The Dutch, Spanish, and Koxinga Era

In the summer of 1683, before the Ningjing Prince's mansion in Tainan, Qing general Shi Lang erected a stone stele. The stele was 279 cm tall and 106 cm wide, visible to passersby who raised their heads to look.¹

The inscription was Shi Lang's self-congratulatory account. But between the words, another story emerges — Tainan residents feared his reprisals; his subordinate officers occupied ordinary people's houses and land. The opening sentence is even more interesting: "Taiwan is far out at sea," "aboriginal peoples and drifters live mixed together," "it has not belonged to any particular regime."¹

Shi Lang said this to argue that the Qing court should take control of Taiwan, but he simultaneously acknowledged: before him, this island did not belong to China.¹

Sixty years earlier, this island had for the first time been systematically written into the world trade map.

30-second overview: In 1624, the Dutch East India Company established the Dawan trading post in what is now Tainan (later called Fort Zeelandia); in 1626 the Spanish entered Keelung and Tamsui; in 1642 the Dutch defeated the Spanish and unified all of Taiwan; in 1662 Koxinga defeated Dutch Governor Frederik Coyett and established the Kingdom of Tungning; in 1683 Shi Lang took Penghu and the Zheng regime surrendered. In sixty years, four regimes succeeded each other, and Taiwan transformed from an indigenous autonomous society into a Han Chinese-majority immigrant society, while being drawn into the maritime trade network of East Asia and the wider world.

Formosa's First Appearance on European Maps

In 1596, Amsterdam published a book called Itinerario (Eastern Indian Voyage Guide). The author, Jan Huygen van Linschoten (1563–1611), had been stationed in Portuguese-controlled Goa, India, where he served as the archbishop's secretary and had the opportunity to copy Portuguese-gathered maritime data from Asia. His book contained a map of the East Indies with three islands drawn in the sea off Fujian, the northernmost of which was labeled I. Formosa.²

This was one of the earliest appearances of "Formosa" in European literature. Around the same time, the Chinese maritime guide Shun Feng Xiang Song (Fair Winds for Escort) recorded Taiwan's northern "Xiaoliuqiu Jilong Head Mountain" (present-day Keelung Islet) and southern "North Port Samamatou Mountain" (present-day Maobitou), both important landmarks on East Asian sea routes.²

In 1624, after the Dutch East India Company (VOC) was driven out of Penghu by Ming forces, they moved to the Dawan area in Tainan and built Fort Zeelandia. Two years later, in 1626, the Spanish advanced northward from the Philippines, building "Fort San Salvador" on Heping Island in Keelung and "Fort Santo Domingo" in Tamsui.³

The 17th century's two great maritime powers each occupied one end of Taiwan, north and south.

The Dutch 38 Years: Trading Posts, Roman Script, Wall Anchors

The Dutch governed Taiwan for 38 years (1624–1662). Administratively, the Governor of Taiwan served as the highest authority, assisted by a council in governance. They used indirect rule over indigenous peoples: signing treaties with the heads of each village, recognizing their autonomy while requiring tribute.³

The economic core was entrepôt trade: Taiwan was a transit hub connecting China, Japan, Southeast Asia, and Batavia (now Jakarta). The Dutch brought in Han Chinese immigrants to cultivate the land and established export agriculture in sugar and rice.

The things the 17th century Dutch left behind — some can still be seen today. Walking on the gable walls of some old temples and old residences in Tainan, one can see components called "iron scissors" or "wall locks" by Taiwanese. These actually originated from the 17th-century Dutch architectural component called Muuranker (Dutch Wall Anchors); they remain commonly visible on 17th-century old buildings in Amsterdam, Utrecht, and Leiden today.⁴

Even more striking is the writing. Dutch missionaries transcribed indigenous (Pingpu) languages in Roman script phonetic notation, compiling bibles for missionary work. This Roman script system, 150 years after the Dutch left Taiwan, was still being used by indigenous peoples and Han Chinese when signing land contracts — one surviving contract document from 1782 has Siraya language written in Roman script alongside Chinese characters, 120 years after 1662.⁴

Writing outlives political regimes.

Spain's 16 Years in Northern Taiwan

The Spanish landed in 1626, intending to divide Taiwan with the Dutch and promote Catholic missionary work. But with insufficient funds and frequent indigenous resistance, they were defeated by Dutch forces in 1642 and withdrew from Keelung back to Manila — a rule of only 16 years.³

Traces of the Spanish colonial period in northern Taiwan are mostly found in present-day Heping Island in Keelung and around Fort Santo Domingo in Tamsui. The Heping Island archaeological site has in recent years gradually unearthed 17th-century European ceramics, remnants of crosses, and indigenous ritual artifacts, making it one of Taiwan's few sites where physical evidence of the Spanish period can still be witnessed.

