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This article is part of the series on: History of Taiwan

Timeline of Taiwanese history

Prehistory

Dutch and Spanish settlers rule

Tungning Kingdom

Qing Dynasty rule

Republic of Formosa

Japanese Empire rule

Chinese Republic rule

This is a timeline of the History of Taiwan including the History of the Republic of China on Taiwan (1945-present).

For the timeline of the History of the Republic of China on mainland China (1912-1949), see Timeline of Republic of China history.

Contents 1 Pre-Historic Times 2 15th Century 3 16th Century 4 17th Century 4.1 Dutch Empire colony (August 26, 1624-February 1, 1662) 4.2 Kingdom of Tungning (1662-1683) 4.3 Qing Dynasty rule (1683-May 25, 1895) 5 19th Century 5.1 Republic of Formosa (May 25, 1895-October 21, 1895) 5.2 Empire of Japan colony (June 2, 1895-October 25, 1945) 6 20th Century 6.1 1911-1918 6.2 Dōka: "Integration" (1919-1935) 6.3 Kōminka: "Subjects of the Emperor" (1936-1945) 6.4 Republic of China on Taiwan (October 25, 1945-present) 6.5 1951-1960 6.6 1961-1970 6.7 1971-1980 6.8 1981-1990 6.9 1991-2000 7 21st Century 7.1 2001-2006 8 See also

• Approx 7000 BC: settled by ancestors of present-day Taiwanese aborigines.
• 300: Earliest record of Taiwan in Chinese writing.
• 1100: Han Chinese settled Pescadores since the 1100s (perhaps earlier), and hence moved to the main island.

• 1403: visited by Ming Dynasty admiral Zheng He (Hajji Mahmud).

• 1544: Portuguese sailors passing Taiwan record in the ship's log the name Ilha Formosa (Beautiful Island).
• 1582: Portuguese shipwreck survivors battle malaria and aborigines for ten weeks before returning to Macau on a raft.
• 1592: Japan seeks sovereignty over Taiwan (Takayamakoku 高山国 in Japanese, lit. high mountain country) but the efforts proved inconclusive [1].

• 1604: Dutch envoy Wijbrand van Waerwijck and his army are ordered to occupy the Pescadores in order to open trade with China. However Ming general Shen You-rong demanded their withdrawal [2].
• 1609: Tokugawa Shogunate of Japan sends feudal lord Arima Haruno (有馬晴信) on an exploratory mission to Taiwan [3].
• 1616: Nagasaki official Murayama Tōan (村山等安) leads troops on an unsuccessful invasion of Taiwan [4].
• 1622: Dutch envoy Cornelis Reijerszoon occupies the Pescadores in an attempt to persuade China to open trade. The Ming court rejects his proposal.

• 1624: Ming China opens trade with the Dutch provided they move to Taiwan island. The Dutch establish a trading base for commerce with Japan and coastal China. Dutch official Maarten Sonk takes up his new post at Tayuan (present-day Anping, Tainan County) beginning the Dutch rule of Taiwan.
• 1624: Dutch begin construction of Fort Zeelandia which is completed ten years later.
• 1626: Spain sends an expedition to Santisima Trinidad (Keelung) and build Fort San Salvador due to the Dutch threat to Chinese and Japanese trade to the Spanish Philippines.
• 1628: Spanish establish a settlement at Tamsui and build Fort Santo Domingo in an attempt to attract Chinese merchants.
• 1642: With the Dutch in southern Taiwan and the Spanish in northern Taiwan, confrontation between the two adversaries were inevitable and eventually the Dutch drive the Spanish out of Taiwan, becoming the sole ruling power on Taiwan.
• 1653: Taiwan becomes the second most profitable trading house in Asia behind Japan due to its ideal central location between Japan, China and southeast Asia.

• 1662: Koxinga lays siege to Fort Zeelandia with the Dutch surrendering nine months later.

• 1683: Qing China annexes Taiwan and rules it as a prefecture.

