Status Updates From How Taiwan Became Chinese: ...

That was a good ending for a book. The author made a good point about colonization in Asia relying so much on local help and the experience of the New World being an exception and not the rule.

Yep, He Tingbin was apparently quite influential here, mostly as a swindling middleman apparently. Makes me wonder whether he was also involved in the rumor of Koxinga's upcoming invasion of Taiwan.

that they mention this He Tingbin at the end of this chapter about the beginning of the end of dutch taiwan makes me suspect that the next chapter will feature him heavily.

So it was claimed that Chenggong was born on a beach during a rainsteam, heralded by a mysterious fire in the heavens, turned a monstrous sea turtle into an island, vanguished demons and made wells by striking his sword into the ground. And apparently the name Koxinga is derived from the Fujianese pronounciation of his title Guoxingye

a chinese rebellion, a strange star or light in the sky, a plague, a huge earthquake and now locusts, no wonder that those Dutch in May 1654 believed that it was God's wrath punishing them. Naturally penance did them no good.

Oh, so the aboriginals were so pro-Dutch because, while the Dutch made the policy, the actual exploitation of areas, hunting ground etc. was done by the Chinese colonists and the Dutch made a constant effort to impress the natives.

So the pachten system by the Dutch had so much influence it entered the Taiwanese language as the term pak and even stayed in use for a while after the Dutch left.

Oh, so even back then civil war in China caused people to come into a European colonial area.

So the chinese colonization was due to the Dutch providing security for investment. Makes sense. And naturally there was the claim of prior chinese colonization but that was dismissed.

So the company considered chinese as citizens and aboriginals as vassals. I would have assumed that the latter status would be the worse one, but looks like it protects aboriginal lands, the company cannot sell any of it to chinese colonists.

So this is Spanish Taiwan. That didn't last long. I guess if they had done similar things to the Dutch, maybe the history of Taiwan would have been different and there would have been more spanish buildings in the country now. However, they didn't manage to make it financially viable.

Interesting to read the role of missionaries and why aboriginal villages would want one in their midst, it meant spanish protection and naturally that is a good incentive in the volatile aboriginal politics were apparently appearing weak was inviting attacks.

This dominican priest prays and fasts and mortifies himself to God so that an aboriginal bird omen will be favorable to him. That is ironic.

Reading about these early days of the spanish post in Northern Taiwan and the lack of evidence of chinese traders there (the formosans preferred to trade among each other there apparently) reminds me of the silver from the american colonies that the spanish traded with the chinese back then.

The Dutch really set themselves into a hornets nest when coming to Taiwan. these constant aboriginal alliances sound like a nightmare.

The dutch really did have a lucky streak there. If the shogun hadn't forbidden japanese overseas trade etc. the japanese traders probably would have been another significant factor in the region and maybe they would have colonized Taiwan centuries earlier than what actually happened.

That really doesn't sound as if the Dutch could just waltz in and establish a colony on Taiwan, they were thrown in right into the aboriginal (and often violent) politics (and man 1-2000 people is a big village), they had to deal with chinese officials and priates, conquistadores and samurai.

Wow, apparently headhunting was quite important for the sex-segregated society of the Sirayan men and I doubt that they would have had their first children at 42, that seems awfully late, that might have been the ideal but it surely happened before.

well, the introduction was fine so far, I hope the book can keep it up. Granted, I didn't think this was about the first decades of colonization on Taiwan, but lets see what will come out of it.

Always fascinating to read about Japanese trade and all during the time of exclusion, the trade that still happened as well as how banning Europeans was more about controlling shogunates than the Europeans themselves

Yeah, it is really odd that colonialism usually only means overseas colonies.