5000 or More Years Ago
People arrived on the island. Some of them may have walked across a land bridge between what is now Mainland China and Taiwan. These "people" who may have walked here belonged to our genus, but not to our species.
The presence of modern humans in Taiwan can be traced to a site in Zuozhen District, Tainan City. This site has been dated to 20,000 to 30,000 years ago. Anthropologists have discovered skull fragments on this site, but no tools.
It wasn't until around 3000 B.C. that the island's aboriginal residents left behind clear traces of their presence in what we now call Taiwan. They were (and are) an Austronesian people, who migrated to Taiwan from the Philippines and other parts of Southeast Asia.
The Late 1200s Onward
The earliest recorded visits by Chinese people to Taiwan occurred during the Yuan (Mongol) Dynasty. Kublai Khan sent a delegation to the "Japanese" Ryukyu Kingdom that went off course, and this delegation suffered great hardship after landing somewhere on the island. From this point onward, Chinese visitors, traders, pirates and fishermen arrived in Taiwan in increasing numbers.
1624
The Dutch East India Company set up a trading post in what is now Anping District, Tainan City after their expulsion from China. Much is made of the Dutch presence in Taiwan, but they controlled very little of the island, and most of their energy was directed outward, to trade with China. Their outpost in Taiwan lasted for around 30 years.
1662
The Ming Loyalist Koxinga sailed from China and captured the Dutch settlements in Taiwan. Koxinga planned on retaking China from the Qing Dynasty, which replaced the Ming during his lifetime. Koxinga's capture of Taiwan was a very bloody episode in the island's history, but like the Dutch, the Ming loyalists weren't really in Taiwan long enough to leave a lasting impression.
1683
Koxinga's grandson surrendered to the Qing court. During this time Han Chinese settlement of the island began in earnest, after Qing restrictions on immigration to the island were relaxed. The Qing officials were very ambivalent on the subject of Taiwan, often regarding it as either the abode of barbarians or too small to bother with. At the height of their power the Qing Dynasty directly administered less than half of the island, with the remaining parts under the control of aboriginal tribes.
1895
The Qing Dynasty lost Taiwan to Japan as part of the Treaty of Shimonoseki. Japan proceeded to build up Taiwan's infrastructure along either Japanese lines or in accordance with Japanese ideas of Western technological superiority. Taiwan's network of railroads was organized during this time, many modern roads were built, and industries based around pineapple, sugar cane, lumber and other goods were established.
1945
The Republic of China, which would lose Mainland China to the communists four years later, established the Taiwan Provincial Government after assuming control of Taiwan at the end of World War II. Much like Koxinga before him, Chinese nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek viewed Taiwan more as a base from which to retake the Mainland, and to this day many place names, political positions and cultural affiliations reflect this goal.
The wave of immigrants that Chiang Kai-shek's KMT (Chinese Nationalist Party) led to power in Taiwan didn't have the best relationship with peoples who arrived here earlier. The Taiwanese language was banned from schools, aboriginal people were repressed, gangs and gang associations imported from China flourished, and the KMT's method of criminalizing "subversive elements" drew ire from many quarters.
1975
Chiang Kai-shek died and his son Chiang Ching-kuo became President. These two events initiated a less authoritarian era in Taiwan's history. Many infrastructure projects were initiated around this time, and new methods of farming, fish farming and fishing were either invented or introduced from abroad. Kaohsiung in particular grew a lot, with new factory areas adjacent to the port springing up quickly.
2000
Chen Shui-bian, representing the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) became the first non-KMT candidate to win the office. Chen Shui-bian, advocating Taiwan's independence from China, remains a controversial figure, and his term as President was marked by both corruption and an increasingly confusing relationship between Taiwan and China.
2016
Tsai Ying-wen became Taiwan's first female President. She replaced not Chen Shui-bian but Ma Ying-jeou, his KMT successor. During Tsai Ying-wen's presidency we've seen a more progressive Taiwanese government, the legalization of gay marriage, increasing distance from China, and a growing reliance on the United States. It's been a long, winding road from Chiang Kai-shek to Tsai Ying-wen, and only the next presidential election will tell if Taiwan will hold to the more progressive policies set forth by President Tsai, or step backward into a KMT position more closely aligned with China.
Related Entries:
NOTE 1: In case my choice of pictures is less than obvious, from top to bottom they are: 1) Zuozhen District in Tainan, where the earliest evidence of modern human occupation was found, 2) a map of the Yuan (Mongol) Dynasty, 3) Anping Fort in Tainan, built by the Dutch as Fort Zeelandia, 4) a statue of the semi-divine Koxinga in a local temple, 5) Hengchun's Old City, which was built during the Qing Dynasty, 6) the old Tainan Train Station, soon to be remodeled, which was built by the Japanese, 7) The Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall in Taipei City, 8) Chiang Ching-kuo, 9) Chen Shui-bian, and 10) Tsai Ying-wen.
NOTE 2: Fun fact about Chiang Kai-shek: he probably suffered from gonorrhea. His second wife claimed that he'd given her the disease after their marriage. It's possible that gonorrhea made both him and his second wife sterile, which explains the fact that he had only one son, who'd been born long before his second marriage took place.
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