• 1871: An Okinawan vessel shipwrecks on the southern tip of Taiwan resulting in the beheading of 54 crew members by the island's Paiwan tribe. Qing China denies compensation to Japan on the grounds that parts of Taiwan where aborigines reside were not under Qing jurisdiction.
• 1874: Japan sends an expedition force of 3,600 soldiers to Taiwan to test the situation for colonizing the island.
• 1875: Taiwan is divided into two prefectures, north and south.
• 1887: Taiwan is made into a province with Liu Mingchuan as the first governor.
• 1884: Keelung and Tamsui harbor are blockaded by the French Navy during the Sino-French War.
• 1895: Qing China signs the Treaty of Shimonoseki ceding Taiwan and the Pescadores Islands to Japan after being defeated repeatedly by the Japanese Navy in the First Sino-Japanese War.

• 1895: Pro-Qing officials declare the Republic of Formosa in an attempt to resist the arrival of the Japanese. Tang Jing-song (唐景崧) named president.

• 1899: Bank of Taiwan established to encourage Japanese investment into Taiwan.
• 1899: Taiwan yen is issued by the Bank of Taiwan with an exchange ratio on par with the Japanese yen.

• 1901: Railroad between Keelung and Hsinchu rebuilt.
• 1904: Taiwan bank notes issued.
• 1905: Earthquake in Chiayi.
• 1905: First population census. (First Provisional Taiwan Household Registration Survey)
• 1905: Taiwan becomes financially self-sufficient and is weaned off subsidies from Japan's central government.
• 1907: Beipu Incident led by Cai Ching-lin (蔡清琳).
• 1908: North-South (Western Line) Railway completed.

• 1913: Miaoli Incident.
• 1915: Tapani Incident, largest revolt in Taiwanese history; over 100 protesters killed by Japanese authorities.
• 1915: Silai Temple Incident led by Yu Ching-fang (余清芳).

• 1921: Taiwanese Culture Association founded.
• 1921: "Petition to Establish a Taiwan Parliament" movement begins.
• 1923: Crown Prince Hirohito (Later Emperor) of Japan visits Taiwan.
• 1924: Yilan Line Railroad completed.
• 1926: Hwatung Line Railroad completed.
• 1927: Taiwanese People's Party, Taiwan's first political party, founded.
• 1928: Taihoku Imperial University (now National Taiwan University) founded.
• 1930: Jianan (or Chianan) Canal (嘉南大圳) completed.
• 1930: Wushe Incident; Japan forcefully crushes rebellion by the Atayal aborigine group.
• 1935: Earthquake in Miaoli.
• 1935: Exposition to Commemorate the 40th Anniversary of the Beginning of Administration in Taiwan.

• 1937: Four national parks planned.
• 1937: Sun Moon Lake Hydroelectric Power Plant completed.
• 1939: Industrial production surpasses agricultural production.
• 1941: Taiwan Revolutionary League formed to coordinate anti-Japan resistance.
• 1941: Segregation of primary schools between Japanese and Taiwanese children ends.
• 1941: Pingtung Line Railroad completed
• 1943: Compulsory primary education begins. Enrollment rates reached 71.3% for Taiwanese children (including 86.4% for aborigine children) and 99.6% for Japanese children in Taiwan making Taiwan's enrollment rate the second highest in Asia after Japan [5].
• 1945: Popular Legislature Election Law enacted.
• 1945: Japan and (then including Taiwan) defeated in World War II by United States military forces, United States delegates the military occupation of Taiwan to the Kuomintang (or Chinese Nationalist Party) which appoints Chen Yi to be Chief Executive of Taiwan Province under ROC.

• 1947: 228 Incident; "White Terror" begins.
• 1947: US consulate in Taipei proposed "status of Taiwan is undetermined" and "Taiwan Under UN trustee" program in March.
• 1947: Chen Yi recalled and Taiwan Provincial Government established.
• 1949: April 6 Incident.
• 1949: The New Taiwan dollar is issued, exchanged at 1:40,000 old Taiwan dollars.
• 1949: Kuomintang army defeated in the Chinese Civil War, flees in exile to Taiwan with 2 million refugees.
• 1949: The capital of the Republic of China (ROC) relocated from Nanjing to Taipei.

• 1951: Treaty of San Francisco; Japan officially renounced claims to Taiwan (thus superseding Treaty of Shimonoseki), but without designating a recipient; Taiwan remains under the administrative control of the principal occupying power (the United States).
• 1958: 823 Artillery War.
• 1959: August 7 Flood: serious flooding in central Taiwan.
• 1960: Free China Incident.

• 1964: Shihmen Reservoir completed.
• 1964: Peng Ming-min arrested for the draft of A Declaration of Formosan Self-salvation.

