Taiwan , officially the Republic of China (ROC ), is a country in East Asia .
It is located at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean , with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the northeast, and the Philippines to the south. The territories controlled by the ROC consist of 168 islands with a combined area of 36,193 square kilometres (13,974 square miles). The main island of Taiwan , also known as Formosa , has an area of 35,808 square kilometres (13,826 square miles), with mountain ranges dominating the eastern two-thirds and plains in the western third, where its highly urbanized population is concentrated. The capital, Taipei , forms along with New Taipei City and Keelung the largest metropolitan area . With around 23.9 million inhabitants, Taiwan is among the most densely populated countries .
Taiwan has been settled for at least 25,000 years. Ancestors of Taiwanese indigenous peoples settled the island around 6,000 years ago. In the 17th century, large-scale Han Chinese immigration began under a Dutch colony and continued under the Kingdom of Tungning , the first predominantly Han Chinese state in Taiwanese history . The island was annexed in 1683 by the Qing dynasty of China and ceded to the Empire of Japan in 1895. The Republic of China , which had overthrown the Qing in 1912 , took control following the surrender of Japan in 1945. Japan renounced sovereignty over Taiwan in 1952 . The immediate resumption of the Chinese Civil War resulted in the loss of the Chinese mainland to Communist forces , who established the People's Republic of China , and the flight of the ROC central government to Taiwan in 1949. The effective jurisdiction of the ROC has since been limited to Taiwan, Penghu , and smaller islands.
In the early 1960s, Taiwan entered a period of rapid economic growth and industrialization called the "Taiwan Miracle ". In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the ROC transitioned from a one-party state under martial law to a multi-party democracy , with democratically elected presidents since 1996 . Taiwan's export-oriented industrial economy is the 21st-largest in the world by nominal GDP and the 20th-largest by PPP measures, with a focus on steel, machinery, electronics, and chemicals manufacturing. Taiwan is a developed country . It is ranked highly in terms of civil liberties , healthcare , and human development .
The political status of Taiwan is contentious. The ROC no longer represents China as a member of the United Nations after UN members voted in 1971 to recognize the PRC instead. The ROC maintained its claim of being the sole legitimate representative of China and its territory until 1991, when it ceased to regard the CCP as a rebellious group and recognized its control over mainland China. Taiwan is claimed by the PRC, which refuses to establish diplomatic relations with countries that recognise the ROC. Taiwan maintains official diplomatic relations with 11 out of 193 UN member states and the Holy See . Many others maintain unofficial diplomatic ties through representative offices and institutions that function as de facto embassies and consulates . International organizations in which the PRC participates either refuse to grant membership to Taiwan or allow it to participate on a non-state basis. Domestically, the major political contention is between parties favoring eventual Chinese unification and promoting a pan-Chinese identity, contrasted with those aspiring to formal international recognition and promoting a Taiwanese identity ; into the 21st century, both sides have moderated their positions to broaden their appeal. (Full article... )
Proportion of residents aged 6 or older using Hokkien at home in Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen & Matsu in 2010
Taiwanese Hokkien ( HOK -ee-en , HOH -kee-en ; Chinese : 臺灣話 ; Pe̍h-ōe-jī : Tâi-oân-ōe ; Tâi-lô : Tâi-uân-uē ), or simply Taiwanese , also known as Taiuanoe , Taigi , Taigu (Chinese : 臺語 ; Pe̍h-ōe-jī /Tâi-lô : Tâi-gí / Tâi-gú ), Taiwanese Minnan (Chinese : 臺灣閩南語 ), Hoklo and Holo , is a variety of the Hokkien language spoken natively by more than 70 percent of the population of Taiwan . It is spoken by a significant portion of those Taiwanese people who are descended from Hoklo immigrants of southern Fujian . It is one of the national languages of Taiwan .
Taiwanese is generally similar to Hokkien spoken in
Amoy ,
Quanzhou , and
Zhangzhou , as well dialectal forms used in
Southeast Asia , such as
Singaporean Hokkien ,
Penang Hokkien ,
Philippine Hokkien ,
Medan Hokkien , and
Southern Peninsular Malaysian Hokkien . It is
mutually intelligible with the Amoy and Zhangzhou varieties at the mouth of the
Jiulong River in mainland China, and with
Philippine Hokkien to the south in the
Philippines , spoken altogether by about 3 million people. The mass popularity of
Hokkien entertainment media from Taiwan has given
prominence to the Taiwanese variety of Hokkien, especially since the 1980s. (
Full article... )
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A series of military actions and diplomatic moves were undertaken in 1635 and 1636 by the Dutch East India Company (VOC) in Dutch-era Taiwan (Formosa ) aimed at subduing hostile aboriginal villages in the southwestern region of the island. Prior to the campaign the Dutch had been in Formosa for eleven years, but did not control much of the island beyond their principal fortress at Tayouan (present-day Anping , Tainan ), and an alliance with the town of Sinkan . The other aboriginal villages in the area conducted numerous attacks on the Dutch and their allies, with the chief belligerents being the village of Mattau , who in 1629 ambushed and slaughtered a group of sixty Dutch soldiers.
