Changes

Meanwhile, Zheng Zhilong's son [[Zheng Chenggong]] (Coxinga) took Fort Zeelandia in [[1662]], driving the Dutch from the island. He died later that year, but his son, and then grandson, continued to command the trade and combat efforts. The loyalists sent a number of requests to the [[Tokugawa shogunate]] asking for support, but ultimately received none. While the Qing was preoccupied dealing with the [[Revolt of Three Feudatories]] in [[1673]]-[[1681]], the loyalists continued to expand their lively and profitable trade networks, and before long, the population of Chinese on the island reached 100,000. They grew and exported considerable amounts of rice and sugar, as well as engaging in businesses such as shipbuilding and trading in [[salt]].<ref name=spence55/>

Meanwhile, Zheng Zhilong's son [[Zheng Chenggong]] (Coxinga) took Fort Zeelandia in [[1662]], driving the Dutch from the island. He died later that year, but his son, and then grandson, continued to command the trade and combat efforts. The loyalists sent a number of requests to the [[Tokugawa shogunate]] asking for support, but ultimately received none. While the Qing was preoccupied dealing with the [[Revolt of Three Feudatories]] in [[1673]]-[[1681]], the loyalists continued to expand their lively and profitable trade networks, and before long, the population of Chinese on the island reached 100,000. They grew and exported considerable amounts of rice and sugar, as well as engaging in businesses such as shipbuilding and trading in [[salt]].<ref name=spence55/>

Following the end of the Revolt of the Three Feudatories, the Qing assembled a fleet of some three hundred warships, to be commanded by [[Shi Lang]], one of Zheng Zhilong's men who had surrendered to the Manchus in the 1650s and whose father, brother, and son had all been killed by Zheng Chenggong. Shi Lang set sail from [[Fujian province|Fujian]] in early July [[1683]], destroying forces loyal to the Zhengs on the [[Pescadores Islands|Pescadores]] before making his way to Taiwan, where he vanquished the last of the Ming loyalists within three months,<ref>Spence, 56.</ref> claiming the island for Chinese territory for the first time in history. Though Qing authority gradually spread across the island, as late as the 1870s, there were still significant areas where the aboriginal peoples were dominant and Qing officials had no effective power or control.

Following the end of the Revolt of the Three Feudatories, the Qing assembled a fleet of some three hundred warships, to be commanded by [[Shi Lang]], one of Zheng Zhilong's men who had surrendered to the Manchus in the 1650s and whose father, brother, and son had all been killed by Zheng Chenggong. Shi Lang set sail from [[Fujian province|Fujian]] in early July [[1683]], destroying forces loyal to the Zhengs on the [[Pescadores Islands|Pescadores]] before making his way to Taiwan, where he vanquished the last of the Ming loyalists within three months,<ref>Spence, 56.</ref> claiming the island for Chinese territory for the first time in history. There were debates at court as to what to do with Taiwan; while Shi Lang and others advocated that it be used as a fortress helping to defend the coast from European navies (and, incidentally, as a trading site), other court officials adhered more closely to the traditional view associating maritime trade with disorder, and with piracy and smuggling, and feared that it would lead to dangerous outflows of silver from the country, and of vital state secrets. In the end, the [[Kangxi Emperor]] decided to incorporate Taiwan into Fujian province, designating it a prefecture with its capital at Tainan, and dividing it into three counties, each governed by a civilian magistrate. A force of 8,000 men would be garrisoned on the island. However, the Qing did not colonize Taiwan; Chinese immigration to Taiwan was to be severely restricted, and while Chinese military and civilian settlement did, in the end, end up pushing many aboriginal tribes from the plains into the mountains, large portions of the island were essentially left completely under aboriginal control. For the next two centuries or so, Taiwan was to be something of a frontier land, occupied by opportunists, maritime traders, and optimistic farmer/settlers, governed by local officials who made considerable personal fortunes managing commercial and other affairs in the Fujian/Taiwan region, while higher-level authorities remained largely hands-off.<ref>Spence, 57-58.</ref>

 

Thus it was that nearly two hundred years later, in the 1870s, while there were some very long-established official, mercantile, and agricultural communities & lineages on the island, there were still significant portions of the island where the aboriginal peoples were dominant and where Qing officials had no effective power or control. This set of circumstances would have significant foreign relations impacts as the region moved into the late 19th century.

