Before arriving in Taiwan, I knew very little about the island’s history. Traveling through it has made me realize that understanding modern Taiwanese culture requires looking much further backward than the political questions that dominate international discussion today. Taiwan has repeatedly stood at the intersection of different peoples, empires, and cultural worlds. Its history is therefore not simply the history of China, nor does it begin with European colonization. Long before either arrived, people were living, trading and developing distinct societies on the island.
Indigenous Taiwan and the Austronesian World (Prehistory – Present)
Human settlement in Taiwan reaches thousands of years into prehistory. Because these early societies did not leave written historical records, much of what is known about them comes from archaeology, linguistics and later accounts of Indigenous peoples.
The Indigenous peoples of Taiwan belong primarily to the much larger Austronesian linguistic and cultural world. Today, Austronesian languages stretch across an extraordinary geographic area—from Taiwan south through the Philippines and Indonesia, east across much of the Pacific, and west as far as Madagascar.1
Taiwan occupies a particularly important place within this history. Linguistic diversity among Taiwan’s Indigenous languages, together with archaeological evidence, has led many scholars to regard Taiwan as an important early center from which Austronesian-speaking people expanded southward thousands of years ago.
It would be misleading, however, to imagine the Indigenous inhabitants of Taiwan as one unified people. Different communities inhabited different environments and developed their own languages, social organizations, religious traditions and relationships with neighbors. Geography separated communities across mountains, plains, and coastlines, with each region encouraging different ways of life. Groups traded, cooperated, and sometimes fought with one another. Neither completely unified nor isolated, this island has been multicultural through the ages.
The ocean surrounding an island can look like a boundary when viewed from land, but historically it was also a transportation network. Archaeological discoveries show connections between Taiwan and communities throughout Southeast Asia long before European ships appeared in the region. Goods, technologies and people moved across the water. Taiwan jade2, for example, traveled through extensive maritime exchange networks into Southeast Asia.
This older maritime world provides an important backdrop to what happened next. Europeans did not suddenly connect an isolated Taiwan to the outside world in the seventeenth century. Rather, European merchants entered an island that already existed within networks of exchange and transformed those connections into part of a rapidly expanding global commercial system.
European Colonial Competition (1624 – 1662)
By the sixteenth century, Taiwan increasingly attracted Chinese and Japanese merchants, fishermen and pirates as maritime trade expanded throughout East Asia. European powers eventually joined this competition.
In 1624, the Dutch East India Company established a base in southwestern Taiwan. Two years later, Spanish settlers established themselves in the north. The Dutch eventually expelled the Spanish in 1642 and became the dominant European colonial power on the island until 1662.3 European colonial authority was concentrated primarily in Taiwan’s coastal regions and western plains. Although Dutch influence extended inland through military expeditions, alliances, and missionary activity, much of the mountainous interior remained beyond sustained colonial control.
This European presence began changing the island internally. The Dutch encouraged migration from the Chinese coast, particularly Fujian, bringing Han farmers and laborers to Taiwan to expand rice and sugar production. This helped establish migration patterns that would profoundly impact Taiwan’s demographics over the following centuries.
Dutch rule also demonstrates a recurring theme within Taiwanese history: foreign governments could not simply impose themselves upon a passive population. Indigenous villages had their own rivalries and political interests. Some fought Dutch expansion, while others allied with the Dutch against neighboring communities. Taiwan was already politically complex before Europeans arrived, with their arrival layering additional diversity.
The institutions created to facilitate trade—agricultural systems, taxation, settlements and administrative structures—also expanded the ability of governments to control the people and resources of the island. This relationship between infrastructure and political authority continues throughout other regimes, with each one inheriting the developments of those who came beforehand.
Koxinga and the Zheng Regime (1662 – 1683)
Dutch control ended in 1662 when Zheng Chenggong, better known in the West as Koxinga, defeated the Dutch and established his own regime in Taiwan.
Koxinga was a Ming loyalist. On the Chinese mainland, the Ming dynasty had fallen to the Manchu-led Qing dynasty, but Koxinga continued resisting the new government. Taiwan became a military and maritime base for the Zheng regime as they worked to eventually challenge Qing control of China.
The Zheng period lasted only twenty-one years, but it strengthened Han Chinese settlement and administration on the island. The island was now incorporated into a political struggle taking place across the Taiwan Strait, a pattern that would recur dramatically three centuries later.
In 1683, Qing forces defeated the Zheng regime.
