Dutch Formosa

Did You Know?

• In 1629, 60 Dutch musketeers were killed in an ambush by Mattau and Soulang warriors while crossing a stream.
• The Dutch were called 'red-haired barbarians' by the Chinese, and twelve Dutch soldiers were paraded before the Emperor in Beijing after a Chinese victory.

History

The Dutch Republic tried to open trade with China in 1601, but China refused, already trading with the Portuguese at Macau since 1535. In 1604, Admiral Wybrand van Warwijk sailed from Batavia to attack Macau, but a typhoon pushed his fleet to the Pescadores. There, his effort to negotiate with Chinese authorities failed. After 1618, the Dutch East India Company raided Chinese ships, demanding that China open a Fujian port and expel the Portuguese. Following another failed Macau attack in 1622 and an unsuccessful attempt to establish a post at Fat Tong O, the Dutch deliberately went to the Pescadores and built a fort at Makung. They forced 1,500 local Chinese into labor; 1,300 died from harsh treatment and scarce food. Eventually, the Dutch withdrew to Tayouan on Formosa, where they set up a lasting colony.

Government

The Dutch claimed the entire island but controlled only the western plains and isolated east coast pockets, with most villages swearing allegiance and governing themselves. Acknowledging Dutch lordship involved presenting a small native plant in earth to the governor, who then gave the village leader a robe, staff, and a Prinsenvlag. The governor of Formosa, appointed by the governor-general of the Dutch East Indies in Batavia, could legislate, collect taxes, wage war, and declare peace. He was assisted by the Council of Tayouan, whose president was second-in-command and would succeed if the governor died or was incapacitated. The governor resided at Fort Zeelandia on Tayouan. Twelve governors served during the colonial era.

Economy

The Tayouan factory became the second-most profitable in the Dutch East Indies after Hirado/Dejima, though it took 22 years to return a profit. The Dutch engaged in triangular trade among themselves, China, and Japan, and exploited Formosa's natural resources, introducing a cash economy using the Spanish real. Originally established to trade with China and Japan and disrupt Portuguese and Spanish trade, the fort also enabled trade in Chinese silks and Japanese silver.

The Dutch later exploited vast herds of Formosan sika deer, selling hides to Japan for samurai armor and other parts to Chinese traders. They paid indigenous peoples for deer and tried to manage stocks, but deer populations declined, forcing indigenous adaptation; the subspecies survived in captivity and was later reintroduced. In 1638, 151,400 deer hides were exported to Japan, with annual exports later dropping to 50,000–80,000. Tea also became a major export after Chinese settlers grew it on hillsides unsuitable for rice.

Demographics

Before the Dutch, Taiwan was almost exclusively populated by Austronesian aborigines living as hunter-gatherers with swidden agriculture. No island-wide population count existed before the Dutch, and even at the height of Dutch control in the 1650s, large regions remained outside their authority. The population of Dutch Formosa consisted of three main groups: aborigines, Dutch, and Chinese, with some Spanish in the north from 1626 to 1642 and occasional Wakō pirates.

The first census, conducted by the Dutch in 1650, estimated indigenous peoples at 64,000 to 68,000, making them the ethnic majority. They lived in villages of a few hundred to about 2,000 people, speaking different mutually unintelligible Formosan languages. Captain Ripon, a French-speaking Swiss soldier from Lausanne, was sent to Taiwan in 1623 to build a fortress. After constructing Fort Oranje, he was ordered to demolish it and concentrate at Penghu.

In July 1624, a Ming navy of 5,000–10,000 soldiers and 40–50 warships forced the Dutch to sue for peace; the Dutch retreated to Tayouan. Ripon oversaw the dismantling of the Penghu fortress, left on 16 September, and later departed for Batavia in December after a falling out with the governor.