Chapter 3 The Dawning of Modernity under the Colonial Rule of Holland and Spain; Complementary Roles Played by the Dutch and Han Chinese Give Rise to a New Taiwan (1624-1662; 1664-1668)

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It was the Dutch and the Spanish that first established formal political powers on Taiwan, marking the beginning of Taiwan’s transformation that would move the island from prehistoric obscurity into the modern world, forged through the Age of Exploration of the 15th and 16th centuries. Through expanding trade with the outside world during the ensuing Commercial Revolution, Taiwan progressed rapidly to become one of the thriving economies in East Asia. Both the Dutch and the Han Chinese immigrants played important roles in bringing this about by working together, each group complementing the other. In general, the Dutch formulated policies based on mercantilism while the Chinese implemented them, together creating a new Formosa. Their relationship was also competitive, however, and sometimes confrontational, as evidenced by Chinese uprisings and, ultimately, Jheng Cheng-gong’s (鄭成功) invasion of Taiwan.

European Occupation of Taiwan and Confrontation between Holland in the South and Spain in the North

In the middle of the 16th century, Portuguese ships frequently passed Taiwan to trade with Japan. Impressed by its beauty, Portuguese sailors referred to Taiwan as “Ilha Formosa,” meaning “beautiful island,” and Formosa thus became the name commonly used in the West. The Portuguese showed no great interest in occupying Taiwan, however, stopping only when compelled by weather or shipwreck. In 1582, a Portuguese ship was wrecked near a river mouth in Formosa and the sailors were forced to stay in Taiwan for some months. However, once their ship was mended, they left without having established any formal administration.

Japan was the first country to show colonial ambitions toward Taiwan. After unifying Japan, Toyotomi Hideyoshi (豐臣秀吉) undertook a policy of overseas expansion, invading Korea in the west and extending Japan’s influence southward. In 1592, Japan sought sovereignty over Taiwan (“Takayama Koku” in Japanese) without result. In 1609, the Tokugawa Shogunate (德川幕府) sent feudal lord Arima Haruno (有馬晴信) on an exploratory mission to Taiwan. In 1616, the powerful Nagasaki official Murayama Toan (村山等安) led troops on what would ultimately be an unsuccessful invasion of Taiwan. However, this did not deter some Japanese traders from coming to Northern Taiwan drawn by the gold there.

In the end, it was the Europeans who succeeded in establishing formal administrations on Taiwan. The Dutch established their first Far East trading factory in Bantam (萬丹), Indonesia in 1598, and sent vessels to Japan to request the opening of trade in 1600. In order to expand overseas trade more efficiently, in 1602, the Dutch went further and set up the Dutch United East India Company (Verenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie, VOC) to monopolize Asian trade, establishing the headquarters in Bantam first before moving it to Batavia (present-day Jakarta). Dutch envoy Wijbrand van Waerwijck and his army were ordered to occupy Penghu to open up trade with China in 1604, but failed in this after being requested by Ming general Shen You-rong (沈有容) to withdraw.

In 1609, the Dutch obtained permission to trade with Japan at Hirado Port in Nagasaki, where they set up a trading factory. Their desire to trade with China grew, given the country’s immense size and rich resources. As the Portuguese already controlled Macau in China coast and the Spanish had established themselves in the Philippines, where they attracted numerous Chinese merchants to trade in Manila, the Dutch needed a base for operations closer to China if they were to break the trading blockade. In 1622, Dutch envoy Cornelis Reijerszoon attacked Macau but was defeated by the Portuguese. He then occupied Penghu in a bid to persuade the Chinese to open trade. The Ming court rejected the proposal and, in 1624, sent regional commander Yu Zih-gao (俞咨皋) to attack the Dutch. The two parties eventually reached an agreement, under which the Dutch moved to Taiwan while the Ming court allowed Chinese merchants to trade there. The new Dutch official Maarten Sonk took up his post at Dayuan (present-day Anping in Tainan County), and thus began the Dutch rule of Taiwan.

