Taiwanese History:Part1

Long ago in Taiwan, before there was history, there were already nomads living on the island. The first known people (about fifty thousand to five thousand years before now) who lived here used tools made out of rock, which were usually flat. They hit the rocks together to make them break into pieces, and used the one that had the shape they wanted. They used fire to cook the meat (including animals that lived on the ground and in the water) they had hunted and the vegetables they found and picked, they also picked some fruit to eat.

About seven to two thousand years before now, there was another group of people, who lived in the north of Taiwan. They learned how to polish the stones into the shape they wanted and to make things out of clay. They also learned to plant vegetables and to raise animals for meat, such as pigs and cows.

About two thousand to four hundred years before now, there was another group of Austronesian people here. They traded tools, jewelry, money, and glass bracelets with the Chinese. They learned to get iron out of rocks by melting them with great heat. They made earrings, and put jewels in the coffins with the bodies, which means they believed in god.

In the twelfth century, there were Chinese people living on an island near Taiwan (which is part of Taiwan today). In the sixteenth century, the Portuguese came by Taiwan, saw beautiful plants and animals, and said: “Formosa!” which meant “beautiful island”. In the seventeenth century, the Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie from Holland tried to go to China to trade and make money, but the Chinese government didn’t allow them to. The Chinese government told them that there was an island in the east of China, which is Taiwan now, where they could come. So the Dutch came to Taiwan.

The Dutch built Fort Zeelandia with bricks in Da Yuan (which is called An ping now). The bricks were made of mixtures of sand, sugar, ground seashells and glutinous rice. Fort Zeelandia was designed to be surrounded by three layers of walls and every corner of the fort was built into protruding bastions for better defense.

The Fort Zeelandia was built as a fortress, to keep enemies from coming into Taiwan. Unfortunately, they had chosen the wrong place. There was no fresh water near Fort Zeelandia, so the Dutch needed to ship water from the mainland of Taiwan (according to Wikipedia).After building Fort Zeelandia, the Dutch built another building called Provintia with the same material.

In the year 1626, the Spanish came to Taiwan to make money, because they could earn more money than the Dutch could. The Spanish came from the north of Taiwan, and tried to take over, but the Dutch fought them and kicked them out. From that day on, the Dutch ruled Taiwan from north to south.

The Dutch chose one person out of a group of Polynesians so that they could get better control of them. They taught the Polynesians The Bible by translating it into the phoenetic-Polynesian language (which was created by Robertus Junius). They built Christian schools, and taught the Polynesians to be good to them and obey them, by using the power of God.

The Dutch traded things with the countries near Taiwan and made much money. They traded silk and china for rice and spices with China, Sucrose, silk and SUEDE with silver to Japan, spices for SUEDE and china with Batavia, and earned a great amount of money. They also imported peas, tomatoes, etc. into Taiwan.

The Dutch wanted to earn more, so they recruited the Chinese to Taiwan to help them. They made many rules, such as the Chinese had to give heavy taxes to the Dutch, and they had to become Christian if they married the Polynesians. In the year 1652, someone called Guo Huai Yi fought against Holland because they didin’t like to pay such tax. In the year 1661, Zheng Chenggong fought against the Dutch, and in the year1662, they kicked the Dutch out of Taiwan.