11 ATLASES
History of Taiwan in maps
Taiwan as it appears in 11 interactive history atlases, from 1840 to 2000: Taiwan, Formosa. Each era below lists who ruled the land and when control changed, linked to the dated map that shows it.
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What was Taiwan before it was Taiwan? The sections below follow this land through every era covered by the Maps of History atlases: who ruled it, what it was called, and when control changed. Each line links to the dated map. Modern borders serve as an approximation, as each atlas says on the map itself.
Formosa (mod. Taiwan) · Mongol Empire
| Beyond the conquests — the opening position |
MONGOL EMPIRE: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Taiwan (Qing; Japanese from 1895) · Industrial Revolution
| Colony or dependency — the opening position | |
| Colony or dependency |
INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Taiwan (Qing to 1895, then Japanese) · Meiji Japan and post-Soviet Russia
Until the Treaty of Shimonoseki ceded it to Japan in 1895, Taiwan was a frontier prefecture of the Qing empire. The short-lived Republic of Formosa resisted the transfer, and fighting continued in the hills for years. During fifty years of Japanese rule, the first Japanese colony became a laboratory for colonial administration: land surveys, railways and a large police force accompanied state monopolies on camphor, opium and salt.
| Independent neighbours — the opening position | |
| Meiji Japan and its empire |
MEIJI JAPAN AND POST-SOVIET RUSSIA: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Taiwan · WWI
| Entente-aligned & imperial territories — the opening position | |
| Entente-aligned & imperial territories |
Taiwan (Japanese colony to 1945) · Chinese Revolution
Japan received Taiwan in 1895, and the island spent most of the period covered by this atlas under colonial rule. Railways, sugar, schools and assimilation campaigns changed the place that returned to China in 1945. Nationalist administration after the takeover was rapacious enough to ignite the February 28th rising in 1947; its suppression killed thousands, leaving a memory that still shapes the island’s politics. In 1949 the republic retreated to Taiwan with its government, gold, museum and two million refugees. It became the last blue on the map. Later land reform, economic boom and democratization suggest a counterfactual: what the mainland regime could do when severed from the interests that had owned it.
| The Empire of Japan & its puppets — the opening position | |
| The Republic of China — the government at the time |
CHINESE REVOLUTION: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Taiwan · Stalin’s Soviet Union
| Rivals & the Western bloc — the opening position |
STALIN’S SOVIET UNION: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Formosa (Japanese Taiwan) · Road to WW2
| The aggressors (Japan, Germany, Italy) — the opening position |
ROAD TO WW2: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Taiwan · WW2
| Axis powers — the opening position | |
| Western Allies |
Taiwan · Cold War
| US-aligned states — the opening position |
COLD WAR: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Taiwan · Refugee crises
| Western bloc or democracy — the opening position |
REFUGEE CRISES: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Taiwan (the Republic of China) · Mao’s China
Chiang Kai-shek withdrew to Taiwan with some two million soldiers and civilians, making it the refuge of the Republic of China after 1949. The American Seventh Fleet defended Taiwan from 1950, and a defense treaty followed in 1954. It retained China’s United Nations seat until October 1971. Its economy grew fast, but under martial law its regime imprisoned and executed thousands of suspected enemies in the “White Terror”.
| Beijing’s adversaries — the opening position |
MAO’S CHINA: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
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