Modern History

When Communist forces took control of China in 1949, the president, General Chiang Kai-shek and his Nationalist Party, the Kuomintang (KMT), fled to Taiwan to plan their reconquest of the mainland. One and a half million Chinese also left the mainland for Taiwan when Mao took control. In 1971 the KMT lost the Chinese United Nations seat and in 1979 the USA withdrew its recognition of the Republic.

When Chiang Kai-shek died in 1975 and was replaced by his son Chiang Ching-kuo, Taiwanese started muttering the word 'dynasty', and criticism of the one-party system rose. In 1986, with martial law in force, Taiwan's first opposition party, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), formed and was elected into the legislature. Two years later Chiang Ching-kuo died and was replaced by the first native-born president, Lee Teng-hui.

In 1995 relations between the two Chinas, always chilly, plummetted to a new low. Lee Teng-hui's high-profile visit to the United States brought mainland China out in a rash of nervous jealousy. Determined to isolate Taiwan and sway the minds of its voters, China held intense military exercises near the Taiwanese coast. In response, the United States sent warships to monitor the situation. Despite the region's sudden high concentration of itchy trigger fingers, the first direct presidential election was held without incident, and Lee Teng-hui was returned to office.

Taiwan's fortunes took a turn for the worse in September 1999 when a massive earthquake hit the island, the largest in its history, leaving over 2000 islanders dead and a rubble-strewn country. Even in this time of crisis, however, the snippy relationship between mainland China and Taiwan continued. A defiantly sulky China demanded that any country entering Taiwan to offer earthquake relief get permission from the Chinese government first: a demand that was met with less-than-hearty agreement from humanitarian organisations and other countries around the world.

Recent History

In March 2000, Taiwan elected as its president Chen Shui-bian of the Democratic Progressive Party, which believes in a formal declaration of independence for the island. This ended 54 years of Nationalist rule and alarmed China, which demanded a firm commitment to the 'One China principle'.

Reelected by the narrowest of margins in 2004, Chen's second term as ROC president has been marked by scandals involving family members and island-wide protests that have widely gridlocked the government. If he's not impeached beforehand, Chen's constitutionally barred from seeking a third term in 2008.

The question of Taiwan's future vis-à-vis China looms large. While political leaders from one side creep slowly towards codifying the island's de facto independence (renaming state-run departments and buildings to include the word 'Taiwan' rather than 'China', and removing Chiang Kai-shek statues from public spaces), those from the other camp have been making highly publicised pilgrimages to the mainland in order to create a framework for eventual unification. In the middle stand those who'd prefer to keep the status quo, neither admitting nor denying either Taiwan's independence from, or inclusion within, the greater Chinese nation. If and how the situation will be resolved in the coming years is anyone's guess.

Pre 20th Century History

Little archaeological evidence remains from Taiwan's early history. People - probably from Austronesia (though there is serious speculation that Taiwan is the origin of all Austronesian peoples) - are thought to have inhabited the island since 10,000 BC with migration from China occurring much later in the 15th century. In 1517 Portuguese sailors reached Taiwan and named it Ilha Formosa (Beautiful Island). The Dutch invaded in 1624 and built a capital at Tainan - two years later they lost the island to a Spanish invasion but returned the favour by booting the Spanish out in 1641. During the 1660s the Ming and Manchu (Qing) dynasties arrived on the scene, kicking out the Dutch and wrestling one another for control of the island. The Manchus eventually won, making Taiwan a county of Fujian province and triggering a flood of Chinese immigration. At the end of the 19th century, the Japanese decided to weigh in as well: Taiwan was ceded to them in 1895 following China's defeat in the Sino-Japanese War. The Japanese quashed a republican rebellion organised by the local Chinese population and went on to establish a military base on the island and to promote education and economic development. After Japan's defeat at the end of WWII, Taiwan was handed back to China.