The Spanish had occupied northern Luzon (呂宋) since 1571 and built a fortress in Manila, where numerous Chinese and Japanese came to trade and the Chinese even established a community called Parian (澗內). As the Dutch control of Dayuan in Formosa severed the trading route between China and the Philippines, the Spanish resolved to defend their interests. In 1626, a Spanish expedition was sent to northern Taiwan to occupy Keelung, which the Spanish called Santísima Trinidad, and build Fort San Salvador. Between 1628 and 1629, they moved westward to occupy Tamsui (Danshuei), where they set up the settlement of Fort Santo Domingo hoping to attract Chinese merchants.

With the Spanish in the north of Taiwan and Dutch in the south, confrontation between these two European adversaries was inevitable. The Dutch tried to expel the Spanish forces on several occasions, and finally sent an expedition north to attack the Spanish fortresses in 1642. The Spanish were forced to withdraw from Taiwan, ending their 16-year occupation after being defeated. This left the Dutch as the sole ruling power on Taiwan until Jheng Cheng-gong’s conquest of the island between 1661 and 1662.

Both the Spanish and Dutch focused on trade and missionary work in Taiwan but, in the end, it was the Dutch who achieved the most.

Mercantilism and Complementary Roles Played by the Dutch and Han Chinese

The Dutch administration of Taiwan followed the principles of mercantilism prevalent in early modern Europe, laying the foundation for Taiwan’s trade-oriented economy. Beginning by establishing an entrepôt for international trade in Tainan, they went on to develop agriculture and various industries to further increase their profits, leading Taiwan down the road towards greater economic development. These achievements were possible thanks to the cooperative and mutually beneficial relationship between the Dutch and the Han Chinese.

The most valuable goods in East Asian trade were Chinese silk, Japanese silver, and spices from Southeast Asia. Taiwan’s central location between these three points made it an ideal entrepôt. Upon their arrival in 1624, the Dutch established Fort Orange, a base in Anping, which they renamed Zeelandia in 1627. Dutch merchants took advantage of seasonal winds to transport goods between the north and south by sea. In the summer, the vessels and traders left Batavia to sail first to Thailand and Kampuchea, and then on to Taiwan, where they unloaded goods to be distributed to China and Japan. When prevailing winds blew from the north in the winter, the Dutch sailed south, transporting Chinese and Japanese goods to Batavia, then further to Persia, Holland, and the rest of Europe. Silk and porcelains from China, silver from Japan, spices from Southeast Asia, and deer hides from Taiwan made up most of this cargo.

Limited channels and the importance of Chinese goods meant that Chinese traders were both Holland’s primary trading partners and main competitors. Li Dan (李旦), Syu Sin-su (許心素) and especially Jheng Jhih-long were all important Chinese partners as well as competitors. Around 1635, the Dutch were earning 100 percent profits due to increased trade on Taiwan, thanks to the relaxation of the Ming dynasty’s ban on maritime activity, safer sea passage, and fruitful cooperation with trading partners. Trade reached a peak in 1640, and subsequently began to decline. War in China interrupted the steady supply of Chinese silk, and Jheng Jhih-long began to compete with the Dutch for the Japanese market. The Dutch reacted by exporting sugar and tea to Persia and Japan, and increasing their taxation of Han Chinese activities in Taiwan. In all, the Dutch achieved great commercial success in Taiwan. Between 1640 and 1653, net profits increased dramatically from 13,000 to 338,000 gulden, making Taiwan the second most profitable trading house in Asia behind Japan.