Qing Rule and Migration (1683 – 1895)
Taiwan subsequently became part of the Qing Empire. Qing authority was strongest in the western plains and coastal regions, while much of the mountainous center and east remained predominantly under Indigenous control.
One cannot claim that “China ruled Taiwan from 1683” since that gives an impression of territorial control that was considerably neater on maps than it was in reality. The Qing government itself established boundaries separating areas under direct administration from Indigenous territories beyond effective state control.4
Meanwhile, migration from the Chinese mainland transformed the population of western Taiwan. Large numbers of migrants arrived primarily from Fujian and Guangdong. Among them were the ancestors of many of Taiwan’s modern Hoklo and Hakka communities.
These migrants did not form a single homogeneous Chinese population. They brought different languages, regional identities, religious practices and social networks. Conflict occurred between different migrant communities, between settlers and Indigenous peoples, and between local populations and Qing authorities.
At the same time, interaction produced new cultural forms. Temples, local g-ds, ancestor worship, festivals, settlement patterns and linguistic communities developed in ways rooted in southern China but increasingly particular to Taiwan. This period therefore is especially important when considering the cultural and religious landscape visible across Taiwan today.
In 1885, Taiwan became a formal Qing province as the imperial government attempted to strengthen its control and modernize the island in response to growing foreign pressure. That effort came too late to prevent another imperial transition.
Japanese Colonial Taiwan (1895 – 1945)
In 1895, following China’s defeat in the First Sino-Japanese War, the Qing government ceded Taiwan and Penghu to Japan under the Treaty of Shimonoseki.5 Taiwan would remain under Japanese rule for fifty years.
Japanese colonialism produced some of the most visible transformations in Taiwan’s built environment. The government expanded railways, roads, ports, irrigation systems, electricity, sanitation and public-health infrastructure. It established schools and constructed an increasingly centralized bureaucracy capable of administering the island.
Many traces of this period remain visible today—from railway infrastructure to Japanese architecture in the Hinoki Village in Chiayi to the development of tourist destinations such as the hot springs in Beitou.
Yet describing this simply as “modernization” misses the purpose of colonial development. Taiwan was a colony within the Japanese Empire. Infrastructure made economic growth possible, but it also allowed the colonial government to move troops, extract resources, transport agricultural products and administer the population more efficiently.
The natural landscape was transformed accordingly. Forests in areas such as Alishan were exploited for valuable timber. Agricultural production was reorganized for imperial markets. Mineral resources were developed, and state control reached farther into Taiwan’s mountainous interior. These developments contributed to the foundation of Taiwan’s modern economy, although their primary purpose was to serve Japanese imperial interests. Colonial authorities maintained extensive control over major industries and resources, while the benefits and burdens of development were distributed unequally. Subsequent governments inherited much of this infrastructure and some of its institutions, adapting them to new political and economic objectives.
Indigenous communities experienced some of the most violent consequences of this expansion. Japanese authorities attempted to bring mountain territories under direct state control, encountering armed resistance. One of the best-known examples was the 1930 Wushe Incident, when Seediq warriors rose against Japanese authorities. The uprising was violently suppressed.6
Assimilation also intensified over time. Schools promoted Japanese language and identity through the kōminka movement, which encouraged or pressured Taiwanese subjects to become increasingly “Japanese” in language, culture, and loyalty during the later years of colonial rule.
Thus, Japanese rule left Taiwan with a complicated inheritance: extensive modernization and infrastructure bought through political subordination, cultural assimilation, resource extraction and violent suppression. As one enjoys the ease of the modernized country, it is important to recognize the history that laid these foundations.
The Republic of China Comes to Taiwan (1945 – 1949)
Japan’s defeat in the Second World War ended the fifty years of colonial rule in 1945. Administration of Taiwan was transferred to the Republic of China, then governed by the Kuomintang (KMT).
Many Taiwanese initially welcomed the change. Yet the population that had lived for half a century under Japanese institutions now encountered officials arriving from a China devastated by years of war. Linguistic and cultural differences were substantial, while corruption, inflation, economic disruption and discriminatory treatment generated growing resentment.
These tensions exploded in 1947.
On February 27, government agents confronted a woman selling contraband cigarettes in Taipei. She was struck, and during the resulting confrontation a civilian was shot. What could have remained a local incident instead ignited accumulated grievances against the government islandwide.