The Zheng Clan's 21 Years: The Kingdom of Tungning

In 1659, the Qing dynasty had consolidated its foothold on the Chinese mainland. Koxinga, who nominally served the Southern Ming against the Qing, turned his gaze toward Taiwan — to acquire the supplies and base his forces needed. After nearly a year of military confrontation, in early 1662, the Governor of Taiwan for the Dutch East India Company, Frederik Coyett, surrendered, ending 38 years of Dutch rule.⁵

The Zheng clan established the Kingdom of Tungning in Taiwan, spanning 3 leaders (Koxinga, Zheng Jing, Zheng Keshuang) over 21 years of rule — the first Han Chinese regime to be stably established in Taiwan.⁵

Koxinga declared "founding the state and establishing the household": Tungning's territory was not limited to Taiwan itself — it also included Jinmen, Xiamen, Tongshan, Nan'ao, and other islands along the Fujian and Guangdong coasts. The fertile western plains of Taiwan served as the military force's land reclamation base, implementing a soldier-farmer system where soldiers were allocated land to cultivate and sustain themselves. Administratively, Chengtian Prefecture was established to manage government affairs; locally, Tianxing and Wannian prefectures were established; a Confucian temple was built to promote Confucian education.⁵

An object preserved in the Bodleian Library at Oxford University in Britain bears witness to the scale of Tungning Kingdom's international trade. It is a Chinese almanac — the Da Ming Zhongxing Yongli Datong Li (1677), using the reign name of the last Ming emperor Yongli, with "Zhongxing" (Restoration) added to emphasize the political meaning of "continuing the Ming legitimate succession."⁵

Zheng Jing invited the British East India Company to set up a trading office in Taiwan and, following Chinese dynastic custom, presented royal almanacs to foreigners who came to pay tribute and trade. This almanac belonging to the Zheng dynasty drifted across the sea and survives to this day, preserved in the Bodleian Library (collection number Sinica 88, CC BY-NC 4.0 license).⁵

The Kingdom of Tungning also minted its own coins — Yongli Tongbao. These coins were originally minted after the Southern Ming Gui Wang's accession; after 1661 when Koxinga occupied Taiwan, they continued to be minted and circulated on the island, with physical specimens still preserved at the National Museum of Taiwan History (collection number 2002.012.0011).⁵

The Qing Court's Choice: To Rule This Island or Not

During the Zheng clan's rule of Taiwan, they repeatedly contended with surrounding powers (the Dutch East India Company, the Qing state). The Qing state attempted to attack Taiwan multiple times; the one who strongly advocated attacking Taiwan and personally executed it was the Zheng clan's defector Shi Lang.⁶

In 1683, Shi Lang took Penghu and Taiwan; the Zheng clan submitted to the Qing. But debate immediately broke out within the Qing court: should they formally govern Taiwan?

Supporters said: if not actually governed, Taiwan would become a base for pirates or foreign powers, ultimately becoming a maritime defense problem.
Opponents said: Taiwan is a small place; sending troops and officials to govern it is a burden with no benefit.⁶

There is also a lesser-known historical episode: after capturing Taiwan, Shi Lang actually first asked the Dutch — whether they had any willingness to govern Taiwan again? Only after the Dutch refused did Shi Lang turn and advise Emperor Kangxi to support Qing governance of Taiwan.⁶

Kangxi's decision affected Taiwan's destiny for the following 212 years. The Qing state thereafter incorporated Taiwan as "a small prefecture under Fujian Province," establishing agencies governing several counties. Han Chinese immigrants poured in, and the foundations of indigenous society began to be shaken.

French Jesuit Joseph-François-Marie-Anne de Moyriac de Mailla was commissioned by Kangxi around 1710 to come to Taiwan to survey; the maps he made were later compiled into the French translation of the Huangyu Quanlan Tu (Imperial Atlas), marking the three towns of Zhuluoxian, Taiwanfucheng, and Fengshanchendu, with the Tropic of Cancer crossing between them.⁶

That map was the first time Taiwan appeared on the shelves of European royal courts as "a province under the Chinese Empire."

Historical Impact

The sixty years of the Dutch-Spanish-Koxinga era laid the foundation for Taiwan's character as an immigrant society: Han Chinese immigrants arrived en masse, and the population grew from approximately 100,000 during the Dutch period to approximately 200,000 during the Zheng period, completely transforming the island's demographic structure.⁵

At the institutional level, Dutch administrative concepts and the Confucian cultural tradition of the Koxinga regime, layered over indigenous autonomous society, formed the multi-layered structure of Taiwan's political culture. The tradition of international trade gave Taiwan an oceanic character from the beginning — not an isolated island, but a node.

At the material level, goods and cultural habits circulated in during the 17th century, absorbed and transformed by local people, became part of the cultural foundation of today's Taiwan: Japanese bronze bar copper from the waters around Magong Harbor in Penghu (imported in the mid-17th century, used for coinage and firearms); Anping ware ceramic jars from northern Fujian (used by Han Chinese to pickle food; the Siraya indigenous people used them in ancestor worship, to hold the "sacred water" for communicating with ancestral spirits); and those wall anchors still nailed to the gable walls of old Tainan temples.⁴

Foreign influences and multicultural elements traveled to Taiwan on the sea's roads, entering the lives of the island's people. This character of "taking the island as a node" has continued to the present.

Further Reading:

• Prehistoric Era and Indigenous Peoples — The autonomous societies that existed on the island before the Dutch arrived
• Qing Dynasty Rule — The 212 years after 1683: how Taiwan expanded from "a small prefecture" into a province
• Taiwan Maritime Trade History — The complete context of the trade network from Dutch to Tungning to Qing rule
• Taiwan's Indigenous Peoples History and Naming Rights Movement — The Pingpu peoples impacted by the wave of Han Chinese immigration
• Taiwan Island History Perspective — Cao Yung-ho's island-centered historiography, the core perspective that runs through this period
• Formosa — The origin debate of the name "Formosa," and how Westerners have written about this island over four hundred years

References