In [[1871]], a number of [[Miyako Islands|Miyako Islanders]] became shipwrecked on Taiwan, where they encountered and were [[Taiwan Incident of 1871|killed]] by a group of Taiwanese aborigines. The [[Meiji government]] responded with [[Taiwan Expedition of 1874|a punitive military expedition]], led by [[Saigo Tsugumichi|Saigô Tsugumichi]] and launched to punish the aborigines for the murder of Japanese subjects. The fighting lasted less than two months. This invasion spurred considerable tensions, however, between Japan and China, with China rejecting Japan's claims that the Miyako Islanders were Japanese subjects, and asserting its own claims over Taiwan while denying responsibility for the aborigines' actions. Woodblock prints widely circulated in Japan depicting and describing the events of the expedition are considered the first ''[[shinbun nishiki-e]]'', or "news prints," informing the public of official contemporary events in a relatively timely and accurate manner. A treaty was signed in October of that year in which China admitted less than total sovereign control over certain areas of southern Taiwan (i.e. areas dominated by aboriginal groups), recognized the [[Ryukyuan people]]s as Japanese subjects, and agreed to pay an indemnity of 500,000 ''[[tael]]s'' to Japan. The tensions still simmered, however, and very nearly came to all-out war before the decade was up, in order to decide more definitively Chinese and Japanese claims to both Taiwan and the [[Ryukyu Islands|Ryûkyû Islands]]. The issue was complicated by advice from Westerners, [[Charles DeLong]] and [[Charles LeGendre]], who suggested to the Japanese that since the Chinese did not exert effective (''de facto'') control over those sections of Taiwan dominated by the aborigines, that territory was essentially ''terra nullius'', and if Japan were to occupy the territory, under Western/modern international law, it could be rightfully Japan's.  

In [[1871]], a number of [[Miyako Islands|Miyako Islanders]] became shipwrecked on Taiwan, where they encountered and were [[Taiwan Incident of 1871|killed]] by a group of Taiwanese aborigines. The [[Meiji government]] responded with [[Taiwan Expedition of 1874|a punitive military expedition]], led by [[Saigo Tsugumichi|Saigô Tsugumichi]] and launched to punish the aborigines for the murder of Japanese subjects. The fighting lasted less than two months. This invasion spurred considerable tensions, however, between Japan and China, with China rejecting Japan's claims that the Miyako Islanders were Japanese subjects, and asserting its own claims over Taiwan while denying responsibility for the aborigines' actions. Woodblock prints widely circulated in Japan depicting and describing the events of the expedition are considered the first ''[[shinbun nishiki-e]]'', or "news prints," informing the public of official contemporary events in a relatively timely and accurate manner. A treaty was signed in October of that year in which China admitted less than total sovereign control over certain areas of southern Taiwan (i.e. areas dominated by aboriginal groups), recognized the [[Ryukyuan people]]s as Japanese subjects, and agreed to pay an indemnity of 500,000 ''[[tael]]s'' to Japan. The tensions still simmered, however, and very nearly came to all-out war before the decade was up, in order to decide more definitively Chinese and Japanese claims to both Taiwan and the [[Ryukyu Islands|Ryûkyû Islands]]. The issue was complicated by advice from Westerners, [[Charles DeLong]] and [[Charles LeGendre]], who suggested to the Japanese that since the Chinese did not exert effective (''de facto'') control over those sections of Taiwan dominated by the aborigines, that territory was essentially ''terra nullius'', and if Japan were to occupy the territory, under Western/modern international law, it could be rightfully Japan's.