News of the confrontation spread through radio broadcasts and other channels, contributing to protests across Taiwan. Local groups organized and demanded political reforms. The KMT government responded by bringing reinforcements from the mainland. Beginning in March, troops carried out a violent suppression involving executions, arrests, and murders.
The event became known as the February 28 Incident, or simply 228 (二二八事件).7
Its significance extends beyond the original confrontation. For decades, discussing 228 publicly was dangerous. Today, memorials and museums across Taiwan preserve the memory. The transformation of 228 from a politically suppressed subject into a publicly commemorated tragedy itself reflects Taiwan’s later transition from authoritarianism to democracy.
The Chinese Civil War and the White Terror (1949 – 1987)
Events on mainland China transformed Taiwan once again.
The Chinese Civil War was being fought between the Republic of China and Mao Zedong’s Chinese Communist Party (CCP). In 1949, the Communists established the People’s Republic of China (PRC), with its capital in Beijing. Chiang Kai-shek’s ROC government retreated to Taiwan along with approximately 1.2 million soldiers, officials, family members and other refugees.8 These arrivals came from many different regions of China and added another major layer to Taiwan’s diverse cultural population.
The ROC continued to claim that it was the legitimate government of China operating solely from Taiwan, while the newly established PRC made the same claim from Beijing. Taiwan consequently became both a refuge for the defeated ROC government and a front line in the continuing conflict across the Taiwan Strait.
Within Taiwan, the KMT constructed an authoritarian party-state. Martial law remained in force from 1949 until 1987.9 Political dissent was severely restricted, and people accused of Communist sympathies, supporting Taiwanese independence, or challenging the government could face surveillance, imprisonment, or execution. This was a time that is still alive in the minds of living Taiwanese, one that greatly shapes their behaviors and beliefs.
This broader period of political repression became known as the White Terror.
Authoritarian government existed alongside extraordinary economic transformation. Building upon infrastructure inherited from previous governments while investing heavily in education, industry, and export-oriented development, Taiwan rapidly industrialized. Although political power remained concentrated within the ruling party, economic improvements gradually raised living standards across much of Taiwanese society. However, economic development did not eliminate political inequality or guarantee equal access to its benefits. This rapid advancement eventually produced what became known as the “Taiwan Miracle.”
Education expanded as well, but education was also a means of constructing national identity. Mandarin-only policies promoted Mandarin Chinese, while Taiwanese Hokkien, Hakka and Indigenous languages were discouraged or severely punished in many institutional settings.10 Slowly, through successive regimes, Indigenous cultures and languages were systematically purged from the minds of the inhabitants one generation at a time. Children were punished for speaking their ancestral languages, and the fear and shame imposed upon them continued long after the punishments ended. Again, development and control are intertwined.
From Authoritarianism to Democracy (1979 – 2000)
Political opposition continued developing despite extreme suppression.
A pivotal moment came on December 10, 1979, when activists associated with Formosa Magazine organized a demonstration in Kaohsiung for International Human Rights Day. Confrontations occurred between demonstrators and police, followed by mass arrests of opposition leaders.11
The government intended the prosecutions that followed to suppress dissent. Instead, the Kaohsiung Incident became one of the defining events of Taiwan’s democracy movement. Formosa Magazine had already begun resembling an opposing political organization, at a time when other political parties were illegal. The magazine published articles with political ideologies advocating the lifting of martial law, constitutional reform and democratic elections. At a time when Freedom of Speech was severely restricted, these actions were life-threatening to the individuals working to express their values.12
Political pressure continued through the 1980s. The Democratic Progressive Party was founded in 1986 despite restrictions on forming new political parties. Martial law was lifted the following year.
The transition did not happen in one single moment. Political restrictions were dismantled progressively through the late 1980s and early 1990s. In 1991, the Temporary Provisions that had justified extraordinary powers during the conflict with the Communists were abolished. Parliamentary institutions were reformed and representatives elected decades earlier on the Chinese mainland were finally replaced through elections in Taiwan.13
In 1996, Taiwan held its first direct presidential election. Lee Teng-hui of the KMT won, becoming the first president chosen directly by Taiwan’s voters. Another major democratic milestone came in 2000 when Chen Shui-bian of the Democratic Progressive Party won the presidency. For the first time, political power transferred peacefully from the KMT to an opposing party.
Taiwan’s transformation from authoritarian rule to competitive democracy had taken a few decades of hard work fought for by a society with centuries of external authorities subjugating the spirit of local communities.
What History Leaves Behind
Throughout Taiwan’s history, there are two recurring themes: the struggle over resources and the continual transformation of cultural identity.
