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.

1662–1683Tungning Dynasty

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.

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.

2000–thread.span.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.