Taiwan occupation by the Dutch and the Spanish

Arts & Sciences Culture & History
1

Historical records say that at one time Taiwan was occupied by both Holland, and at another time by Spain.

Are introductions to these historical periods available on the internet? Where?

What were the notable events that happened under those periods of foreign occupation?

2

Are you familiar with
http://www.taiwandc.org/history.htm

It is short, but has some other links.

3

From Wright’s link:

On a narrow peninsula on the Southwestern coast of the island, the Dutch established a fortress named "Zeelandia", after the Dutch province of Zeeland. The peninsula was called Tayouan, meaning terrace bay. This later evolved into Taiwan, and came to be the name for the whole island.

This piques my curiosity as to the etymology of ‘Taiwan’. This paragraph implies that the name for the island was of Dutch, not Chinese, origin.

4

Also, from the same link, this:

quote:
That China hardly had any influence in the coastal waters around Taiwan is apparent from the two following examples: when in the 1870's Taiwanese pirates captured American, Japanese and French ships passing the island, these governments protested to Peking, but the Manchu emperor said: "Taiwan is beyond our territory."

I did a google search that quote “Taiwan is beyond our territory” and came up with this same paragraph on several different sites. I fiddled around on google for a while using searchwords like “Manchu, emperor, Taiwan”, trying to flesh out this reported event with more details, but found nothing beyond the information in that paragraph. It doesn’t say exactly what year this was supposed to have happened, who the Manchu emperor was at the time, what the outcome of the struggle with the pirates was, or what source this alleged quote comes from. Can anybody find any more data on this?

5
quote:
Originally posted by mod lang: From Wright's link:

This piques my curiosity as to the etymology of ‘Taiwan’. This paragraph implies that the name for the island was of Dutch, not Chinese, origin.

The island’s modern history goes back to around 1590, when the first Western ship passed by the island, and Jan Huygen van Linschoten, a Dutch navigator on a Portugese ship, exclaimed “Ilha Formosa” (meaning “Beautiful island”), which became its name for the next four centuries.

6

Another interesting article disputing a Chinese White Paper.

The True History of Taiwan
http://www.taiwannation.com.tw/english.htm

7

The History of the Dutch on Taiwan

http://www.simaqianstudio.com/historyarticles/meghel/dutchontaiwan.html

The last sentence: “The Dutch culture was removed completely from Formosa and Formosa became an integral part of China until after the end of WW-II.” is an interesting argument for independence. Even if Formosa was an “integral part” because of proximity to China, it changed after WWII.

8

The second and third may not have that much about the Spanish and the Dutch, but they offer a lot of interesting materials for anyone interested in the history of Taiwan.

http://taiwanresources.com/info/history/dutch63.htm

http://www.etaiwannews.com/History/

http://academic.reed.edu/formosa/formosa_index_page/Formosa_index.html

9
quote:
Originally posted by mod lang: From Wright's link:
On a narrow peninsula on the Southwestern coast of the island, the Dutch established a fortress named "Zeelandia", after the Dutch province of Zeeland. The peninsula was called Tayouan, meaning terrace bay. This later evolved into Taiwan, and came to be the name for the whole island.

This piques my curiosity as to the etymology of ‘Taiwan’. This paragraph implies that the name for the island was of Dutch, not Chinese, origin.

I think you will find that the origin of this placename is neither Chinese nor Dutch, but Taiwanese, by which I mean Taiwanese aboriginal, not the Chinese Hokkien dialect which some people like to call “Taiwanese.” The name Taiwan originally refered only to the place now known as Tainan. Since that was the seat of government, eventually the whole island came to be known by that name. Some other place names of aboriginal origin are Jilong/Keelung and Takao (the old name for Gaoxiong/Kaohsiung.) There are many more.

***Adendum: By sheer coincidence, the answer to the origin of the word “Taiwan” is explained in today’s edition of the Taipei Times. It comes from a now-extinct Aboriginal language called Siraya, which was spoken in the area around present-day Tainan. Now some of the descendants of the Siraya are trying to revive the language based on notes made by a Dutch missionary. For the full story click here: Keys to lost Siraya culture found by family descended from aborigines. (This story also reminds us that Taiwanese aboriginal languages had their own Latin spellings hundreds of years before either Tongyong or Hanyu pinyin were even thought of, thank you very much.)

10

A Taiwanese friend confirms that Taiwan is what the native Taiwanese called themselves.

11

An American friend assures me that “American” is what Americans call themselves, but the language most of them speak is called “English.”

12

The Dutch was driven out of Taiwan by the last of the Ming generals that fled to Taiwan after the lost to Qing. The Ming general also stated that he was going to take back China. The Qing government cleared out the Ming general after they insured their control in China. It was after the Qing’s arrival in Taiwan that there was some sort of official Chinese control of Taiwan. It was limited to just a few officials. Taiwan was part of the Fujin province. It was later upgraded to a province in the late 1800’s, a few years before it was given away when China lost to the Japanese. All this occured with the Qing and the PRC didn’t even exist then. Mao was 2 years old when Taiwan was given away to the Japanese.
Kerr’s book, Taiwan Betrayed and su Bing’s Taiwan’s 400 year History: The Origins and Continuing Development of the Taiwanese Society and People are sources of information. Kerr’s book was for a long time the only book widely available about Taiwanese history. The KMT actually bought the rights to it for a while and kept it from being published. I found a copy of it in my college’s library that was published in the 1960’s. Some Taiwanese Americans now have the rights to the book so it’s being published again.

Mark

13

You can actually find the Dutch surrender to the Rebel Koxinga on Taiwan Documents:

Koxinga Takes Dutch Surrender on Formosa

Don’t think there are any documents for America surrenders to Koxinga Jr, are there? Oh wait, here it is!

Commissars of “One China” Policy surrendering Taiwan

Beijing Bully

quote[quote]I'll get you and your civil rights, too! [/quote]
14

Reviving this thread—started by none other than the legendary Richard Hartzell—to post a link to a nice feature in today’s Taipei Times by Han Cheung, who revisits the 1620s in what is now known as Tainan during the Dutch colonial era. Cheung focuses on a little known attempt by a Siraya community to gain support from feudal Japan, including their trip to what is now called Tokyo. It’s a fascinating story.

Guy

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