Updated June 3, 2022
Prehistory and Aboriginal Era Before 1624
It was inhabited by indigenous people of Malayo-Polynesian descent.
Although Han Chinese had settled in the area from mainland China, the Qing Dynasty saw a further increase in immigration from mainland China, partly due to government policies.
Originally, there were about 10 indigenous peoples (called aborigines in Taiwan) who lived in Taiwan, but since they were all ethnic minorities, the majority of the population came to be made up of Han Chinese.
Many Han Chinese who came to Taiwan came from Fujian Province, and the language of the Fujian region, now called Taiwanese, is widely used.
Hakka people, drifters from the north, also migrated to Taiwan and speak Hakka.
1544 Portuguese sailors sail to TaiwanIlha. Formosa(Beautiful Island)," he praised.
1593 Toyotomi Hideyoshi encourages Taiwan to pay tribute.
Dutch Occupation Period1624 - 1662
1624 The Dutch East India Company conquers the area around Daein (around present-day Tainan City) on the island of Taiwan. Zeelandia Castle and Provincia Castle are built.
1626 Spain occupies Keelung (Keelung). The Fortress of San Salvador is built.
1628 Spain occupies Freshwater (Tansui). San Domingo Fortress is built.
1642 Netherlands expels Spain from northern Taiwan.
1652 Uprising of Guo Huai-ichi against the Dutch.
1661 Attacked by Zheng Cheng Cheng, he withdrew completely from Taiwan the following year (Siege of Zeelandia Castle).
Zheng administration period1662 - 1683
1661 Zheng Cheng Kung expels the Dutch East India Company from Taiwan. Taiwan is renamed Dongdu.
1683 The Zheng regime surrenders to the Qing Dynasty and is destroyed.
Zheng Cheng, Jung Cheng.
Qing Dynasty rule period (of China, 1336-1912 CE)1683 - 1895
1683 The Qing Dynasty succeeds in conquering Taiwan and destroying the Zheng regime.
1684 Taiwan becomes a Qing state territory and is renamed Fujian Taiwan Province.
1732 Datu Kingdom is destroyed by Qing forces (Dajia Xisha Anti-Qing Incident).
1787 The Tianjikai led by Lin Souwen revolts against the Qing dynasty, but is suppressed by the Qing army led by Fu Kang'an.
1854 U.S. Perry's fleet calls at Keelung.
1858 The Tianjin Treaty opens the ports of Anping (Tainan) and Keelung to European powers.
1871 The Botansha Incident involving the murder of Ryukyuan drifters occurs.
1874 Japan marches to Taiwan.
1875 Lion's Head Company Incident.
1884 The Sino-French War breaks out and Taiwan is attacked by French forces.
1885 Taiwan becomes independent from Fujian Province and becomes Taiwan Province.
1887 The Keelung-Taipei railroad is constructed.
1888 The General Post Office is completed.
1894 The capital is moved from Tainan to Taipei.
1895 Taiwan is ceded from the Qing Dynasty to Japan under the Treaty of Shimonoseki (Maguan Treaty), and the Ministry of Taiwan is abolished. The Governor-General of Taiwan is established (Kabayama Shigenori becomes the first Governor-General).
British Consulate in Dagu
era of Japanese colonial rule1895 - 1945
1895 Sino-Japanese Peace Treaty (Treaty of Shimonoseki) signed; Taiwan ceded to Japan.
1895 (May) Proclamation of independence of the Democratic Republic of Taiwan. Japanese troops land in Taiwan.
(June) Tang Jing_, President of the Democratic Republic of Taiwan, flees to Xiamen.
1896 Takashi Hara submitted "Two Proposals for the Taiwan Issue" to the Taiwan Affairs Office. Around this time, the "sale of Taiwan" theory became popular.
1897 Final deadline for Taiwan residents to select their nationality. President of Taiwan High Court of Appeals, Meng-Ng Koya, is dismissed from office.
1897 Governor-General Gentaro Kodama and Director-General Shimpei Goto (later Civil Affairs Secretary) arrive. The land survey project begins (-1905). The "Bandit Punishment Order" goes into effect.
