The Republic of Formosa was born on May 24, 1895, on an isolated island in the East China Sea, at a time when the Qing empire on the Chinese mainland had gone astray. It was the first short-lived independent republic in Asia. Taiwan was ceded to Japan by the Qing Dynasty on April 17, 1985, under the Treaty of Shimonoseki, which ended the Sino-Japanese War. The Sino-Japanese War led to Japan's acquisition of Taiwan from the Qing Dynasty, but the anti-Japanese movement led to the deployment of anti-Japanese armed forces in the Democratic People's Republic of Taiwan, and the rise of the Democratic People's Republic of Taiwan (DPRK), in which some Taiwanese soldiers participated. The anti-Japanese soldiers of the Republic of Taiwan resisted the Japanese invasion, but they were abused and massacred, and their decapitated bodies were scattered around. The Republic of Taiwan collapsed after the Japanese invaded the capital city of Tainan, and ceased to exist on October 23, 1895. After World War II, Japan surrendered and the Republic of China government took control of the island on October 25, 1945.
In the early stages of Japanese rule over Taiwan, from May 1895, Taiwan was ruled as a military regime by the Japanese military, with hard-line repressive rule. It was the local organizations of some Taiwanese citizens that resisted the Japanese military. This led to a resistance movement of Taiwanese people, who used force and created Taiwanese casualties. In response to the uprising and insurrection of the Taiwanese people from 1898, Goto Shinpei implemented a mixture of hard and soft measures to govern Taiwan, and in 1902, the anti-Japanese movement was suppressed and the British-style colonial policy was instilled to govern Taiwan.
The Japanese landed near Keelung on the north coast of Taiwan on May 29, 1895. The Japanese occupied Keelung on the night of June 4, and the Japanese took Taipei shortly thereafter. On August 27, the Battle of Baguashan, the largest battle fought on Taiwan, resulted in the overwhelming defeat of the Japanese and the collapse of the Republic of Taiwan. The Japanese forces were subjected to several weeks of guerrilla warfare against the invasion from Taipei to the south.
As for the modern history of Taiwan, the Dutch East India Company (1624-1662) and the Spanish Empire (1626-1642) established formal settlements in Taiwan in the 17th century. The Dutch drove the Spaniards off the island in 1642. After being overthrown by the Qing Empire on the Chinese mainland in 1662, the island was occupied by Zheng Cheng, the remaining general from the Ming Empire. In 1683, the Qing Empire defeated Zheng Cheng's remaining troops on Taiwan and formally annexed the island as part of Fujian Province in 1684. Taiwan was annexed by the Qing Empire in 1885. Taiwan became a separate province in 1885, and the affairs of Taipei were administered by Liu Mingden and Liu Mingchuan, the first governors of Taiwan.
