History of Taiwan
Taiwan‘s first inhabitants have left no written records of their origins. Anthropological evidence suggests that Taiwan’s indigenous people were proto-Malayans. Their vocabulary and grammar belong to the Malayan-Polynesian family of Indonesia, and they once shared many Indonesian customs such as tattooing, using identical names for father and son, gerontocracy, head-hunting, spirit worship, and indoor burials. Over 500 prehistoric sites in Taiwan, including many dwelling areas, tombs, shell mounds, and megaliths, have provided more, and sometimes seemingly contradictory, clues to origins of Taiwan’s aborigines. The majority of the prehistoric artifacts unearthed so far (e.g., flat axes, red unglazed pottery, decorated bronze implements, megalithic structures, and glass beads) indicate an Indonesian connection.
Other items (e.g., painted red pottery, red glazed pottery, chipped stone knives, black pottery, pottery tripods, stone halberds, bone arrowheads), however, would suggest that Taiwan’s earliest settlers might have come from the Chinese mainland. Other questions remain unanswered. Were the prehistoric remains left by the ancestors of the modern aborigines in Taiwan? The question is a complex one, but many anthropologists have suggested that the prehistoric cultural remains discovered so far have no proven connection to the present indigenous cultures in Taiwan.
What is known for certain is that large groups of indigenous peoples plus many people from the Chinese mainland were already living in Taiwan when the Europeans first arrived off the coast of Taiwan in 1590.
Buffeted by Colonial Winds
When Portuguese navigators came upon the island of Taiwan, they were struck by the tremendous beauty of its green mountains rising steeply out of the cobalt waters of the Pacific. The Portuguese navigator named the island Ylhas Formosa, or beautiful island, and under this name Taiwan was introduced to the Western world. Portuguese interest in the island was only moderate, however, since they left soon after establishing a settlement in the north.
The next Europeans to occupy Taiwan were the Dutch. The Dutch East India Company established a military base on the Pescadore Islands in 1622. The next year they were forced out of the Pescadores by the Chinese and moved to Taiwan. At the end of 1624, the Dutch landed on the southwestern coast of Taiwan and started building Fort Zeelandia and the town of Anping. In 1630, a number of Dutch merchants, technicians, and missionaries, as well as sailors, soldiers, and officials, settled on Taiwan to trade, develop virgin land, plant sugar cane, produce camphor, tax the Chinese immigrants already living on the island, and convert the natives to Christianity.
The news of the Dutch success in Taiwan so alarmed the Spaniards in the Philippines that they hurried to send a fleet from Manila to the northern part of Taiwan, which in 1626 was still not occupied by the Dutch. The Spaniards soon took control of the northeastern cape of the island, naming it Santiago. Before long, however, they gave up this location and moved to a more desirable area, which they named Santisima Trinidad and which is known now as Keelung harbor. In Keelung they built a fort and named it Fort San Salvador. In the summer of 1629, the Spaniards entered what is now Tamsui. They named this place Castillo, and built Fort San Domingo. In Castillo, the Spaniards set up a government, appointed civil officials, and prepared to occupy the colony permanently.
The Dutch in southern Taiwan made many attempts to drive the Spaniards out of the north. In 1630 and 1641, the Dutch attacked Castillo and Fort San Domingo, but their efforts were in vain. Finally, in the summer of 1642, when the Spaniards, threatened by a native rebellion in the Philippines, were forced to recall three-quarters of their troops from Taiwan, the Dutch landed at Castillo and conquered it.
Dutch Rule
In 1650, the Dutch moved the capital of their colony on Taiwan from Fort Zeelandia to the newly completed Fort Provintia (some sources say Providentia). Although this fort ultimately became known in Chinese as , it seems to have been called a number of different names in the 17th century, including “edifice of the red-haired barbarians” , signifying the presence of the Dutch. On the southwestern coast, where the city of Tainan is now located, the new fort accommodated as many as 600 Dutch officials and other civilians as well as a garrison of 2,200. This settlement continued to be the main base of colonization throughout the Dutch period.
