Military history of Taiwan

The era of European colonization ended when a Ming general named Koxinga (Zheng Chenggong) retreated to Taiwan as a result of the Ming-Qing War and ousted the Dutch in 1661.

Lin Daoqian was a Hakka pirate from Chaozhou who was chased out of Fujian in 1563 by Ming naval forces led by Yu Dayou and fled to Beigang in southwestern Taiwan.

Lin Feng moved his pirate forces to Wankan (in modern Chiayi County) in Taiwan on 3 November 1574 and used it as a base to launch raids.

[16] In 1616, the Tokugawa shogunate sent a fleet of 13 ships and 4,000 warriors in an attempt to conquer Taiwan as part of a larger campaign to strengthen Japanese sea power and facilitate its silk trade.

[20][21] Defeated by the Portuguese at the Battle of Macau in 1622, the Dutch East India Company attempted to take Penghu in 1624, building Fengguiwei Fort in Magong.

Dutch forces were driven out by Ming authorities and retreated to a sandy peninsula of Tayuan (present-day Anping District) and built a defensive fort to act as a base of operations.

According to historian Jose Eugenio Borao Mateo, the Spanish colonists did not ask for tribute from the aboriginal inhabitants, "because in practice they did not consider the natives as vassals, but as heathens to be converted, neighbors and service suppliers.

When Beijing fell in 1644 to rebels, Chenggong and his followers declared their loyalty to the Ming dynasty and he was bestowed the title Guoxingye (Lord of the Imperial surname).

In 1663, the writer Xia Lin who lived in Xiamen testified that the Zhengs were short on supplies and the people suffered tremendous hardship due to the Qing sea ban (haijin) policy.

[48] Due to the sea ban policy, which saw the relocation of all southern coastal towns and ports that had been subject to Zheng raids, migration occurred from these areas to Taiwan.

[49] From June to August 1663, Duke Huang Wu of Haicheng and commander Shi Lang of Tongan urged the Qing court to take Xiamen, and made plans for an attack in October.

[78] Despite the Tiandihui's ostensibly anti-Qing stance, its members were generally anti-government and were not motivated by ethnic or national interest, resulting in social discord and political chaos.

William Huttman wrote to Lord Palmerston pointing out "China’s benign rule over Taiwan and the strategic and commercial importance of the island.

In October 1841, HMS Nimrod sailed to Keelung to search for the Nerbudda survivors, but after Captain Joseph Pearse found out that they were sent south for imprisonment, he ordered the bombardment of the harbour and destroyed 27 sets of cannons before returning to Hong Kong.

The brig Ann also shipwrecked in March 1842 and another 54 survivors were taken.The Taiwan Qing commanders, Dahonga and Yao Ying, filed a disingenuous report to the emperor, claiming to have defended against an attack from the Keelung fort.

The American Asiatic Fleet's Admiral Bell also landed at the Bi Mountains where they got lost, suffered heatstroke, and then was ambushed by the aborigines, losing an officer.

The aboriginal chief, Tanketok (Toketok), explained that a long time ago the white men came and almost exterminated the Koaluts tribe and their ancestors passed down their desire for revenge.

Le Gendre castigated China as a semi-civilized power for not fulfilling the obligation of the law of nations, which is to seize the territory of a "wild race" and to confer upon it the benefits of civilization.

[110] After the Sino-French War, efforts to settle in aboriginal territories were renewed under the governance of Liu Mingchuan, the Fujian governor and Taiwan defense commissioner.

[114][115] As part of the settlement for losing the Sino-Japanese War, the Qing dynasty ceded the islands of Taiwan and Penghu to Japan on April 17, 1895, according to the terms of the Treaty of Shimonoseki.

[116] Support for resistance was partly class-based and many of the wealthy Han people in Taiwan preferred the order of colonial rule to the lawlessness of insurrection.

[131] Major armed resistance was largely crushed by 1902 but minor rebellions started occurring again in 1907, such as the Beipu uprising by Hakka and Saisiyat people in 1907, Luo Fuxing in 1913 and the Tapani Incident of 1915.

Raho Ari's revolt, called the Taifun Incident was sparked when the Japanese implemented a gun control policy in 1914 against the indigenous peoples in which their rifles were impounded in police stations when hunting expeditions were over.

A settlement holding 266 people called Tamaho was created by Raho Ari and his followers near the source of the Rōnō River and attracted more Bunun rebels to their cause.

[161] In one account, a man named Chen Chunqing said he was motivated by his desire to fight the British and Americans but became disillusioned after being sent to China and tried to defect, although the effort was fruitless.

Many of them faced difficulties in mainland China, Taiwan, and Japan due to anti-rightist and anti-communist campaigns in addition to accusations of taking part in the February 28 incident.

The 2 million yen per claim, a minute fraction of that paid to Japanese soldiers, amounted to very little of the unpaid military salary as a result of inflation according to the organization's calculations.

As part of the Treaty of San Francisco signed in 1951, “Japan renounces all right, title and claim to Formosa and the Pescadores.” Though the legal status of Taiwan remained undetermined, the treaty's travaux préparatoires showed a consensus among the states present at the San Francisco Peace Conference that this status would be resolved at a later time in accordance with the principles of peaceful settlement of disputes and self-determination.

[169] When the United States Congress enacted the Foreign Relations Authorization Act for FY 2003 on 30 September 2002, it required that Taiwan be "treated as though it were designated a major non-NATO ally."

[172] Private organizations like Kuma Academy and Forward Alliance provide civil defense and disaster response training to civilians in Taiwan.