1899 The Bank of Taiwan begins operations.
1905 Land survey project completed. The Japanese government declined to subsidize the project from this year.
1908 The Taiwan Longitudinal Railway was fully completed.
1914 Taiwan Assimilation Society formed (dissolved the following year).
1915 Outbreak of the Seiraian Incident (Tapani Incident).
1919 Kenjiro Tian, the first civilian Governor-General, arrives in office. Establishment of Taiwan Electric Power Co.
1920 Shinmin-kai (chaired by Hayashi Shindo) is formed, centered on Taiwanese students living in Japan.
1921 The first "Petition for the Establishment of a Taiwan Assembly" was submitted to the Imperial Diet. Formation of the Taiwan Cultural Association.
1922 The Security Police Act is enforced in Taiwan.
1923 Violation of the Security Police Act (control of the petition campaign to establish a Taiwanese parliament).
1927 Taiwan Cultural Association splits to form the Taiwan Minzu Party.
1928 Establishment of Taipei Imperial University.
1930 Completed construction of Chianan Dashen. Wusha Incident. The imperialization policy was introduced.
1934 Cancellation of the petition campaign to establish a Taiwanese parliament.
1935 Hsinchu-Taichung earthquake.
1936 Establishment of Taiwan Takushoku Co.
1940 Taiwanese begin to change their family names.
1941 Inauguration of the Imperial Civil Service Association (promotion of imperialization).
1943 Six-year compulsory education is implemented.
1944 The Japanese military conscription system is established. Japanese soldiers from Taiwan serve in the military. At the same time, the House of Representatives Election Law was amended to allow Taiwanese residents the right to vote in the House of Representatives elections.
1945 The Empire of Japan surrenders to the Allied Powers. World War II ("Greater East Asia War" in Taiwan at the time) ends.
Office of the President of the Republic of China
era during the reign of the Republic of China (i.e. the Taisho and Showa periods)1945 - Present
【Nanjing Nationalist Government】
1945 World War II ends; Japan surrenders. Taiwan reverts to the Republic of China. Nationalist Government troops land in Taiwan. Taiwan's governing body, the Taiwan Provincial Executive Office, is established.
1945 Chen Yi was assigned as the Secretary of Administration of Taiwan Province.
1947 The February 28 Incident occurs. Thereafter, white terror attacks by the Nationalist Government occur frequently. The Taiwan Administrative Office is reorganized into the Taiwan Provincial Government.
1948 Chiang Kai-shek becomes the first president.
1949 Chiang Kai-shek relocates the Nationalist Government (Kuo-fu), which has collapsed due to the Sino-Chinese Civil War, to Taipei City and imposes martial law within the executive government area. The People's Republic of China is established on the mainland.
【TaiwanNationalist Government (of China; i.e. under the Kuomintang)】
1950 Chiang Kai-shek assumes the presidency of the Republic of China. Activities of the ROC and Taiwan Nationalist Government begin in earnest. The U.S. dispatches the Seventh Fleet to the Taiwan Strait.
1951 U.S.-China Joint Defense Mutual Assistance Agreement signed.
1952 The Japan-China Peace Treaty is signed. The Chinese Youth Anti-Comintern Rescue Corps is established, with Chiang Ching-kuo as its chief. Teaching of Japanese and Taiwanese is strictly prohibited.
1954 Mutual Defense Treaty with the U.S. signed.
1955 The Nationalist Government of Taiwan loses the islands of Zhejiang and Dacheng. This forms today's Taiwan region (Taiwan in the broad sense of the word).
1958 Kinmen gun battle breaks out. Tension in the Taiwan Strait.
1964 Former Prime Minister Shigeru Yoshida visited Taiwan.
1967 The National Security Council and the National Security Bureau were established.
1971 Kissinger visits China. At the United Nations General Assembly, the Albanian proposal to expel the Nationalist Government and invite Beijing was passed, and the Taiwanese Nationalist Government lost its right to represent "China". At the same time, China withdraws from the United Nations. China returns to the United Nations.