The Dutch discovered that Taiwan’s soil and climate were well suited to sugarcane plantations, and as sugar was a valuable commodity on the international market, in the 1630s, the Dutch began developing the island’s agriculture. Since Taiwan’s aborigines had never cultivated sugarcane, the Dutch turned to Han Chinese to establish this new industry. Dutch administrators arranged for ships to carry large numbers of Chinese immigrants to Taiwan, provided the immigrants with land and capital, constructed irrigation systems, and specially maintained a garrison of soldiers to ensure security. The Han Chinese undertook the actual work of cultivation and sugar production, providing labor, technology and even capital. In order to open new land for cultivation, the Dutch adopted a feudal system of farming, under which they employed Han Chinese to farm the land of the Dutch United East India Company. The Dutch also allowed the Han to develop and hold private plots to accelerate agricultural development. Under this mutually beneficial division of labor, growth of the sector proceeded smoothly, first with the cultivation of sugarcane and, later, rice.

Initially, the Dutch had transported sugar from southern China to Taiwan for export to Japan, the Middle East, and Europe. Subsequently, production shifted to Taiwan. After the 1630s, with the arrival of numerous Chinese immigrants, sugar production grew rapidly. Production in the Tainan area rose from 1,244 piculs (136,900 pounds) in 1636 to 17,300 piculs (1,906,996 pounds) in 1658. Output exceeded even that of Java, and sugar replaced deer hides as the island’s main export. Profits at the Dutch trading house on Taiwan came to depend on the export of sugar. As for rice, Taiwan initially relied on imports from Japan and Thailand, but gradually achieved self-sufficiency as more immigrants arrived and cultivated rice fields. In 1642, Taiwan produced about 4,000 piculs (440,924 pounds) of rice. By 1656, the island was producing a surplus for export. Rice and sugar became the two main agricultural crops for the next three centuries until the 1960s.

Fishing and hunting were also developed, with the Dutch again relying on Han Chinese to carry out the work. The most common method of formalizing this relationship was the farming system (bak 贌, adopted from the European pacht system, under which the Dutch auctioned rights). This system enabled the Dutch to minimize administrative costs while ensuring stable revenues. Likewise, in the case of trade with aboriginal tribal units, Han Chinese merchants bid under a system called bak she (贌社) for the rights to handle all trade with aboriginal communities (fan she 番社).

In general, therefore, the complementary roles played by the Dutch and the Han Chinese brought a combination of Dutch political power and Chinese productivity to bear on the development of Taiwan’s economy. Taiwan began a tradition of trade-oriented development with rice and sugar emerging as the enduring backbone of the island’s economy.

The Dutch Administration and Missionary Work

The Dutch mainly came to Taiwan for commercial reasons and their administration and military forces on the island were, therefore, streamlined to reduce costs. Only a few Dutch administrative personnel were stationed in Taiwan, and they were supported by a small force of about 1,000 soldiers.

The Dutch established a trading house under the Dutch United East India Company in Zeelandia (later Anping), appointed a governor, and set up a management board. The trading house was the highest administrative organization in Taiwan, directing subordinate officials and serving as the government for the people. Four local assemblies (landdagh) were established in the south, north, Danshuei (in northern Taiwan), and Beinan in (eastern Taiwan) to handle aboriginal affairs. Elderly chiefs were selected from aboriginal tribes to take orders from the governor and carry out his policies. This was a modified form of the European manor system and provided a form of local self-governance that allowed the Dutch to keep their administrative manpower to a minimum.

How such a small number of administrative staff and soldiers could rule Taiwan effectively requires further explanation, however. In addition to the above-mentioned system, missionaries who played multiple roles were key to the success of the Dutch administration. They were hired to carry out administrative tasks as, driven by their enthusiasm for missionary work, they could be trusted to fulfill their duties loyally. Furthermore, missionaries spoke local languages and could help the administration communicate with the local people. Another advantage of hiring missionaries lay in the great savings in administrative expenses.

The Dutch administration attached much importance to the combination of religious and educational work carried out by missionaries in aboriginal communities, and provided them with financial support. By 1630, the coastal plains of western Taiwan were peppered with Christian churches and schools. Missionaries even hired aboriginal assistants to carry out Christian education.

