Jeremy Keeshin

Outline- History of Taiwan Relating to its Current Problems with Works Cited

I.Island discovered by Portuguese in 1517 and named Formosa, meaningBeautiful. Later it was under the control of the Dutch, Spanish, Ming, butfinally ended up in the possession of the Manchu Qing in 1683. (Peng)II.In 1895, after the Sino-Japanese war, the Treaty of Shimonoseki resolves thatChina cedes over Taiwan. (Levinson 380)III.Taiwan is under Japanese control until the Cairo Conference of 1943 gives it back to China. (Hutchings 404)a.This was made official in 1945 after Japan lost World War II, it lost itscolonies, Taiwan being one of them b.Potsdam Conference of 1945 also solidifies this, returning Taiwan toChinaIV.Chiang Kai-shek ruled all of China from 1927 until he was defeated in theChinese Civil War from 1945-1949 (Waldron 60). He then fled to island ashead of ROC while PRC continued on the mainland.a.Mao Zedong’s Communist (CCP) defeats Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalists(KMT, or Kuomintang) b.During this time, the terrible February 28

Incident occurred (2-28Incident) in 1947i.Police beat up Taiwanese woman selling cigarettes untaxed inTaipei (Hutchings 407)ii.Leads to an island wide revolt of around 30,000 killed (Hutchings407)iii.Nationalist (KMT) government declares rule over Republic of China (ROC) in massacre (Hamrin 342)c.Taiwan was then under martial law from 1947-1987 (Levinson 380)V.Taiwan was then never officially separated from the Mainland since, and thisis why the conflict arises. Taiwan de facto has its independence as it acts as anindependent entity, but de jure is still under the authority of the PRC.VI.Chiang Kai-shek died in 1975 and was succeeded by son Chiang Ching-kuo.He died in 1988 and was replaced by Lee Teng-hui (All Nationalist, KMT).The year before in 1987, the radical Democratic Progressive party (DPP) wasformed and gained strength throughout the nineties. (Waldron 62).VII.The first democratic elections occur in Taiwan.a.In 1996 Lee Teng-hui won in a landslide as KMT but later expelled from party b.In 2000 Chen Shuibian of the DPP was elected ending the fifty-one yearsof KMT rule.c.In 2004 Chen Shuibian of the DPP was reelected in a very close electiononce again beating out his opponent Lien Chan of the KMT, who just thisweek visited China controversially.d.The other major party includes that of the People’s First Party (PFP)headed by James Soong.VIII.These democratic elections are of great significance because it widens the gap between the government of the ROC and PRC. The fact that Taiwan is more