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:::Dutch Colonization Era |
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■ Period of Dutch Occupation, 1624~1661
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In July 11 of 1621, the Dutch occupied Penghu and in the following year, they dispatched a ship to Tainan and Kaohsiung. They found that Anping was suitable to anchor ships as they entered to Tayouan(today's Anping harbor) and in the following year, Fuchien's commander-in-chief attacked the Dutch and then they gave up Penghu and built fortress in Anping. They named it "Orlande City" (later re-named it "Fort Zeelandia") and started the period of Dutch Colonization.
From the map made by the westerners in middle of 16 century, we can know the importance of Anping's geographical location. The distance from south to north was about 3.5 miles and was about 0.25 miles from East to West. In the north across a bay was Beisanwen Island and the strait north of the island was Luermen. From south of yikunshen, there were 7 islands connect to Taiwan, this was the famous "Chikunshen" and the inshore sea surrounding by these 7 islands was called "Taijiang".
According to the record, from Yikunshen to Cikunshen, land were linked together not too close and not too far apart. Outside was the ocean and inside was a huge port. Taijiang was the place where all rivers joined together. So Anping was wide enough to anchor thousands of ships.
The Dutch built Fort Zeelandia based on Anping's specific feature. This fort belonged to East India Company and had a officer in Taiwan to control interior affairs. Fort Zeelandia became an important military fortress. Ouring those 38 years the Dutch in Taiwan, there were about 12 persons sent to Taiwan to mange Taiwan by the headquarter of East India Company.
At that time. Taiwan's international trade was very popular. Ships from China, Japan or An-Nan gathered in Anping for trading. The Dutch counted on the foundation from Chinese people and aborigines' exploiture and then used the colonized policy from the West to seize the resources in Taiwan to trade with the China for themselves.
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| Fort Zeelandia: |
When the Dutch invaded Anping in 1624, they started to build Fort Zeelandia and finished it in 1634. Zeelandia means Custom. The main material to build this fort was stone and has an inner fort and an outer fort. The foundation was on a sand hill and was built into square type. The thickness of wall was 6 feet and the height of enclosing wall was 3 feet with 18 inches of thickness. The entire instruction was very strong.
Besides the military purpose, they also considered fort Zeelandia to be a commercial center. The Dutch took Anping as the center to trade with China and Japan. According to their idea, they wanted to built another fort in Chihkan and this fort was in charge of politics. These two forts formed to a scope of military and politics and between them had schools and churches.
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| Trading and Interior Affairs: |
| The main export goods from Taiwan to China and Japan were deer skin, rice, sugar as well as medicine and metal minerals from Dutch. They exchanged for silk fabric, china and others and then transferred to their headquarter. Other the other hand, they levied poll tax, export tax and hunting tax from Chinese people and aborigine who lived in Taiwan so the Dutch trading company got plentiful profit from South-East Asia. In order to ensure their power and profit, they attempted to introduce Christianity to comfort the aborigine.
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| The End of Dutch Occupation |
| With the change of Chinese interior administration, Koxinga lost his battle in China and would like to take over Taiwan as the station. In April of 1661, Koxinga armies attacked Anping from Luermen and they had violent fighting in Beisanwen Island. The Dutch was in the worst situation after the war so they convened a meeting to discuss if they should keep fighting or give up. Finally they voted to give up. Over one week's negotiation, they signed the treaty and withdrew from Taiwan, edned their 38 years of colonial administration of Taiwan. |
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Spain[Map of Anping harbor by Dutch] 1626 A.D.
Origin:Anping History |
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Map of Fort Zeelandia
Origin:Anping History |
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