Taiwan historical timeline

Chronology

c. 4000 B.C. Austronesian peoples have lived on Taiwan for several thousand years, and linguists place the origin of the entire Austronesian language family — the languages of the Philippines, Indonesia, Madagascar, Hawaii and New Zealand — on this island. Han Chinese settlement from Fujian began seriously only in the 17th century. Taiwan is therefore the linguistic homeland of a family spread across half the planet, which is the most surprising thing about it and the least advertised.
1624 The Dutch East India Company begins Fort Zeelandia at Anping, now a district of Tainan, building it over ten years to 1634, having been expelled from the Pescadores in August 1624 after failing to force Ming China to trade. Formosa's value to the Dutch was strategic: from it they could harass Spanish commerce between Manila and China and Portuguese commerce between Macau and Japan. The fort is still there, and Tainan is still the oldest European-founded settlement on the island.
1662 Koxinga, a Ming loyalist, expels the Dutch after a siege. A regime founded by refugees from a collapsing mainland dynasty, holding an offshore island against the power that had displaced it, is a pattern the island repeats almost exactly 287 years later — which is why Koxinga is a politically useful figure here and is commemorated as one.
1683 The Qing annex Taiwan, and rule it for 212 years. For most of that period it was a frontier province rather than a prize, administered loosely and settled steadily from Fujian, which is where the island's Hokkien language and its temple traditions come from.
1895 The Treaty of Shimonoseki, signed on 17 April 1895, ends the First Sino-Japanese War and requires China to cede Taiwan, the Penghu Islands and the Liaodong peninsula, and to pay an indemnity of 200 million taels. Japan then ruled Taiwan for fifty years and built the railways, the sugar industry, the schools and much of the administration that followed — which is why Japanese habits are visible in Taiwanese public life in a way they are not in China.
1945 The island passes to the Republic of China at the end of the Second World War, after half a century under Japan. The handover was not a return to a familiar state: the arriving administration and the population had been governed separately for two generations and did not understand each other, which is the background to the next entry.
1947 The 228 incident: an anti-government uprising violently suppressed by the Kuomintang-led Nationalist government. The flashpoint came on 27 February 1947 in Taipei, when agents of the State Monopoly Bureau struck a Taiwanese widow suspected of selling contraband cigarettes; thousands of civilians were killed from 28 February, on the direction of provincial governor Chen Yi and president Chiang Kai-shek, with the death toll estimated at between 18,000 and 28,000. It was unmentionable in Taiwan for four decades and is now a public holiday with a memorial park in central Taipei.
1949 The Nationalists lose the Chinese civil war and their government, army and two million refugees relocate to Taiwan. Martial law was declared on 20 May 1949 and ran for over 38 consecutive years — at the time the longest imposition of martial law by any regime anywhere in the world. The period is known as the White Terror.
1971 The United Nations transfers the Chinese seat from the Republic of China to the People's Republic. Taiwan's diplomatic isolation dates from here rather than from 1949, and it is why a visitor deals with a "representative office" rather than an embassy, and why the island competes at the Olympics as Chinese Taipei.
1987 Martial law is lifted by presidential order on 15 July 1987, after 38 years. Taiwan's democratisation from this point was fast and, unusually, was carried out by the party that had run the dictatorship — which is why the same party still competes in elections rather than having been dissolved.
1987 TSMC is established as a joint venture between Taiwan's government, the Industrial Technology Research Institute and private investors, with Morris Chang founding it to commercialise ITRI research and creating the world's first dedicated semiconductor foundry. It now holds roughly 70 per cent of the global foundry market and was the world's largest non-US company by market capitalisation as of 30 June 2026. No other single company is as central to how the world treats the country it sits in.
1996 Taiwan holds its first direct presidential election, nine years after martial law ended. Two generations of Taiwanese have now voted in a system their grandparents were imprisoned for advocating, and the turnout figures are the strongest argument the island makes about itself.
1999 The Chi-Chi earthquake strikes Nantou County at 01:47 on 21 September 1999 — 7.3 on the Richter scale, 7.7 moment magnitude, at a focal depth of 8 kilometres. It killed 2,415 people, injured 11,305 severely, destroyed 51,711 buildings completely and severely damaged 53,768 more, with NT$300 billion in damage. Taiwanese building codes, the automatic phone alerts and the national preparedness culture a visitor encounters all date from "921".
2000 The first transfer of power to an opposition party at the ballot box, 53 years after 228 and 13 after martial law. The completeness of the change — from one-party state to routine alternation inside a generation — is what makes Taiwan a reference case rather than a special one.
2019 Same-sex marriage becomes legal on 24 May 2019, making Taiwan the first country in Asia to legalise it. The Constitutional Court had ruled the marriage law unconstitutional on 24 May 2017; the bill passed on 17 May 2019 and President Tsai Ing-wen signed it on 22 May. Taipei's Pride parade, held annually in October, is the largest regular LGBT+ event in Asia, and discrimination on the grounds of gender and gender identity is illegal here.

Verified against Wikipedia, September 2026.

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Checked against Wikipedia — Fort Zeelandia was built over ten years from 1624 to 1634 by the Dutch East India Company in the town of Anping, now Anping District of Tainan; the Dutch had been expelled from the Pescadores in August 1624 after failing to coerce Ming China into trading with them, and Formosa's value to the Dutch was mainly strategic — from it Spanish commerce between Manila and China and Portuguese commerce between Macau and Japan could be attacked, The Treaty of Shimonoseki was signed on 17 April 1895, ending the First Sino-Japanese War, and required China to terminate its tributary relations with Korea, pay an indemnity of 200 million taels and cede Taiwan, the Penghu Islands and the Liaodong peninsula, The February 28 incident was an anti-government uprising in Taiwan in 1947 violently suppressed by the Kuomintang-led Nationalist government; the flashpoint came on 27 February 1947 in Taipei when agents of the State Monopoly Bureau struck a Taiwanese widow suspected of selling contraband cigarettes, thousands of civilians were killed beginning on 28 February on the direction of provincial governor Chen Yi and president Chiang Kai-shek, and the number of deaths was estimated at between 18,000 and 28,000, Two years after the 228 incident, and for 38 years thereafter, Taiwan was placed under martial law in a period known as the White Terror, Martial law in Taiwan ran for over 38 consecutive years between 20 May 1949 and 14 July 1987, qualified at the time as the longest imposition of martial law by a regime anywhere in the world, and was lifted by presidential order promulgated by President Chiang Ching-kuo on 15 July 1987, TSMC was established in 1987 as a joint venture between Taiwan's government, the Industrial Technology Research Institute and private investors, with Morris Chang founding it to commercialise ITRI research and becoming the world's first dedicated semiconductor foundry; it holds approximately 70 per cent of the global semiconductor foundry market and was the world's largest non-US company by market capitalisation as of 30 June 2026, The Chi-Chi or 921 earthquake struck Jiji in Nantou County, Taiwan, on 21 September 1999 at 01:47 local time, measuring 7.3 on the Richter scale and 7.7 moment magnitude at a focal depth of 8 kilometres; it killed 2,415 people, severely wounded 11,305, left 29 missing, completely destroyed 51,711 buildings, severely damaged 53,768 more and caused NT$300 billion of damage, Same-sex marriage has been legal in Taiwan since 24 May 2019, making it the first country in Asia to legalise same-sex marriage; the Constitutional Court ruled the marriage law unconstitutional on 24 May 2017, the bill passed on 17 May 2019 and President Tsai Ing-wen signed it on 22 May (September 2026).