The most famous missionaries include Rev. Georgius Candidius and Rev. Robertus Junius, who came to Taiwan sometime after 1627 and worked mainly with pingpu aborigines in southern Taiwan, especially those of the Singang community (新港社). Missionaries used the Latin alphabet to develop a system for writing the Singang language spoken by the Siraya tribes, and then used this system to translate prayers, catechisms, the Ten Commandments, and the New Testament. In 1641, Junius accompanied the Dutch trading house governor on an inspection tour of the island. The governor was stunned to see that aboriginal people had been converted to Christianity in such large numbers and were paying respect to the Dutch. At that time, an estimated 4,000 to 5,000 people had been baptized islandwide. Clearly, missionary had been successful in Taiwan. The written form of the Singang Siraya language developed by the missionaries continued to be used even after the Dutch left Taiwan. As late as 1812, during the reign of the Ching Emperor Jiacing (嘉慶), aborigines were still using the language to sign contracts with Han Chinese, which are known as “Singang Language Agreements” (新港文書), or “fanya contracts” (番仔契).

Spanish Development of Northern Taiwan (1626-1642)

The Spanish occupied northern Taiwan in 1626 and immediately set about promoting trade and missionary work. Trade ties with Japan had broken down in 1625, however, and although Danshuei Port was opened, only a limited number of merchant ships sailed from China to Taiwan. The Spanish were, therefore, unable to achieve their goal of defeating the Dutch in southern Taiwan.

Regarding religion, records show that only about 300 local people had been converted to Christianity by the Spanish missionaries by 1630, and this number rose to a mere 320 by 1634. Like the Dutch missionaries, Father Jacinto Esquivel devised a writing system for local languages based on the Latin alphabet, and compiled books such as Glossary of the Danshuei Language Used on Taiwan Island (臺灣島淡水語辭彙) and Christian Doctrines in the Danshuei Language of Taiwan Island (臺灣島淡水語基督教理書) as aids for his preaching. He did not achieve the success he had hoped for, however. Moreover, the priest’s dream of preaching in Japan was shattered when Japan began prohibiting Christianity in 1633.

Most worrying for the Spanish in Taiwan was the great imbalance between revenues and expenditures. The Spanish trading house was not profitable and thus required subsidies from the Spanish authority in Manila to support its operations. From 1635, therefore, the Spanish adopted a much less aggressive policy toward Taiwan. Another problem was the resistance from aboriginal people. In 1636, aborigines attacked Fort Santo Domingo in Danshuei, resulting in the death of more than 30 Spaniards. In order to cut down on manpower and expenses, the Spanish authority in Manila withdrew the army from Danshuei in 1638 and only maintained a small garrison in Keelung.

The Dutch stationed in southern Taiwan had been very uncomfortable with the Spanish occupation of northern Taiwan and had been waiting for an opportunity to drive them off the island. In 1642, Dutch troops went north, captured Danshuei and Keelung, defeating the Spanish and expelling them from Taiwan. The Dutch built a new Fort Santo Domingo in the vicinity of the old Spanish fort in Danshuei, which still stands today and is known as the Red-Haired Fort (紅毛城). Another trading house was set up in Danshuei for the purpose of trading with Japan and Fuzhou. Business did not flourish, however, and southern Taiwan remained the center of trade.

Conflict Between the Dutch and Han Chinese, and Jheng Cheng-gong’s Victory over the Dutch

The Han Chinese and Dutch had a love-hate relationship. The Dutch relied on Han Chinese to develop agricultural and fishing industries for them, and the Han could not have immigrated to Taiwan in such large numbers and made a living without assistance from the Dutch. They shared a mutually beneficial but sometimes tense relationship. Han Chinese had a highly developed cultural identity and a strong sense of national dignity. They were, therefore, not content with being ruled by the Dutch. Various heavy taxes and levies imposed by the Dutch made the situation all the more untenable. By 1650, the Han Chinese population in Taiwan exceeded 30,000, far surpassing the Dutch who numbered less than 2,000. Under these circumstances, conflict between the two peoples was inevitable. In 1652, the Guo Huai-yi Incident (郭懷一) finally ignited hostilities between the two sides.

