San Salvador

In 1626 the Spanish came north from Manila and raised the fortress of San Salvador on Sheliao Island off Keelung. What they wanted was a sea route that went around the Dutch, and a stepping stone for missions into Japan and China. Northern Taiwan now held two foreign powers, one in the south and one in the north, with the whole island between them.

1662–1683Tungning Dynasty

The Dutch Came Back

In February 1662 the Dutch marched out of Fort Zeelandia and thirty-eight years of rule ended. Textbooks usually stop there. In fact they were gone for two years.

The Ultimate Duel

In the sweltering midsummer of 1683, the winds over the Taiwan Strait violently shifted. This was the ultimate showdown that would decide the fate of Taiwan, a clash filled with profound irony—a duel between former brothers-in-arms. Standing atop the flagship of a massive 200-ship fleet was Admiral Shi Lang, entrusted by the Kangxi Emperor with the supreme command of the Qing navy.

1683–1895Imperial Frontier

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.

The Rover Incident

In the early spring of 1867, the monsoon winds and ocean currents of the Pacific converged upon the southernmost tip of Taiwan. This was a stretch of water that sailors spoke of with dread, thick with hidden reefs and vaguely charted, its coast ringed by ranges of forested mountains upon which the Qing empire had never truly set foot. It was here, in the wild seas off the southern cape near present-day Kenting, that the American merchant bark Rover struck the reefs and was wrecked. As the vessel broke apart in the surf, the surviving crew rowed desperately for shore and struggled onto unfamiliar ground, believing they had escaped death, unaware that they had entered a far more perilous realm.

The Sino-French War in Taiwan

In 1884 a war fought far away over suzerainty and control of Vietnam suddenly washed up on Taiwan's shores. As relations between the Qing and France broke down over the Vietnamese question, the fighting spread along China's southeastern coast, and Taiwan — an isolated island guarding the maritime approaches to Fujian — became overnight a frontline in a contest between great powers. For the island's inhabitants it was a disaster that fell from the sky without warning, and they called the whole ordeal the 'Western barbarians' revolt.'

Taiwan as a Province

In 1885, in the wake of the Sino-French War — during which French forces blockaded and bombarded Keelung and briefly occupied northern Taiwan — the Qing court recognized the island's strategic importance and elevated it from a prefecture of Fujian to a full province. Liu Mingchuan, the military commander who had successfully defended Taiwan against the French, was appointed as its first governor.

1895–1945Under the Rising Sun

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.

1945–1949Light & Shadow

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.

The American Perspective

The United States played a subtle yet critical role in post-war Taiwan history. As the principal victor of the Pacific War, the U.S. wielded significant influence over Taiwan's disposition, yet its policies wavered between strategic interests and democratic values.

1949–1987Silent Island

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.

The 823 Artillery Battle

At 6:30 in the evening on August 23, 1958, the artillery emplacements along the Fujian coast opened fire simultaneously. Within two hours, more than fifty-seven thousand shells fell on the Kinmen archipelago — an area of less than 150 square kilometers — a density that led contemporary observers to describe it as the heaviest concentration of shellfire per unit of ground since the Second World War. The opening salvo struck Cuigu, the valley housing the Kinmen Defense Command, killing three deputy commanders — Chi Hsing-wen, Chao Chia-hsiang, and Chang Chieh — where they stood, and wounding Defense Minister Yu Ta-wei, who happened to be inspecting the front. Over the forty-four days that followed, what became known as the 823 Artillery Battle, or the Second Taiwan Strait Crisis, poured close to 470,000 shells onto the island.

A Declaration of Independence

In the early autumn of 1964, the nights in Taipei felt suffocatingly still, as if even the wind had vanished beneath the weight of fear. Taiwan at the time lay buried beneath the iron curtain of martial law. Across the island, walls and alleyways were plastered with grim anti-espionage slogans, while newspapers and radio stations endlessly broadcast the regime’s political mythology of “retaking the mainland.” It was an era in which even private conversations about politics could invite imprisonment — or worse, the destruction of one’s entire family.

Losing the Seat: The UN and the Diplomatic Dominoes

Late in the evening of October 25, 1971, the United Nations General Assembly voted on Resolution 2758, tabled by Albania and others. Beforehand, the United States had introduced an "important question" motion requiring a two-thirds majority to expel the Republic of China; it was defeated fifty-five to fifty-nine. Once that line broke, the outcome was settled. Foreign Minister Chow Shu-kai rose before the formal vote was completed to announce that the Republic of China was withdrawing from the United Nations, and the delegation walked out. The resolution passed seventy-six to thirty-five, recognizing the People's Republic of China as the sole legitimate representative of China at the UN.

1987–2000Breaking the Silence

The End of Mobilization and the Remaking of Parliament

On June 21, 1990, the Council of Grand Justices issued Interpretation No. 261: senior members of the central representative bodies who had never stood for re-election must cease exercising their functions by December 31, 1991. The language was constitutional; the operation was political. It set a fixed end date for a parliament elected in mainland China in 1947 and 1948 and continued in Taiwan for more than forty years. Three months earlier those same delegates had moved, at Chungshan Hall on Yangmingshan, to extend their own terms — which is what set off the Wild Lily movement.

The People Choose

On March 23, 1996, the skies over Taiwan were charged with an unprecedented tension and exhilaration. On this day, twenty-one million Taiwanese would, for the first time, directly elect the head of their own nation with the ballots in their hands. Yet on the eve of this historic moment, missiles from across the strait were streaking across the heavens one after another, falling into the waters off Keelung and Kaohsiung. A test launch meant to intimidate by force, and a democracy realized through the ballot, formed upon this land the sharpest and most stirring of contrasts.

2000–presentNew Formosa

Cross-Strait Dynamics

Entering the twenty-first century, the Taiwan Strait once again became one of the most closely watched flashpoints in world politics. The relative equilibrium of the late 1990s — a tacit framework built upon the 1992 talks and Lee Teng-hui's cautious pragmatism — gave way under the weight of three interlocking shifts: Taiwan's consolidating democratic identity, the People's Republic of China's accelerating military and economic power, and the gradual erosion of the post-Cold War status quo in the Indo-Pacific.