After 1642, the Dutch, freed from all European competitors, began to strengthen their hold on Taiwan through the Dutch East India Company. The governor was appointed by the company and for 38 years the company used the island as a trading center. The Dutch government gave the company full power to tax the aborigines and Chinese on Taiwan. The few Dutch civilians on the island were greatly outnumbered by the aborigines and Chinese who had immigrated there prior to the arrival of the Europeans.
The company divided the indigenous people’s territory into seven districts, each of which was governed by an aborigine elder chosen by his own people. The company established an advisory council made up of the elders, to whom they gave badges of honor, and through which company orders were carried out. In 1650 nearly 300 Chinese villages were under the direct jurisdiction of the Dutch East India Company. The Dutch organized the Chinese immigrant tenant farmers into farm groups. As many as 50 tenant farming households were placed under one head and every 30 or 40 heads elected a captain, who was responsible to the governor for keeping local peace and order. This arrangement proved very efficient for agricultural production, and the area of land under cultivation continued to increase.
Foreign Trade
Recent plans announced by the ROC government to develop Taiwan into an Asia-Pacific Regional Operations Center are, in a way, returning to a recognition of the fundamental advantages of Taiwan’s pivotal geographical position for regional trade first apparent as long ago as the period of Dutch rule. Under the Dutch administration, Taiwan in the early 17th century became a trading and transshipment center for goods between a number of areas, such as Japan, China, and Batavia, as well as Holland. Taiwan’s exports to China included rice, sugar, rattan, deer hides, deer horns, and medicine. The island’s imports from China included raw silk and silk textiles, porcelain, and medicine. Some of the products after reaching Taiwan were again shipped either to Japan or to Batavia, or even to Holland. Imports to Taiwan from Batavia included spices, amber, tin, lead, cotton, and opium, some of which were later traded to China. Before the Dutch arrived on the island, the Chinese on Taiwan had enjoyed free trade with the Japanese without taxation. The Dutch subsequently established a tax on exports, at that time mainly on deer hides and sugar. The annual deer hides export amounted to 50,000 pieces and the sugar export to 5,000 tons.
Taiwan, even then a bustling area, proved to be one of the most profitable branches of the Dutch East India Company in the Far East. In a typical year, 1649 for example, the Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) and Siam branches were not profitable at all, while those in Japan and Taiwan did very well. The company’s most profitable branch was in Japan, which accounted for 39 percent of all corporate profits worldwide, with the Taiwan branch second, at 26 percent. Actually the profit made in Japan derived mainly from goods that the Dutch carried from China to Japan via Taiwan, clearly underscoring the importance of Taiwan’s position in the Dutch East India Company.
Frontier Missionaries in Taiwan
The Dutch were interested in Taiwan not only as a colony or commercial enterprise, but also as a field for missionary work. Protestant missionaries endeavored to convert the aborigines, and established schools where the Dutch language and religion were taught. By 1650 the Dutch had converted 5,900 inhabitants on the island.
The first Dutch missionary, the Reverend Georgius Candidius, who went to Taiwan in 1627, wrote a work entitled Short Account of the Island of Formosa, describing the manners, customs, and religion of the inhabitants. This account was published in 1627 in Germany. In the first 16 months of his stay, Candidius instructed 120 natives in the Christian religion. So inspiring were his teachings that the other Dutch missionaries and the aboriginal converts gave his name to what is now Sun Moon Lake. Some maps in Western countries still call it Lake Candidius.
Another missionary, the Rev. Robertus Junius, spent 13 years, from 1629 to 1641, on the island and converted several thousand aborigines. In 1636 he founded the first Western style school in Taiwan.
Chinese Immigration
Chinese settlement in Taiwan dates back as far as the 12th century a.d., but large-scale immigration did not begin until the 17th century during the period of Dutch administration. While the Dutch were colonizing Taiwan, China was going through a period of strife. In 1644 the country was invaded by the Manchus, who overthrew the Ming dynasty in the north. The struggle continued for many years in the south, affecting many people, while Japanese pirates constantly ravaged Chinese coastal towns. Consequently, thousands of people, especially from the coastal provinces of Fujian and Kwangtung, began to migrate across the Taiwan Straits to Taiwan. They found the soil of Taiwan much richer than that of the mainland, and crops grew twice as abundantly. During the twenty years from 1624 to 1644, more than 25,000 Chinese households – some 100,000 people – immigrated to Taiwan.