Guo Huai-yi was a local Chinese leader in the area that is today’s Yongkang (永康) Township in Tainan County. On September 7, 1652, Guo and a group of comrades devised a plot to invite the Dutch authorities to a banquet for the Moon Festival on September 17, and then rise in rebellion. The plot was exposed, however, and Guo was forced to assemble a force of some 16,000 people to take immediate action. The Dutch, meanwhile, marshaled their troops and recruited aborigines to suppress them. Guo Huai-yi was killed in the ensuing battle, and the rest of his forces retreated south of Ercenghang (二層行) Creek. Within half a month, the Han Chinese had been defeated and more than 4,000 lives had been lost. After the war, the power of the Han Chinese greatly dwindled, but the problem of ethnic antagonism worsened, setting the stage for Jheng Cheng-gong’s attack on Taiwan in the 1660s.

It was Jheng Cheng-gong (known to the Dutch then, and to many Westerners still, as Koxinga 國姓爺) who eventually ended Dutch rule in Taiwan. Jheng undertook his eastern expedition to Taiwan for two reasons. First, Jheng and his followers were seafarers who could not, strategically, allow an island so near China to remain under Dutch rule for too long. Second, the Jheng family had a long history connected with Taiwan. Jheng Cheng-gong’s father, Jheng Jhih-long, had been active in Taiwan between 1624 and 1628. After the Ming dynasty on the Chinese mainland was overthrown, some of Jheng Jhih-long’s subordinates remained in Taiwan. These loyalists, originally from Fujian, resented the rule of the Dutch. Although Guo Huai-yi’s rebellion in 1652 was suppressed, suspicion between the Han Chinese and Dutch deepened, culminating in Jheng’s expedition to Taiwan.

A further reason that brought Jheng Cheng-gong to Taiwan was the setback he had been suffering during his resistance to Ching dynasty rule on the Chinese mainland: in 1659, Jheng went on a northern expedition to Jinling (金陵 present-day Nanjing) but was defeated and confined to the Chinese coastal region of Xiamen (廈門) and Kinmen (金門). Having suffered heavy losses and running low on supplies, Jheng needed a new and safer base for survival and counter-attack. Around this time, He Bin (何斌), an interpreter for the Dutch in Taiwan who had served as a tax agent for Jheng in the past, embezzled more than 200,000 taels (liang 兩) of silver from Dutch public funds. Worried that his theft might be found out, in 1659, He Bin secretly made a map of the Luermen (鹿耳門) waterways, presented it to Jheng Cheng-gong and persuaded him to attack Taiwan.

In April 1661, Jheng Cheng-gong led an army of 25,000 soldiers from Kinmen to occupy Penghu. On the dawn of April 30, his army invaded Taiwan through Luermen to occupy Fort Provintia (present-day Chihkanlou 赤崁樓), where the majority of residents was Han Chinese, before surrounding the Dutch at Fort Zeelandia. After nine months of pitched battles and sieges, the Dutch agreed to surrender on February 1, 1662, and soon left Taiwan after four decades of governance.

Although the Dutch and Spanish did not rule Taiwan for long periods, the roles they played in Taiwan’s historical development were significant. Politically, they ended Taiwan’s status as a territory without national identity and set the stage for future colonial rule over Taiwan by foreign powers. Economically, the Dutch and Spanish brought the island out of isolation and into the global market, developing its legacy as a trade-oriented economy. Dutch rule also brought great numbers of Han Chinese immigrants to Taiwan, and paved the way for their eventual predominance over the aborigines. These changes transformed Taiwan from being an isolated, unexplored island in East Asia to a nation known by the world, and from an inland culture to a maritime culture.
 

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