1683 - Manchu Taiwan
Taking the advantage of the internecine struggle for succession occurring on Taiwan, the Manchus were able, in 1683, to capture the island virtually unopposed. In the following year an official of the rank of Taotai, or Intend. ant of circuit, was appointed to proceed to Formosa, which from this time onwards has remained an appanage of the Chinese Empire. The Manchu administration was centered in the city of Tainan, which had been established as the island's capital by Koxinga, and Taiwan became a prefecture of Fukien province. Under Manchu administration, which limited the tour of duty of its officials to 3 years, lawlessness and corruption became widespread. Banditry, piracy, and interclan feuds created an atmosphere of uncertainty and unrest and a nostalgia for the times of Koxinga when the island was by comparison a model of order and progress.
When Formosa came under the rule of the Manchus, its population was made up of two elements, the aborigines, untamed and civilised, and the Chinese settlers. The aborigines were the original occupiers of the soil, and were once spread over the whole island. During the Dutch occupation attempts had been made to bring them within the pale of civilisation, but as the authority of the Dutch did not extend much beyond their settlements on the west and north coasts, the number of 80-called civilised aborigines was not very large, the majority remaining in their wild state.
The second element in the population, the Chinese settlers, formed a very numerous class, living on the west and north coasts of the Island. It consisted of two different peoples, the Hakkas and the Fuhkienese. The Hakkas are a peculiar race of Chinese, who are supposed to have migrated from the provinces of the north to those of the south of China. They spoke a dialect of their own, which is so different from that spoken by the Fuhkienese as to be almost a different language. In character they are most industrious and plodding; very keen in business and bold in disposition, being more accustomed to bodily exertion and more hardy than the ordinary China man.
The other settlers, chiefly immigrants from the neighbourhood of Amoy and Changchow, are distinguished by the thrift, perseverance, and patient industry which generally characterise their kind in other parts of the world.
Many of these settlers had arrived in Formosa long before the Dutch occupation of the island. Their numbers had received additions from time to time, and especially at the time of the troubles arising from the Manchu invasion near the beginning of the 17th century, which druve many families from their homes, and compelled them to seek a refuge beyond the seas. At first the settlers occupied isolated settlements along the west coast ; but as continuous immigration from the mainland swelled their numbers, their territory became too small for its ever-increasing population, and they were forced to make inroads into the country of the aborigines. To these encroachments the natives offered a stubborn resistance, but they were gradually driven back by the superior force of the Chinese, who were also aided by the liking of their enemies for ardent spirits, of which they craftily availed themselves by driving hard bargains as to grants of land when the aborigines were under the influence of wine. This intensified the already existing hatred, and rendered more bitter the perpetual conflict which was carried on between the invaders and the invaded.
The Fukienese Chinese, who since the beginning of the eighteenth century had made up the bulk of the island's Chinese population, were never peacefully disposed toward the Hakkas. The so-called Ming loyalists, whom the establishment of the Manchu 'dynasty had driven from the coast of South China to Formosa, never seemed to miss an opportunity to assist in setting up an independent government in the island. Bands of brigands and pirates infested the country during the whole of the Chinese régime. The official classes in the coast towns of China found Formosa a splendid dumping ground for undesirables. The savage tribes inhabiting more than one-half of the island had always to be taken into account.
Throughout the eighteenth century Taiwan increased rapidly in commercial importance and in population growth. Immigration, though continual since the mid-seventeenth century, accelerated greatly after 1732, when the Manchu court lifted its official ban on migration to the island. By the first decade of the nineteenth century, there were already about 2 million Chinese occupying most of the level and fertile land, and the aborigines had been pushed into the mountains of the interior and to the eastern coast.
Notwithstanding the increased prosperity, there was considerable discontent with the government. From the beginning of Manchu rule over the island in 1683 until the mid-nineteenth century there were 15 major antigovernment rebellions. An important factor was the quality of government officials sent over from the mainland, most of whom had no interest in improving conditions on the island and confined themselves to amassing wealth in the shortest possible time by various schemes and extortions.
During the uprising of 1883 the rebels killed 20,000 of the Emperor's soldiers and officials, and the remainder fled to the mountains, leaving the capital in the hands of the insurgents. A punitive expedition sent by the Emperor took several months to put down the uprising. Some political and administrative reforms were introduced after Manchu rule had been reimposed. In 1842, shortly after China had ceded Hong Kong to Great Britain as a result of the Opium War, two British vessels were wrecked on the eastern coast of Taiwan and the crews massacred by tribesmen. In retaliation, Great Britain threatened to renew hostilities with China and to occupy the island. In deference to other European powers with interests in the area, however, Great Britain did not carry out these threats.
Sugar and rice were Taiwan's main exports to the mainland and were of major importance in averting famine in South China during years of bad harvests. Beginning in 1860 leading British mercantile houses established themselves on Taiwan for the purpose of importing opium and exporting camphor and tea. United States businessmen began in 1865 to deal in coal and camphor.
Imperial China began to disintegrate after the signing of the Treaty of Nanking in 1842 upon the termination of the 3-year Opium War. Under terms of this treaty Great Britain won not only special commercial privileges and the island of Hong Kong but the unrestricted right to import opium into China. After Great Britain exposed China's inability to withstand Western weapons and means of warfare, for the next half century France, Russia, Germany, and Japan, each took turns in making exacting demands and taking military action when the demands were rejected. Each time, China lost and was forced to make concessions of extraterritoriality which violated its territorial integrity or national sovereignty.
In fact the people, though not in name, were in reality almost free from official control, and 80 much was this the case that in many Hakka towns the entry of an official within their walls was strictly forbidden, and all official communications with the savages had to be conducted through the Hakkas or the subdued aborigines instead of through the regular official channel. With these facts before them, it is not a matter of surprise that in 1874 many people were inclined to doubt that Formosa was part and portion of the Empire of China.
In 1884, as an aftermath of the campaign between France and China over Tonkin, the French attempted to gain control of Taiwan as a guarantee for the payment of indemnity on the part of China. The French, after some fighting, were able to gain control of Keelung and the Pescadores but could make no further progress and gave up the attempt. As a result of this campaign, however, the imperial court became aware of the importance of the island and decided to introduce administrative reforms and to encourage economic development.
Up to the time that Formosa was made a separate province and placed under the rule of the progressive governor, Liu Ming Chuan, in 1885, the general civil administration on the island was indeed lax. When the island was made a separate province, the capital was moved from Tainan to Taipei.
By 1895 Taiwan had a functioning railway between Keelung and Hsinchu, passing through Taipei, as well as a telegraph line between Taipei and Tainan and a cable to the mainland. With the exception of intermittent warfare with the aborigines, Taiwan was a model province with a considerably higher standard of living than the mainland. Administrative reforms had eliminated much of the corruption and turmoil that previously had been endemic. As a result of the SinoJapanese War over Korea in 1894, however, China ceded Taiwan to Japan the following year.
After Japan won the war of 1894 the interested European powers favored the idea of dividing China into separate "spheres of influence," each the exclusive domain, for purposes of economic exploitation, of a single power. When the various powers were unable to agree on the distribution of the concessions, they accepted the United States' proposal of 1899 to leave China intact and to grant equal rights of access to all powers.
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