The Dutch and Chinese Conflict
This mass migration to Taiwan changed the character of the island. At first the Dutch welcomed the new settlers warmly. Since most of the land in Taiwan was still covered with heavy growth and jungles and sparsely populated by aborigines who still practiced primitive farming methods. Recognizing the urgent need for industrious farmers, the Dutch employed the Chinese immigrants, providing them with oxen, seeds, and agricultural implements. Every new settler was promised an annual subsidy of cash and an ox. In the hands of the Chinese toilers, the farms of the island flourished. Thus, the Dutch profited tremendously from collecting heavy rents from the Chinese tenants.
However, the roots of the Chinese go deep into the earth. Agriculture has always been their essential means of life. To own a piece of land has always been the hope and ambition of the Chinese farmer. However, the Dutch did not allow farmers to own any real estate. All the land belonged to the Dutch East India Company. The Chinese settlers petitioned to be allowed to buy and own the land they were tilling so that they could pay taxes on it instead of rent, but the Dutch ignored these pleas. In addition, Chinese peasants were frequently mistreated by the Dutch.
The friction mounted when the Dutch decided to collect a poll tax for every Chinese over the age of six. In September 1652, frustrated Chinese farmers, led by Kuo Huai-yi , revolted against the Dutch. Although the rebellions were violently suppressed by the Dutch, who slaughtered nearly 6,000 poorly armed Chinese peasants, Dutch rule soon came to an end.
Cheng Cheng-kung
As Manchu troops poured into northern China, many Ming loyalists escaped southwards, where they resisted the foreign invasion for over 20 years. One of these celebrated resistance fighters was Cheng Cheng-kung (also known as Koxinga ), son of the pirate Cheng Chih-lung and his Japanese mistress. Cheng Cheng-kung sailed with his troops to Quemoy in 1661 in hopes of returning to the mainland one day to restore the Ming dynasty. Though he never realized this dream (dying at the early age of 38), he did succeed in opening up Taiwan to greater numbers of Chinese settlers. A local guide for the Dutch, Ho Pin , provided Cheng Cheng-kung with a coastal map of Taiwan marking the ports and roads of the Dutch. Cheng Cheng-kung claimed Taiwan from the Dutch in 1662 and chose Anping (present-day Tainan) as his capital. Dutch control over parts of Taiwan had lasted for only 38 years.
An Anti-Manchu Base
Cheng Cheng-kung, with the assistance of a capable advisor, Chen Yung-hua, set up schools for the young, introduced Chinese laws and customs and transplanted Chinese traditions to the island. He also built the first Confucian temple in Taiwan to symbolize the introduction of Chinese culture to the island.
Cheng drilled his soldiers intensively for a planned attack on the mainland and had strong fortifications erected on the islands off the Fujian coast to bar the Manchus from crossing the straits to Taiwan. The Manchu rulers feared him so much that they forced people living within 15 kilometers of the mainland coast to move further inland lest Cheng received supplies and other assistance from them. As a result, many civilians fled to Taiwan to join Cheng’s forces. During his rule, an unending stream of Chinese continued to pour into Taiwan and settlements sprang up in increasing numbers along the Western coast.
During the 23 years of the Cheng family’s rule, agriculture was limited to southern Taiwan. There were three kinds of farms: official farms, semi-official farms, and military farms. The official farms were constituted from land confiscated from the Dutch. The semi-official farms were owned by Cheng’s military or civilian officials and other loyal supporters. The owners paid the taxes and the farming was done by tenants. Cheng Cheng-kung also designed a military camp farming system under which soldiers participated in farm work during their spare time in order to support themselves. Such military farms were established in about 40 locations.
Industry on Taiwan at the time consisted of refining sugar and manufacturing tiles. The efficiency of salt production improved by replacing the older boiling method with solar evaporation. Shipbuilding also began at this time.
