History

Taiwan's history can be traced back to at least 7000 years ago. Between 7000 and 400 years ago, Austronesian ancestors of the Aboriginals arrived in Taiwan in small groups and became the earliest known inhabitants of Taiwan.

A rich past

The first presence of human population on the island was around 30 000 B-C. (The man of Zuozhen (左 鎮人)). Later, around 6 000 B-C, Austronesians tribes (mostly rice and millet farmers from southern China) established small villages. These tribes are the ancestors of the actual aboriginal people.

Between the 17th and the 20th century, the island was better known as Formosa Island. That name came from the Portuguese sailorman. Afterward, the Dutch explorers colonized a part of the island and start converting aboriginal people to the Christian religion. In 1683, the Manchu (Qing Dynasty) take over the island and brought the Chinese culture and traditions.  

After the Japanese victory, China signed the treaty of Shimonoseki in 1895, and the island became Japanese. The Japanese colonized the island by assimilating the population, but they also contributed to the industrialization of the island.

When the Japanese were defeated in 1945, the United Nation gave back the island to the Republic of China. In 1949, hunted by Mao’s communist system, more than 2 millions Nationalists lead by Tchang Kai-Chek based themselves on the island so they could take back the mainland in the future. They establish a one party system (Kuomintang) and they started to apply sinicization politics on Taiwan. With the help of the United States, the island became an economic leader in the region and joined the Asian Tigers, along with Hong Kong, Singapore and South Korea.

From 1970, Taiwan operates in a democratic system. But, in the same time, its international political recognition has suffered due to the increasing place of the People Republic of China in the eyes of the world.