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How long was Taiwan ruled by the Netherlands?

Taiwan is located in the southeastern waters of mainland China, facing the Pacific Ocean to the east and facing Fujian Province across the Taiwan Strait to the west. The Taiwan area we are talking about includes the main island of Taiwan and 21 affiliated islands such as Lanyu, Green Island, and Diaoyu Island, 64 islands in the Penghu Islands, and Kinmen and Matsu islands, of which the main island of Taiwan covers an area of ​​about 36,000 square kilometers. the largest island. Taiwan has been China’s territory since ancient times, because it was originally connected to the mainland of the motherland. Later, due to the movement of the earth’s crust, the connected part of the land sank into a strait, and Taiwan became an island.

Taiwan used to be called “Island”, “Yizhou” and “Ryukyu” in history. During the Three Kingdoms period, Shen Ying, the prefect of Danyang of Wu State, recorded in his “Linhai Land Records” (about 264-280) that Wu Wang Sun Quan once sent generals Wei Wen and Zhuge Zhi to lead an expedition of 10,000 troops to Yizhou. . This is the earliest record of Taiwan in history. Afterwards, Emperor Yang of Sui also sent people to Taiwan twice. During the Song and Yuan dynasties, some fishermen had already crossed the strait and immigrated to Penghu on the southeastern coast of the mainland, especially in the area of ​​present-day Fujian Province.

They built thatched huts to live on the island and made a living by fishing and farming. With the increase of immigration, in the second half of the 12th century, the Southern Song Dynasty began to send permanent troops to Penghu and placed it under the jurisdiction of Jinjiang County, Quanzhou. Later, the Yuan Dynasty established the Inspection Division in Penghu, formally establishing the local administrative jurisdiction. After the mid-Ming Dynasty, more mainland people moved to Taiwan and Penghu, and they gradually became permanent residents of the island.

In 1622, the Dutch East India Company, which specialized in trade in Asian colonies, attempted to establish a trading base on the southeastern coast of our country in order to open the door to trade with China. In April, the Netherlands dispatched ships to expedition to China. After failing to attack Macau, the fleet turned to Penghu, and landed and occupied Penghu in July. In 1624, the Ming army sent troops to recapture Penghu, and the Dutch evacuated to Taiwan instead.

They built the “Reland City” on a small and narrow island called “Da Yuan” on the southwest coast of Taiwan, as the center of the Dutch rule over Taiwan; and later established a town in Chihkan on the main island of Taiwan, named For “Proventia”. At that time, the Ming government was facing the threat of successive peasant uprisings in the country and the rise of the Jurchen tribe in the Northeast. The purpose of the Dutch occupation of Taiwan is to build this place into a stronghold and hub for commercial trade with mainland China, Japan, the Korean Peninsula and Southeast Asia, and to monopolize trade between the Philippine Islands and China.

After the Dutch colonists gained a firm foothold, they began to expand to the whole island of Taiwan. The expansion activities of the occupiers were carried out by burning, killing, looting and extortionate. This brutal and brutal oppression caused constant resistance from local aborigines and mainland immigrants. The largest anti-Dutch struggle was the uprising led by Guo Huaiyi in 1652. The uprising lasted for 12 days and was finally brutally suppressed by the Dutch army. According to the “Taiwan County Chronicle”, in this incident, “Han people in Taiwan were slaughtered.” After this popular uprising, the colonial rule of the Netherlands gradually declined.

On April 21, 1661, Zheng Chenggong (1624-1662), an old general of the Southern Ming Dynasty stationed in Xiamen, launched a war aimed at recovering Taiwan. He led a congregation of about 25,000 people and embarked on more than 400 ships from Kinmen to Taiwan via Penghu. After landing, the Zheng army surrounded the city of Proventia. The Dutch in Geranja sent soldiers to try to prevent the Zheng army from landing, but they were repelled. Zheng Chenggong sent someone a letter of invitation to surrender to the Dutch commander in Taiwan, Kui Yi, who was in the city of Geranza, asking the Netherlands to withdraw its troops and evacuate the island of Taiwan, rejecting any other plan.

On May 4, the acting commander of the Dutch army in the city of Proventia led the army to raise the white flag and surrender. Zheng Chenggong’s army then went to attack the city of Geranza, where the “Governor’s Palace” is located. The Dutch army defending the city refused to surrender and resisted the attack of the Zheng army. Zheng Chenggong had to adopt a strategy of long-term siege.

A few months later, reinforcements from the Dutch East India Company arrived in Taiwan, but they were unlucky. They were suddenly hit by strong winds and were forced to flee to Penghu. One of the warships was also captured by Zheng Jun because of the grounding. This victory greatly boosted the morale of Zheng Jun. In the subsequent naval battle against the invaders in the Taijiang Inland Sea, they became braver, sunk a Dutch warship and captured several ships.

Since then, the Dutch army has lost its initiative. The ability to strike. Then Zheng Jun bombarded a major bunker in the city of Relanzha, and the Dutch, who were hit hard, finally expressed their willingness to negotiate. On February 1, 1662, the Dutch chief Kui Yi wrote 18 articles of the treaty in Dutch, and the Chinese side Zheng Chenggong wrote 16 articles in Chinese, and the representatives of the two sides formally exchanged the contracts. This is the first time in Chinese history that it has accepted the surrender of Western books.

As required by the treaty, the Dutch evacuated the coast of Taiwan on February 17, 1662. So far, the Dutch colonial rule over Taiwan for more than 40 years has come to an end. In 1684 (the 23rd year of Emperor Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty), the Qing government set up the “Divisional Inspection of Taiwan, Xiamen and Military Equipment Road” and “Taiwan House”, placing the Taiwan area under the jurisdiction of Fujian.

The recovery of Taiwan was a major event in Chinese history. Zheng Chenggong led the army to repel the Dutch colonists with the assistance of the Taiwanese people and defended the reunification of the motherland. It is precisely because of this incident that Zheng Chenggong became a great national hero.