I was reading about the Spanish Expedition to Taiwan on Wikipedia, and saw this response by the Dutch Republic (the United Provinces) in 1587 to the English member of the Council of State, Sir Thomas Wilkes, that:
At the time, the Dutch revolt allowed Northern provinces to be de facto independent from Spain. They declared themselves a republic, which Spain would not recognize until the Peace of Westphalia in 1648. During that time-span (1587 to 1648), the Dutch East-Indies attacked Macau with the English and failed, took control of Pescadores which the Ming demanded them to leave, set up shop in Formosa in 1624, drove the Spanish away from Northern Taiwan in 1642.
I’m not too familiar with that part of European history, but the logic behind that reply sounds like essentially the same as “Taiwan is already a existing republic and there is no need to declare Taiwan independence.”
Of course, the Dutch Republic was mainly arguing against the monarchical view that since the United Provinces didn’t have a legitimate monarch, it has no sovereignty, but that is similar to the fact that Taiwan’s sovereignty is still undetermined.
In the end, the Dutch Republic got wrapped up in complex international power struggles. Sandwiched between world powers, the Republic dissolved due to the Anglo-French war, the one triggered by American revolutionary war, where the French allied with the Americans and the Dutch Republic was split between pro-French and pro-Britain sides. The form of a republic Dutch ended after the pro-French Batavian Republic got replaced with the Kingdom of Holland by Napoleon.
Is it me or is all of that terribly similar to the predicament Taiwan is in right now, except for the part where the Dutch Republic was once also a world power part?
Are there more similarities between the Dutch Republic and Taiwan, and what can Taiwan learn from its former colonizer?