• 1971: ROC is expelled from the UN.
• 1975: President Chiang Kai-Shek dies.
• 1978: The first north-south freeway (No. 1) completed.
• 1979: The United States switched diplomatic recognition to the People's Republic of China; Taiwan Relations Act passed by the United States Congress.
• 1979: Kaohsiung Incident.
• 1979: Western Line Railroad fully electrified; North-Link Line completed.
• 1980: Lin Family Murders on the anniversary of the 228 Incident.
• 1980: Hsinchu Science Park founded.

• 1981: Chen Wun-cheng (陳文成) Incident.
• 1984: Labor Standards Law enacted.
• 1986: Typhoon Wayne makes landfall in the west coast of central Taiwan.
• 1986: Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), the first oppositional political party after World War II, formed illegally from the Tangwai movement.
• 1986: Yuan T. Lee wins the Nobel Prize in chemistry.
• 1987: Martial law lifted.
• 1988: President Chiang Ching-kuo dies; Lee Teng-hui assumes the presidency.
• 1988: Bans on publishing newspapers lifted.
• 1989: Bans on establishing new commercial banks lifted.
• 1990: Taiwan Wild Lily Student Movement in Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall.

• 1991: Opposition parties legalized.
• 1991: South-Link Line Railroad completed.
• 1992: Fair Trade Law enacted.
• 1992: The first democratic election of the Legislative Yuan.
• 1994: National Health Insurance begins.
• 1995: US government reverses policy and allows President Lee Teng-hui to visit the US. The People's Republic of China responds with the Third Taiwan Strait Crisis by launching a series of missiles into the waters off Taiwan. The Taiwan stock market loses one-third of its value.
• 1996: President Bill Clinton enacts the Taiwan Relations Act and dispatches the USS Nimitz supercarrier to patrol the Taiwan Strait.
• 1995: 228 Incident monument erected; President Lee Teng-hui publicly apologizes on behalf of the KMT.
• 1996: The first direct presidential election; Lee Teng-hui elected.
• 1996: Muzha Line of the Taipei Rapid Transit System completed.
• 1997: Danshui Line of the Taipei Rapid Transit System completed.
• 1997: Private cellular phone companies begin services.
• 1999: Chi-Chi earthquake.
• 2000: Chen Shui-bian, the opposition candidate from the DPP, elected president by a lead of 2.5% of votes marking the end of the KMT status as the ruling party. Voter turnout was 82.69%; first peaceful transfer of power.
• 2000: Yilan Line Railroad electrified.

• 2001: Three mini-links between Kinmen, Matsu and the mainland of Fujian begins.
• 2001: Private fixed-line telephone companies begin services.
• 2001: Serious flooding caused by Typhoon Nari.
• 2002: Entry into the World Trade Organization as an "independent customs territory" (not a "country").
• 2002: Penetration rate of cellular phones exceeds 100%.
• 2003: SARS outbreaks.
• 2003: North-Link Line railroad electrified.
• 2004: Second north-south freeway completed.
• 2004: 228 Hand-in-Hand Rally.
• 2004: Chen Shui-bian is re-elected by a margin of 0.22% votes after being shot the day before.
• 2004: Taipei 101 becomes World's Tallest Building.
• 2005: The first direct commercial airplane flights from Beijing to Taipei for the Chinese New Year.
• 2005: The PRC passes an "anti-secession law" authorizing the use of force against Taiwan and the ROC government should it declare independence. In response, 1.6 million people marched in Taipei against China's "anti-secession law". Similar marches occur across the world by Taiwanese nationalists. Protests against the PRC were held worldwide, including, but not limited to: Chicago, New York City, Washington DC, Paris, and Sydney.
• 2005: The KMT visits mainland China for the first time since 1949.
• 2005: President Chen is invited and attends the funeral of Pope John Paul II. He is the first Taiwanese president to visit the Vatican.
• 2005: The National Assembly of the Republic of China convenes for the last time to implement several constitutional reforms, including single-member two-vote districts, and votes to transfer the power of constitutional reform to the popular ballot, essentially abolishing itself.
• 2006: Taiwan's first high speed rail line, Taiwan High Speed Rail, begins operation.

• Timeline of Chinese history
• Timeline of Republic of China history (1912-1949)