Taiwan’s fertile land, forests, minerals and strategic location have repeatedly attracted outsiders who saw value in what the island could produce. The Dutch expanded agricultural production for trade. The Japanese cut ancient cypress forests in Alishan and mined resources in Beitou for an imperial economy. Successive governments established monopolies over valuable commodities.
Controlling resources often requires controlling the land, labor, and people surrounding them. Railways, ports, irrigation, and industry can create enormous prosperity; however, that wealth is not inherently equally distributed among those who work to produce it. When evaluating a thriving society, it is worth asking not only how it was created, but also who received the rewards and who bore the costs.
Indigenous communities altered their environments through agriculture, hunting, fishing, and trade, generally operating on a different scale from industrial extraction. Later imperial governments increasingly organized resource extraction around distant markets, expanding both its scale and environmental consequences. Taiwan’s history is therefore a reminder that the ability to extract value from nature does not necessarily mean that doing so is wise.
Just as successive governments transformed Taiwan’s physical landscape, generations of migration and political change reshaped its cultural identity. Place does not inherently define identity, nor is culture static. People migrate, governments change, languages intermingle and each generation inherits something different from the one before it in our ever-changing world. Taiwan’s history demonstrates both the beauty and danger of this process.
Koji pottery provides an example of how artistic traditions brought over from southern China continued developing in Taiwan until they became embedded within Taiwanese temple architecture.14 This magnificent commingling of culture and artwork remains alive in local architecture today.
The transition following 1945 demonstrates a much darker possibility. After fifty years of Japanese rule, many Taiwanese initially welcomed the end of colonialism and anticipated their return to Chinese rule. Yet Taiwan and mainland China had experienced dramatically different fifty years. Different governments, education systems, languages, wars and social institutions had shaped their populations. Their histories had moved in different directions. The tensions that followed eventually contributed to the violence remembered as 228. A shared cultural inheritance was not enough to erase the differences that history had created.
Koji pottery and 228 are radically different outcomes that illustrate how, when cultures meet, both may be transformed. Interaction can produce art, language, religion and new traditions. It can also produce misunderstanding, hierarchy and violence—particularly when one group possesses substantially more power than another. Today, efforts to revitalize Indigenous languages and cultural traditions demonstrate that identity can be reclaimed even after generations of institutional suppression.
Taiwan today is a product of all these encounters. Indigenous Austronesian traditions, European commerce, Qing administration, Japanese colonialism, and Chinese migration did not simply replace one another. Their influences accumulated, building upon one another.
History leaves behind more than dates and governments. It leaves altered landscapes, institutions, languages, memories, religions, art, and identities. Understanding those layers provides the foundation for understanding the culture that exists in Taiwan today.
Sources and Further Reading
- National Central Library. A History of Pre-Invasion Taiwan. https://www.ith.sinica.edu.tw/quarterly_history_look ↩︎
- Ministry of Culture. Igniting The Stories Behind Taiwan Jade. https://www.moc.gov.tw/ ↩︎
- Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Taiwan Government History Overview. https://www.taiwan.gov.tw ↩︎
- National Palace Museum. Opening up the Mountains and Pacifying the Aboriginals. https://theme.npm.edu.tw/exh111/TaiwaneseIndigenous ↩︎
- Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Taiwan Government History Overview. https://www.taiwan.gov.tw ↩︎
- Indigenous Peoples Cultural Development Center. Wushe Incident. https://trail.tacp.gov.tw/en/taxonomy/term/731 ↩︎
- Memorial Foundation of 228. The 228 Incident. https://www.228.org.tw/the228incident ↩︎
- Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Taiwan Government History Overview. https://www.taiwan.gov.tw ↩︎
- Ibid. ↩︎
- National Human Rights Museum. “Mandarin Monopoly”?! Post-War Language Policy and Human Rights in Taiwan. https://www.nhrm.gov.tw/ ↩︎
- Ministry of Culture. Democracy forum commemorates 1979 Kaohsiung Incident. https://www.moc.gov.tw/ ↩︎
- National Human Rights Museum. The 40th Anniversary of the Formosa Incident: A Pivotal Moment in Taiwan’s History. https://www.nhrm.gov.tw/ ↩︎
- Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Taiwan Government History Overview. https://www.taiwan.gov.tw ↩︎
- National Taiwan Science Education Center. Appreciating Koji Pottery. https://www.ntsec.edu.tw/The_Eye_of_Science/ ↩︎