Brisk trade was carried on with neighboring areas, such as the Philippines, Japan, and Okinawa. Cheng’s efficient administration laid a solid foundation for Taiwan’s economy, so Cheng began to consider territorial expansion. He sent a Spanish Dominican friar, Riccio, to the Philippines demanding that the Spanish government pay him a yearly tribute. But Riccio’s mission was a total failure, and many Chinese living in the Philippine capital were killed. Cheng then set about organizing an expedition to take the Philippines. At that time, however, he succumbed to a serious illness and died in 1662 at only 38 years of age.
Defeat by the Qing
Cheng’s son, Cheng Ching , succeeded his father as ruler for the next twenty years until his death. His son, aged only 12, was placed on the throne. The next year, 1683, the Manchu court sent Shih Lang, a general under Cheng Cheng-kung who had defected to the Manchu Emperor, to attack Taiwan. Cheng’s navy was defeated near the Pescadore Islands and the Cheng family unconditionally surrendered to the Qing dynasty. Thus, after just over two decades of governance by Cheng’s family, Taiwan was brought under Qing rule and became a part of China’s Fujian Province.
Despite the decisive Manchu victory in Taiwan, the resistance of the Chinese people against the “foreign” rulers continued underground. Secret societies were organized both on the island and in the mainland. The Hong Men Society established by Chen Yung-hua was most famous and active, attracting hundreds of thousands of Ming loyalists under its flag. It instigated innumerable uprisings, first in Taiwan and then in the southeast coast of the mainland, during the following 200 years of the Qing dynasty rule in China. No wonder Manchu officials claimed that Taiwan was an unstable place, subject to “a putsch every three years, and a general uprising every five years” .
Qing Dynasty Rule
After the Manchus took over Taiwan in 1683, many officials advocated the immediate abandonment of the island because of its wildness and remoteness. However, the Qing court finally adopted Shih Lang’s suggestion to retain its rule over Taiwan and established the counties of Tainan, Fengshan, and Chulo (present-day Tainan, Kaohsiung, and Chiayi).
Agriculture
During the Qing dynasty, farming in Taiwan expanded northward. The official, semi-official, and military farm system was abolished, leaving only private farms. More and more Chinese left the mainland to settle on the island. Camphor, a major cash crop, became a cause of conflict between the new arrivals and the aborigines. Bamboo was planted widely; rice and tea, typical Chinese crops, were planted for the first time in Taiwan.
Taiwan‘s camphor comes from a beautiful tree with a shapely trunk and widespread branches. Exploiting this island resource brought with it conflicts between aborigines and Chinese, for the aborigines lived in the mountain forests where the trees were found. Since the Chinese method of collecting camphor required destroying the trees, the camphor workers had to go further and further inland, where they often encountered hostility from the natives. Despite the ensuing bloody conflicts, the Chinese were willing to risk their lives for the lucrative profits generated by the camphor trade. As a result, the aborigines were forced to retreat deeper into the mountains.
According to a report submitted by Huang Shu-ching, an imperial censor who inspected Taiwan, the island produced more rice than it needed and sold the excess to the mainland. During the reign of the Tao Kuang Emperor (1821-50), more than 140,000 piculs of rice were transferred to Tientsin annually. Sugar production was second to rice in its importance as a commercial crop. It had been exported to Japan and Persia since the 1630s and sugar refineries were established in the early 18th century. Tea was the third most important commercial product. During the reign of the Tao Kuang Emperor, Taiwan tea was sold to the mainland, and Taiwan camphor was sold to international manufacturers of celluloid.
The Japanese, as well as other foreign powers, deeply coveted in Taiwan’s wealth. During the Opium War, British warships patrolled the Taiwan coast to check for any moves by Qing forces stationed on the island in 1854. Commodore Matthew Perry, commander of the US East Indian Fleet, sent warships to Keelung to measure water depth and mineral reserves. Four years later, Prussian ships fired on indigenous people in southern Taiwan. After the conclusion of the Treaty of T’ientsin in 1858, four Taiwanese ports, Anping, Tamsui, Takou (modern day Kaohsiung) and Keelung, were opened to foreign trade. In 1866, American warships bombarded aborigines in southern Taiwan to revenge upon their slaughter of two shipwrecked American sailors. In 1869, British warships attacked Anping and demanded better terms for the camphor trade. In 1874, Japan’s Meiji government sent troops to attack aborigines in Mutan She to force the Qing court into dropping its opposition to the Japanese annexation of Okinawa. In 1884, France attacked and shut down Keelung, Tamsui, and the Pescadores to curb Qing power. All this made the Manchu court realize Taiwan’s importance as a gateway to the seven provinces along the southeastern coast. Capable Qing officials such as Shen Pao-chen and Liu Ming-ch’uan were appointed to develop Taiwan’s infrastructure and strengthen its defenses.
