Taiwan under Dutch rule

Dutch traders, in search of an Asian base first claimed the island in 1624 as a base for Dutch commerce with Japan and the Chinese coast. Two years later, the Spanish established a settlement at Santissima Trinidad building Fort Santo Domingo on the northwest coast of Taiwan near Keelung, which they occupied until 1642 when they were driven out by the Dutch. The Dutch East India Company (VOC) administered the island and its predominantly aboriginal population until 1662, setting up a tax system, schools to teach romanized script of aboriginal languages, the Sinckan writing, and also evangelizing. Although its control was mainly limited to the southwest and north of the island, the Dutch systems were adopted by succeeding occupiers. The first influx of migrants from China came during the Dutch period, in which merchants and traders from China sought to purchase hunting licenses from the Dutch or hide out in aboriginal villages to escape the authorities in China. Most of the immigrants were young single males, who were discouraged from staying on the island, often referred to the island by Chinese as "The Gate of Hell" for its reputation in taking the lives of sailors and explorers.

The Dutch originally sought to use their castle Fort Zeelandia at Tayowan as a trading base between Japan and China, but soon realized the potential of the huge deer populations that roamed in herds of thousands along the alluvial plains of Taiwan's western regions. Deer were in high demand by the Japanese who were willing to pay premium for use of the hides in samurai armor. Other parts of the deer were sold to Chinese traders for meat and medical use. The Dutch paid aborigines for the deer brought to them and tried to manage the deer stocks to keep up with demand. The Dutch also employed Hans to farm sugarcane and rice for export, some of these rice and sugarcane reached as far as the markets of Persia. Unfortunately the deer the aborigines had relied on for their livelihoods began to disappear forcing the aborigines to adopt new means of survival.

The Dutch built a second administrative castle on the main island of Taiwan in 1633 and set out to earnestly turn Taiwan into a Dutch colony. The first order of business was to punish villages that had violently opposed the Dutch and unite the aborigines in allegiance with the VOC. The first punitive expedition was against the villages of Baccloan and Mattauw, north of Saccam near Tayowan. The Mattauw campaign had been easier than expected and the tribe submitted after having their village razed by fire. The campaign also served as a threat to other villages from Tirossen (Chia Yi) to Lonkjiaow (Heng Chun). The 1636 punitive attack on Lamay Island in response to the killing of the shipwrecked crew of the Beverwijck and the Golden Lion (Xiao Liu Qiu) ended ten years later with the entire aboriginal population of 1100 removed from the island including 327 Lamayans killed in a cave, having been trapped there by the Dutch and suffocated in the fumes and smoke pumped into the cave by the Dutch and their allied aborigines from Saccam, Soulang and Pangsoya. The men were forced into slavery in Batavia (Java) and the women and children became servants and wives for the Dutch officers. The events on Lamay changed the course of Dutch rule to work closer with allied aborigines, though there remained plans to depopulate the outlying islands.

In 1661, a naval fleet led by the Ming loyalist Zheng Chenggong (Cheng Ch'eng-kung in Wade-Giles, known in the West as Koxinga), arrived in Taiwan to oust the Dutch from Zeelandia. Following a nine month siege, Cheng captured the Dutch fortress Fort Zeelandia. A peace treaty between Koxinga and the Dutch Government was signed at Castle Zeelandia on February 1st 1662, and Taiwan became Koxinga's base for the Kingdom of Tungning.

List of Dutch Governors of Taiwan

1. Marten Sonk 1624
2. Gerard F. de With 1625
3. Pieter Nuyts 1627
4. Hans Putmans 1629
5. Johan Van Der Burg 1636
6. Paulus Traudenius 1640
7. Maximilian Ie Maire1643
8. Francois Caron 1644
9. Pieter A. Overtwater 1646
10. Nicolas Verburg 1649
11. Cornelis Caesar 1653
12. Frederick Coyet 1656
13. Harmen Klenck Van odessen 1661

See also

• History of Taiwan
• Fort Zeelandia (Taiwan)
• Dutch East India Company
• Koxinga
• Kingdom of Tungning

External links

• Formosa in 17th Century
• Dutch Governor of Taiwan (Mandarin)
• Text of the Peace Treaty of 1662