History of Taiwan.

Taiwan is an island situated nearly 100 miles away from mainland China. It has a total land area of about 12500 square miles. It’s very debatable about the first known settlers of the island but it’s fairly acceptable that Austronesian tribal people who are thought to have migrated from the southern China region were the first resident of present-day Taiwan.

Early Rulers of Taiwan

The first official record of the island is believed to be from AD239 when an emperor from mainland china sent an expeditionary force to explore the southern ocean of China. (Interestingly this is the same fact that China uses for its territorial claim over Taiwan).

After that Taiwan comes under Dutch colonization from the year 1624 to 1661. The year 1683 marks the beginning of the Qing dynasty also known as the Manchu dynasty in Taiwan which goes on till the year 1895. Many people migrated from Mainland China mainly from Fujian Province to Taiwan during these years. In the year 1895 started the Sino-Japanese war in which Japan comes out victorious and captured Taiwan. In 1912 Qing dynasty was officially ended during the Xinhai revolution.

China’s Entry

After the end of the Second World War, Allies powers won and Axis powers lost including Japan. At Cairo Conference, Taiwan was officially handed over to the Republic of China which was one of the partners of the Allies group. Other allies partners like The USA and The UK supported this.

The Republic of China which was under the rule of the Kuomintang Party was struggling because of a civil war that broke out in the year 1927 and ended in the year 1949. The war was between two groups, one was Kuomintang(KMT) party led by Chiang Kai-Shek, and the other was the Communist Party led by Mao Zedong. In addition to this Anti-government protests erupted in Taiwan in February 1947. Chinese government suppressed these protests with an iron hand. On 28th February 1947 Chinese Army carried out a huge massacre on the island leaving at least thirty thousand corpses. It was famously known as the 2-28 incident in Taiwan history.(named after the date of massacre)

In the year 1949, the Civil war in China comes to an end, Communist party under the leadership of Mao Zedong ended the long-running KMT party’s rule by massacring many of its leaders and supporters. KMT Party leader Chiang Kai-Shek and some of its supporters left China for a small island near China(present-day Taiwan) and set up a government in exile in Taiwan. KMT once ruled the whole of China so they claim that Mainland China is theirs and they named their government as Republic of China government. After the death of Chiang Kai-Shek his son, Chiang Ching-Kuo takes over.

During the year 1960-1970s UN considered Taiwan as mainland China, After several members protest over the fact that mainland China is very vast and a government that is situated on small island cant represent the people of whole mainland China, the UN ultimately switched its decision in 1971 and started considering Communist government of mainland China as the original China with its official name as The Peoples Republic of China with its capital at Beijing.

White Terror

The years 1947 to 1987 are very important in the context of both China and Taiwan, China under the rule of the Communist party, and Taiwan under the rule of the KMT party both are responsible for the origination of the term ‘White Terror’. But what does it means?? It means Silencing every voice against the ruling government. Whoever raise his/her voice against the government was either arrested or eliminated.

Democracy and Taiwan

After the death of Chiang Ching-Kuo (Son of Chiang Kai-Shek), Taiwan comes under the rule of leader Lee Teng-Hui, who is considered as ‘Father of Democracy ’in Taiwan. It is because of Lees’ efforts first general election was held in the year 2000 and the first Non-KMT leader Cheng Shui-Bian becomes the president of Taiwan. 

In the 2016s general election, leader of the Democratic Progressive Party won and TsaiI Ing-wen becomes the first female president of Taiwan. Tsai was re-elected in the 2020s general election. During these years Taiwan’s democracy flourished and is now ranked as 3rd best democracy in Asia and 32nd in the world.

Present Situation

At present Taiwan’s situation is very confusing in the context of the world. Only 15 nations recognize Taiwan as an independent country. China offered significant autonomy to Taiwan if it comes under China’s rule which was rejected by Taiwan. Although Taiwan holds all the characteristics of an independent country, still legal status of Taiwan is very unclear. With a very distinct political system from China, having a separate written constitution, leaders who are elected by a democratic process, having 3,00,000 active army forces and nearly 12,00,000 reserved forces, Taiwan is still struggling to find its recognition on the world map.