Shen Pao-chen, the administrator of shipping affairs, was put in charge of Taiwan’s defense in 1874. Shen recommended lifting the ban on immigration from the mainland, exploring Taiwan’s eastern coast, and developing the island’s northern area. He worked to educate the indigenous peoples, organized local militias, constructed cannon emplacements along the coast, and petitioned for a full-time governor to be solely responsible for Taiwan instead of placing the island under the jurisdiction of the governor of Fujian Province. The exploitation of coal in Keelung began under his administration and foreign specialists were employed to prospect for coal in 1868. Surveys of the island’s crude oil and sulphur resources were also made. Aware of the need for better communications, Shen Pao-chen also recommended the construction of telegraph lines linking the central and southern parts of Taiwan, as well as connecting Taiwan with Fujian Province across the Taiwan Straits.
Ting Jih-ch’ang was another important figure in Taiwan’s development. Arriving in Taiwan in early 1876, Ting oversaw the construction of railroad and telegraph lines, and during his term in office, some 47 kilometers of telegraph cable were installed in southern Taiwan. Due to budget limitations and other restrictions, however, he never realized his dream of constructing a railroad on the island. After Ting was transferred, Wu Tsan-ch’eng and Ts’en Yu-ying were successively appointed to be responsible for Taiwan’s defense. Again, budget and priority considerations of the central government restrained their programs to develop a modern infrastructure on Taiwan.
Short-lived Provincial Status
In 1885, the Qing dynasty made Taiwan its 22nd province. The following year, Liu Ming-ch’uan was appointed the first governor of Taiwan. Liu modernized Taiwan’s defenses against foreign aggression, implemented tax reforms to make Taiwan financially independent, and educated its indigenous peoples. Under Liu’s rule, Taiwan was divided into three prefectures, one autonomous prefecture, three offices, and 11 counties. Telegraph lines linking Taipei, Keelung, Tamsui, and Tainan, as well as submarine lines between Tamsui and Fuzhou in Fujian Province and between Anping and the Pescadores, were completed in 1888. A post office was set up in the same year, nine years before China formally established its own postal system. A land survey was completed in 1889, and a railroad connecting Keelung and Hsinchu was completed in 1893. An irrigation system was planned to increase agricultural production. A general trade office was established to encourage foreign trade, and Western-style schools were set up.
When Taiwan was ceded to Japan in 1895 under the terms of the Treaty of Shimonoseki, Manchu officials stationed in Taiwan, such as Tang Ching-sung and Liu Yung-fu, and local notables, such as Chiu Feng-chia, declared independence on May 25, 1895, and formed the Democratic Taiwan Nation to resist the Japanese take-over. Armed resistance took place mainly in northern Taiwan until June 6 when Japanese troops formally entered Taipei. Once Taipei fell, the Taiwan nationalists shifted their base to Tainan under the command of General Liu Yung-fu, but their efforts were to no avail. On October 21, Japanese troops entered Tainan, and organized resistance against Japanese occupation of Taiwan ceased for the time being. A total of 7,000 Chinese soldiers were killed in the conflict and civilian casualties numbered in the thousands.
Japanese Rule of Taiwan
Unlike the Dutch, who in the 17th century colonized Taiwan more for immediate commercial gains than for establishing political sovereignty, the Japanese at the start of the 20th century gave priority to establishing effective political control over the island. Thus, the Japanese policeman, rather than the Protestant missionary of Dutch times, became the most important tool in the exercise of colonial aims.
