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The Chinese people have had one of the longest recordable histories of mankind; covering such a broad topic should require much more space than is available, so a very brief introduction of Chinese history, pertaining to Taiwan, is given.
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603 A.D. - 1661 A.D.
The fight for control
The island which Taiwan is built upon has been within the scope of written history for about 1500 years.
The first interaction between the inhabitants, thought to be of Filipinio or Indonesian descent, and peoples of China took place in 603 A.D.
Conquest for land motivated another thousand years or so of fighting back and forth by powers stronger than the aboriginal islanders.
Although specifics over battles are not available, the Japanese are said to have controlled much of the island in the 12th and 15th centuries.
Beginning in 1590, European interest in Asia was extended to the island when the Portuguese first visited and came up with the name Formosa ("beautiful one").
After Spanish attempts at founding settlements were defeated by the Dutch, the Dutch set up a settlement in 1624 that managed to last for thirty-seven years.
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1662 - 1858
Enter the Chinese
At approximately this time, the Ming dynasty in China was overthrown by the Manchus, and the Ming half-Japanese pirate-general Koxinga (or Cheng Ch'eng-kung) fled to Taiwan.
With Koxinga came the military remnants of the Ming empire, and Koxinga led his army in a successful campaign against the Dutch, expelling them from the island.
Koxinga's victory was short lived, however; in 1683, Manchu China took control of Taiwan from his son.
Immigration to Taiwan was greatly increased after the Manchu victory, especially from the Fujian province (which provides the basis for the modern Taiwanese dialect of Chinese).
By 1887, Taiwan had been upgraded to the status of a Chinese province.
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19th century
China and the rest of the world
Increasing contact with the West brought China into many conflicts, particularly with France and Britain.
After warring with the Franco-British coalition a number of times, Taiwan was brought into the wars, being blockaded for a number of months in 1884-5.
This time period brought about the Opium Wars, where the British addicted millions of Chinese to opium and made their posessions easy spoils.
European intervention in a Sino-Japanese war over Korea gave Chinese-governed and populated Taiwan to Japan in 1895.
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1895-1945
Re-enter the Chinese
The Japanese maintained their rule over Taiwan for another fifty years, leading right up until their surrender in World War II.
The Chinese inhabitants initially wanted nothing to do with Japanese, and had formed a rebellion at the start of Japanese occupation.
After the rebellion failed, the island was Japonized, with most of the population being forced to learn the language and customs of Japan.
The Cairo Conference of 1942 provided in its Cairo Declaration that Chiang Kai-shek and China would control Taiwan.
The Chinese by now had given up the old empire system and were following the teachings of Dr. Sun Yat-sen (1866-1925) and his republican China.
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Following 1945 comes a period of history that directly relates to the current conflit between Taiwan and China.
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