After receiving reinforcements from the colonial headquarters at
Batavia , the Dutch launched an attack in 1635 and were able to crush opposition and bring the area around present-day Tainan fully under their control. After seeing that Mattau and
Soulang , the most powerful villages in the area, were overpowered by Dutch force overwhelmingly, many other villages in the surrounding area came to the Dutch to seek peace and surrender sovereignty. Thus the Dutch were able to dramatically expand the extent of their territorial control in a short time, and avoid the need for further fighting. The campaign ended in February 1636, when representatives from twenty-eight villages attended a ceremony in Tayouan to cement Dutch sovereignty. (
Full article... )
The following are images from various Taiwan-related articles on Wikipedia.
Image 1 Sky Lantern festival in
Pingxi , Taiwan (from
Culture of Taiwan )
Image 3 Territory controlled by
Koxinga , founder of the
Kingdom of Tungning (from
History of Taiwan )
Image 4 Bunun dancer in traditional aboriginal dress (1989) (from
Culture of Taiwan )
Image 6 1901 map with red line marking approximate boundary separating territory under actual Japanese administration from "Savage District" (from
History of Taiwan )
Image 7 Photo from
Savages of Formosa , a 1926 government report on tribal life in Taiwan (from
History of Taiwan )
Image 8 Entrance hall of a K-TV in Taipei (from
Culture of Taiwan )
Image 9 Portrait of
Zheng Jing (1642–1681), possibly 17th c. (from
History of Taiwan )
Image 10 Administrative units of Taiwan under the Qing dynasty in 1685 (from
History of Taiwan )
Image 11 Shi Lang (1621–1696) in an 18th-century painting (from
History of Taiwan )
Image 12 Apo Hsu and the
NTNU Symphony Orchestra on stage in the
National Concert Hall in
Taipei and Play
Saint-Saens 's
Organ Symphony No. 3 (from
Culture of Taiwan )
Image 13 Kagi Shrine , one of many Shinto shrines built in Taiwan. (from
History of Taiwan )
Image 14 Depiction of Qing ships crossing the ocean to suppress the
Lin Shuangwen rebellion , 1787–1788 (from
History of Taiwan )
Image 15 Chinese depiction of Chikan (
Fort Provintia ), 1752 (from
History of Taiwan )
Image 16 The Capture of
Lin Shuangwen (from
History of Taiwan )
Image 18 Depiction of a Chinese man, woman, and soldier, by Georg Franz Müller (1646–1723) (from
History of Taiwan )
Image 20 Severed heads of
Seediq rebels (from
History of Taiwan )
Image 21 Administrative units of Taiwan under the Qing dynasty by 1894 (from
History of Taiwan )
Image 22 Two
7-Eleven stores opposite each other on a crossroad. Taiwan has the highest density of 7-Eleven stores per person in the world (from
Culture of Taiwan )
Image 23 The Qing Empire in 1820, with provinces in yellow, military governorates and protectorates in light yellow, tributary states in orange. (from
History of Taiwan )
Image 24 A map of the
Empire of Japan including Taiwan ("barbarian land" in red) in 1895 (from
History of Taiwan )
Image 25 Japanese painting of the expedition forces attacking the Mudan tribe, 1874 (from
History of Taiwan )
Image 26 Woodcut of the mass killings which took place during the February 28 Incident (from
History of Taiwan )
Image 27 Evacuation of
Keelung by the French forces, image created 1887 (from
History of Taiwan )
Image 28 Original geographic distributions of Taiwanese aboriginal peoples (from
History of Taiwan )
Image 29 Taiwan in the 17th century, showing Dutch (magenta) and Spanish (green) possessions, and the
Kingdom of Middag (orange) (from
History of Taiwan )
Image 30 The original flag of the
Taiwanese People's Party , 2 January 1929 – 6 October 1929 (from
History of Taiwan )
Image 31 Mid-17th century portrait of
Koxinga (
Guoxingye or "Kok seng ia" in southern Fujianese), "Lord of the Imperial Surname" (from
History of Taiwan )
Image 32 Yin and Yang symbol of
Taoism (from
Culture of Taiwan )
Image 34 Map of Asia showing the "Chinese Empire" (1892) (from
History of Taiwan )
Image 35 Section of
Kangxi period painting of Taiwan, 1684–1722 (from
History of Taiwan )
Image 36 Administrative units of Taiwan under the Qing dynasty in 1734 (from
History of Taiwan )
Image 37 The Imperial Guard Defeats the Enemy in Hard Fighting at Keelung on the Island of Taiwan , 1895 (from
History of Taiwan )
Image 38 Bird's eye view of
Fort Zeelandia in
Dutch Formosa in the 17th-century (from
History of Taiwan )
Image 39 Map of Taiwan with the western coast pointed downwards, c. 1640 (from
History of Taiwan )
Image 40 Conquest of Douliumen (
Zhuluo ) (from
History of Taiwan )
Image 41 Departure of a
Ryukyuan ship bearing tribute to
Beijing , 1831 (from
History of Taiwan )
Image 42 Section of a painting depicting daily life of the
Taokas people , 1684–1722 (from
History of Taiwan )
Image 44 Population density map of Taiwan in 2019 (from
History of Taiwan )
Image 45 Pearl milk tea (from
Culture of Taiwan )
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