During its 50-year rule of Taiwan, Japan developed programs designed to supply the Japanese empire with agricultural products, create demand for Japanese industrial products, and provide living space for emigrants from an increasingly overpopulated home country. In other words, Japan was intent on building an industrial homeland and an agricultural Taiwan.
The period of Japanese colonization can be roughly divided into three stages. The first, from 1895 to 1918, involved establishing administrative mechanisms and militarily suppressing armed resistance by local Chinese. During this stage, the Japanese introduced strict police controls, carried out a thorough land survey, standardized measurements and currencies, monopolized the manufacture and sale of important products, began collecting census data, and made an ethnological study of the island’s indigenous peoples.
During the second stage, from 1918 to 1937, Japan consolidated its hold over Taiwan. Compulsory Japanese education and cultural assimilation were the focus of this stage, while economic development was promoted to transform the island into a secure stepping stone from which Japan could launch its southward aggression.
The third stage, from 1937 to 1945, entailed the naturalization of Taiwan residents as Japanese. The Chinese on Taiwan were forced to adopt Japanese names, wear Japanese-style clothing, eat Japanese food, and observe Japanese religious rites. Also during this stage, Japanese developed Taiwan into an area of heavy industry and foreign trade.
Modernization of Infrastructure
Recognizing the importance of transportation to Taiwan’s economy and the Empire’s expansion in Southeast Asia, the Japanese soon set out to increase Taiwan’s transportation facilities by developing steamship lines, improving harbors, and building railroads and highways. Modernizing the island’s 17 harbors, the largest of which were in Keelung, Kaohsiung, and Hualien, involved installing new piers and other facilities, and dredging shallow harbors.
The Japanese government rebuilt the old railroad connecting Keelung and Hsinchu to eliminate its numerous hairpin curves and steep gradients. They then built a new line within ten years (1898-1908), 250 miles long, linking Keelung on the northern coast with Kaohsiung on the southwestern tip and passing through a number of other major cities. At the same time, many Japanese sugar manufacturers built private lines for both general traffic and transporting sugar cane. By the end of Japanese rule, the private and government lines totaled 2,857 miles in length. The mountain railroad on Mt. Ali was a brilliant Japanese engineering feat, taking 12 years to accomplish. With this line the Japanese began to conquer the steep slopes of Taiwan’s mountainous center and to tap its abundant timber resources. The railroad, 45 miles long and only 30 inches wide, still functions to this very day as a major tourist attraction.
The first highway was completed in 1913, and thereafter highway building proceeded rapidly. At the end of the Japanese period, Taiwan had about 2,500 miles of highways.
Chianan Irrigation System
Irrigation was the key to further developing Taiwan’s agriculture, which had been plagued by uneven rainfall. The Japanese provided that key when they learned to use cement for building dams. The Japanese started to build the great Chianan Irrigation System in 1920, and completed it in 1930. This irrigation system conducts the water of the Tsengwen River through a 10,168-foot-long aqueduct into the artificial Coral Reservoir. The reservoir is formed by a dam that is 4,260 feet long and 1,284 feet high. With a depth of 525 feet, it is one of the largest reservoirs in the Far East. The Chianan Irrigation System converted 68,050 acres of poor land on the west coast of Taiwan, which constitutes about 60 percent of the total plain area, into the most fertile farmland of the island. After the system went into operation, arable land for growing rice increased by more than 74 percent and sugar cane by 30 percent.
During Japanese rule, Taiwan’s agricultural production was vitally important, for Japan imported from Taiwan about 60 percent of the rice and nearly 90 percent of the sugar the Empire needed. To increase rice production, the Japanese introduced Japanica rice into Taiwan in 1922. This round-grain type of rice produced a higher yield than the original long-grain type of Taiwan Indica rice. As a result, the yield per acre increased by one-third, and total rice production doubled.
