An isolated island in the sea, Taiwan became the target of colonists since
the mid-16th century. The patriotic Taiwan people have waged many prolonged
struggles against foreign aggressors to defend the territory and national
dignity of the Chinese. Their battles with the Dutch and the Japanese invaders
were the most heroic.
Sweeping Out the Dutch. Early in the 17th century, the Netherlands broke
through the hegemony of Spain and Portugal and began colonization in the East.
It invaded Penghu twice, first in 1603, later in 1622. In 1624, the army of the
Ming court drove the Dutch out of Penghu. The Dutch general was captured and the
rest of his army withdrew to Dayuan (today's Anping District of Tainan City) in
southern Taiwan. Two years later, Spanish invaders occupied Jilong, Danshui and
the area around. The Dutch took Spain's position in Northern Taiwan in 1642 and
turned the whole of Taiwan into its colony.
Taiwan struggled against Dutch colonialism for 38 years. Finally, in April
1661, General Zheng Chenggong left for Taiwan from the island of Jinmen with an
army of 25,000 sailors and hundreds of gunboats. With the support and
co-operation of the Taiwan people, the court army swept the Dutch invaders out
of Taiwan in February 1662. In his letter to the Dutch governor appealing to the
latter to surrender, Zheng Chenggong wrote: "Taiwan is China's territory and has
been under Chinese jurisdiction for a long time. I have come to take it and the
place is now mine."
Zheng Chenggong and his son Zheng Jing and grandson Zheng Keshuang then ruled
Taiwan for the following 22 years. During this period, known as "The era of Ming
Zheng," Taiwan's economy and culture developed rapidly. In 1683 when the Qing
army entered Taiwan, Zheng Keshuang pledged allegiance to the Qing court and
thus placed Taiwan under the control of China's central government once again.
Fighting the Japanese. In 1894, the Japanese imperialists launched an
aggressive war against China. China lost the war and the Qing government signed
the Treaty of Shimonoseki with Japan in April 1895 under which China ceded
Taiwan and the Penghu islands to Japan. Taiwan became a colony of Japan, and
then for over half a century the people of Taiwan struggled for their liberation
and reunification with the motherland.
When the news that it had been ceded to Japan reached Taiwan in the spring of
1895, people surrounded the governor's office to express their anger.
Shopkeepers in Taibei went on strike. Taiwan scholars who were attending the
national examinations for government officials in Beijing submitted a joint
letter to the Qing court, declaring the Japanese invaders were their enemies and
refusing to surrender to them, they would rather fight until the last man had
died on the battlefield. Local nobility also telegraphed the Qing court,
expressing their willingness to defend Taiwan.
Japan occupied Taiwan in May 1895 with a large military force. The Taiwan
people immediately took up arms and organized a people's anti-Japanese army,
which persisted in armed struggle for seven years.
Beginning in 1907, under the influence of the bourgeois revolution that was
in the offing on the mainland, the people of Taiwan staged a succession of armed
uprisings to protest against Japanese colonial rule. There were the Beipu
Uprising in Xinzhu County in 1907, the Linyipu Uprising in Nantou County in
1912, the 1913 uprising in Miaoli County and the 1915 Xilaian Uprising in Tainan
County.
Around the year 1919, the tide of the national democratic movement on the
mainland hit Taiwan. Progressive organizations and societies emerged everywhere
to arouse the people to fight against Japanese oppression. Their slogans were:
"Oppose the aggressive war of imperialism!" "Down with the Japanese
imperialists!" "Recover Taiwan!"
After the Anti-Japanese War broke out in 1937, the Japanese invaders
strengthened their fascist rule by placing Taiwan under a "war system"-the
Chinese language was forbidden and a process of assimilation forced on the
Taiwan people. Those who revolted were mercilessly suppressed. But the Taiwan
people never submitted to the invaders. Numerous protests and uprisings took
place, including a miners' strike in Yilan County, an uprising against the war
in Gaoxiong, Liujia and other places, the revolt of draftees in Taibei, Jilong
and Gaoxiong, and activities secretly organized by students of the Taibei
University against the Japanese. Many returned to the mainland to take part in
the Anti Japanese War.