1972 Chiang Ching-kuo becomes President of the Executive Yuan (Prime Minister).
1972 Normalization of Japan-China diplomatic relations, abandonment of the Japan-China Peace Treaty, and severance of diplomatic relations between Japan and Taiwan.
1973 Start of "Jyudai Kensetsu" (Ten Great Constructions).
1975 Chiang Kai-shek dies. Vice President Yan Jiayan becomes president and Chiang Ching-kuo becomes president of the Chinese Nationalist Party.
1978 Chiang Ching-kuo was elected to his sixth term as president.
1979 Diplomatic relations between Taiwan and the U.S. were severed and normalized between China and the U.S.
1979 Bireijima Incident.
1981 Deng Xiaoping proposes unification of China and Taiwan based on "one nation, two systems.
1986 Formation of the Democratic Progressive Party.
1987 Martial law was lifted after 38 years of existence.
1988 Chiang Ching-kuo dies; Lee Teng-hui becomes the first person from this province to be promoted to president.
1989 Zheng Nan Rong, editor-in-chief of the weekly magazine Liberty Era, burns himself to death in protest against the KMT regime.
1989 President Lee Teng-hui declares "real diplomacy" (flexible diplomacy). The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) made a great leap forward in the first nationwide elections after the lifting of martial law.
1990 The Democratic Progressive Party adopts the "Sovereign Independence of Taiwan" resolution. National Reunification Commission established in the Presidential Office.
1991 All members of the 1st Congress retire.
1991 Repealed an annex to the Constitution that defined the Chinese Communist Party as an insurgent group.
1993 Lien Chan becomes President of the Executive Yuan, and Lee Teng-hui takes full control of the KMT government's "party," "politics," "military," and "special services. Representatives of Taiwanese and Chinese counterparts meet for the first time in Singapore.
1995 Chinese Communist Party General Secretary Jiang Zemin proposes eight Taiwan policy items; Taiwan's Lee Teng-hui counter-proposes six items to China; Lee Teng-hui subsequently visits the U.S.; tension between Taiwan and China.
Chiang Kai-shek
【presidential election period】
1996 Lee Teng-hui is elected president in the first direct presidential election. The KMT's one-party dictatorship is dissolved.
1998 Representatives of Taiwanese and Chinese counterparts meet in Shanghai.
1999 President Lee Teng-hui defines China and Taiwan as "a special relationship between countries"; 921 earthquake kills more than 2,000 people.
2000 China releases White Paper on Taiwan. It warns that indefinite rejection of reunification negotiations will result in the use of force. Chen Shui-bian of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is elected president, and the KMT becomes the opposition party for the first time.
2002 WTO accession. President Chen Shui-bian made the "one side, one country" statement. Later, he changed the course of his remarks.
2003 Former President Lee Teng-hui stated at a meeting of the Federation of Taiwan Independence Movement that “Taiwan” should be the name of the country. President Chen Shui-bian announces the "enactment of a new constitution in 2006" at a ceremony marking the 17th anniversary of the founding of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).
2004 Independents protested the deployment of Chinese missiles by forming a "human chain" at the call of former President Lee Teng-hui during events commemorating the 57th anniversary of the 228th Incident. Chen Shui-bian was shot and wounded the day before the presidential election, but was reelected. The term "Republic of China (Taiwan)" is used for the first time in a joint statement with Chad.
2005 KMT President Lien Chan visits the People's Republic of China. He held the first summit meeting with Communist Party General Secretary Hu Jintao since 1945.
2006 President Chen Shui-bian emphasizes to the international community that Taiwan should join the United Nations under the name "Taiwan" (application filed in August 2007, rejected).
2007 Wu Bo Xiong becomes President of the Kuomintang.
2008 Ma Ying-jeou assumes the presidency and the KMT regains power.
2016 Tsai Ing-wen assumes the presidency and the DPP regains power.
[Source.
History of TaiwanWikipedia.
Chronological Table of Taiwanese HistoryWikipedia.