Intensification of Agriculture
The great increase in the production of sugar cane is also considered to be one of the most spectacular achievements of the Japanese occupation of Taiwan. From as early as 1896, the Japanese imported various cane cuttings and seedlings of improved sugar varieties from Java, Cuba, Louisiana, and Australia, as well as from Hawaii. Lahaina and Rose Bamboo, the varieties obtained from Hawaii, were found best suited to the local climate and soil, yielding two or three times as much as the indigenous varieties. A special sugar bureau was established in 1902. Over a period of 30 years (1905-1935) the area planted in sugar cane increased 500 percent, and total production skyrocketed. In 1939, Japanese-controlled Taiwan was the seventh largest producer of sugar in the world, ranking only after Cuba, India, the USSR, Germany, the United States, and Java.
Banana and pineapple production also attained record highs during the Japanese occupation. The banana tree is indigenous to Taiwan, but only after Japanese rule began did bananas become an important export item. Pineapple cultivation began to expand after canning techniques were introduced in 1923.
Industrial Development
The Japanese policy of “an agricultural Taiwan and an industrial Japan” did not call for developing Taiwan’s industry to a high degree. However, industrial production began to increase after 1907, when sugar refining advanced noticeably. By 1939, industrial output had pulled slightly ahead of agricultural production. Nonetheless, the factories then were rather small in general; 95 percent had fewer than 30 workers each. Not until World War II, when military necessities forced the Japanese to develop aluminum, chemical, oil-refining, metal, shipbuilding, and other strategic industries, did Taiwan’s industrial sector reach a high level of output. Many large-scale state-run factories still operating today in Taiwan were constructed by the Japanese.
Hydroelectric Power
Long before World War II began, the Japanese realized that the key to the island’s industrial development was cheap hydroelectric power. Heavy rainfall and swift mountain streams on the island permitted the establishment of large hydroelectric plants. A project to utilize Sun Moon Lake and the Choshui River to generate power was worked out in 1931 and completed in 1937. The Sun Moon Lake power plant stands out as one of the greatest achievements of the Japanese period in Taiwan. In terms of impact and scope, it can be considered the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) of the Far East. Through this power project, it was possible for the island to support aluminum, chemical, and steel alloy plants.
Enforced Economic Dependence
In order to exercise effective political control over Taiwan and make it a supplier of raw materials as well as a market for Japanese goods, Japan imposed a high tariff system on Taiwan’s trade with other countries, especially with the Chinese mainland. Thus, 90 percent of Taiwan’s foreign trade was with Japan. Of course, exports from Taiwan to Japan were mostly agricultural products, while manufactured goods were imported from Japan to Taiwan. If a trade involved the same kind of goods, the better-quality goods went from Taiwan to Japan, while the inferior-quality ones were imported from Japan to Taiwan. The Japanese monopolized camphor, opium, tobacco and alcoholic beverages, ultimately setting up a customs system that diverted all foreign trade from the island to Japan.
Resistance Against Japanese Rule
Despite the Japanese success in transforming Taiwan into a society that, economically, was rather modern in comparison with its neighbors, resistance against alien rule never ceased on the island. The Japanese colonial rulers issued numerous edicts to check Chinese resistance. The Bandit Penalties and Punishments Decree was the most infamous of these. According to Japanese records, more than 10,000 “bandits” were executed between 1898 and 1920. Lo Fu-hsing, leader of the Miaoli Incident (1913), who had participated in Dr. Sun’s overthrow of the Qing dynasty, and Yu Qing-fang, leader of the Tapani Incident (1915) – the largest-ever revolt organized by Taiwan residents, were all executed in accordance with the decree.
The Tapani Incident, in which more than 10,000 local Taiwanese lost their lives, marked a turning point in Taiwan’s resistance against Japanese rule. After the revolt was finally put down, armed resistance was replaced by political movements that focused on building a national consciousness. To proselytize the cause of Taiwanese nationalism, overseas Taiwanese students established the Shengying Society , the Ch’ifa Society, and the Hsinmin Society between 1919 and 1920 and petitioned for legal and political reforms by the Japanese rulers in Taiwan. On the island itself, such associations as the Society for Promoting the Establishment of a Taiwan Council, the New Taiwan Alliance, the Taiwan Culture Association, the Taiwan Civilian Party, and the Local Self-governance Federation were established. Many of these groups published their own magazines and newspapers and were active until the surrender of Japan at the end of World War II.
