History of Tauland
The full history of Taulandt (formerly known as Dutch Formosa).
Early Years
Origins
During the 17th century, the Dutch East India Company (VOC) came to the orient in their quest for trade. Although defeated by the Portuguese at Macau in 1622 and driven by the Ming from Penghu, they were able to establish a base on the southwestern coast of the island of Formosa. On the coastland, which they had named Tayouan, the Dutch had built Fort Zeelandia.
The Dutch venture to the orient faced trouble and competition in their early years. Not only did the Dutch Governor-General get embroiled in a dispute with the Japanese Hamada Yahei, but the Dutch also faced defeat at the hands of the Chinese Zheng Zhilong in 1633. On the island of Formosa itself, the Spanish had even established a fort and settlement on the northeast coast (now modern-day Chilung). Despite these circumstances, the Dutch still sought to strengthen their position on the island and the orient.
A Dark History
The Dutch set out to turn Taiwan into a formal Dutch colony under their full control. The first order of business was to punish villages that had violently opposed the Dutch and unite the aborigines in allegiance with the Dutch East India Company. Several punitive expeditions had been launched against the unfortunate villages of Baccaulan and Mattauw, whose villages had been razed by fires. These campaigns served as a threat to other villages like Tirosen and Lonckjouw. As a response, Dutchmen had been killed by the villagers, most notable was the massacre of the shipwrecked crews of the Dutch ships Beverwijck and the Golden Lion. This event, in turn, had prompted another punitive attack on Lamay Island by the Dutch and their aborigine allies, namely from the villages of Saccam, Soulang, and Pangsoya, which ended up with the deaths of over 300 Lamayans, having been trapped in a cave and suffocated with smoke and fumes that had been deliberately pumped in. Some of the survivors had been forced into slavery in Batavia (Java), while women and children became servants and wives for the Dutch officers. Since then, the events on Lamay had changed the course of Dutch rule to work closer with allied aborigines.
For the next order of business, the Dutch turned their attention to the other parts of the island. In 1642, the Dutch had ejected the Spanish from the north of the island. The Spanish had easily abandoned the fort, having been plagued with disease. The Dutch then sought to establish control of the western plains between their new possessions and their base at Tayouan. After a brief but destructive campaign in 1645, they were able to subdue the tribes in this area, including the Kingdom of Middag, with its capital having been burned to the ground.
Throughout the 1640s to 1660s, the VOC administered the island and its predominantly aboriginal population. They had set up a tax system and schools to teach the romanized script of aboriginal languages (and eventually the Chinese languages) and evangelizing Christianity. These systems would be in place throughout the 1700s and 1800s.
The first influx of migrants under Dutch rule were the Hakkas and the Hokkiens from the mainland. Most of these immigrants were single young male workers who were discouraged to stay and settle on the island (although this policy would be reversed in the coming decades). The main export of the island during this time was deer. Deerskin was sold to Japan, while its meat and other parts were sold to the Han traders. Eventually, sugarcane would also become a huge export of the colony once the supply of deer depletes.
A New Governor, and A New Policy (1662-1680)
A new era of peace and harmonious relations came in 1662 when a new governor by the name of Jacob van Aertens arrived in Zeelandia. Prior to this assignment, Van Aertens had previously worked under the Dutch holdings in America as an understudy of Adriaen Van der Donck, governor of New Netherland. Van der Donck was known to be tolerant and hospitable towards the North American natives and an advocate for Dutch settlership in overseas colonies. Van Aertens' prior experience under Van der Donck will influence how he will manage the colony in the decades to come.
Van Aertens' would also become an advocate of the patroonship system (a system in which wealthy patroons will be granted land by the government if they bring in a minimum number of families), which had already been in place in America. Between 1662 and 1665, 64 families had arrived in Formosa. This number would grow through the decades as it became an even more attractive area for settlement. By 1665 the Dutch population had risen to some 3400 settlers, centered around Zeelandia on the southern coast and New Hague on the north. As the population increased, and the distance between the two cities became more and more a hindrance to administration, a disgraced former governor-general of New Netherland, Peter Stuyvesant, was assigned to govern the northern half after he was booted out of America by his opponent, Van der Donck. While he was given the northern half to govern, he was still subordinate to Van Aertens, which caused a lot of tensions between them.
The colony went under a period of rapid expansion in the territory it controlled. As the population grew steadily, more farms had been established inland. Profits from deer hunting made the colony a valuable asset to the Dutch West India Company (VOC). This saw a spur of investments in the form of new forts being built along the coast and some on the western coast. The sloping western plains allowed for easy communication between south and north and allowed for a slow but steady expansion of settlements.
Through the 1670s, the island's Dutch settler population had increased by an estimated 30%, but despite these numbers, Governor Jacob van Aertens knew that the male population still outnumbered the female population almost five to one. This was a ratio Van Aertens knew would harm the chances of it becoming a proper settler colony. His solution was to abolish the previous governor's restriction on settlership by the Han. This was met with opposition from Stuyvesant who wanted to keep the colony "as Dutch as possible" but Aertens overruled him and preferred a policy of integration.
The 1670s were a time of relative peace (with the occasional French naval raid as the Franco-Dutch war erupted in 1672). Despite this, the colony population was expanding due to a rise in births and a decline in the child mortality rate, comparable to that of New Netherland. This period also saw the expansion of farms on the central plateau and the start of irrigation projects to increase the flow of water and thus the amount of harvest that could be tallied each year.
It was also in the 1670s that the Patroon system was fully implemented, those wealthy and those who Aertens trusted were given the status of Patroon and set to rule over a piece of land that they had the duty to make as economically prosperous as possible while encouraging population growth. A significant difference, however, between Formosa's patroon system and that of New Netherland was in the amount of power an individual patroon held. patroons in Formosa were not allowed to raise armies nor were they allowed to tax anything higher than the central authority mandated, making patroons in Formosa less powerful than their American counterparts. Yet these patroons proved effective in their primary mandate and under their watch, regions east of the mountains were starting to get populated, first with the settlement known as Schuylerstadt, founded by the patroon Maarten Schuyler, built on the banks of the Midden river which had been dug out and expanded in the 1770s from a small river to a large set of canals that allowed trade to flow freely. This canal system would then be later expanded in the 1900s to become the large Noordelijke Centrale Kanalen (North-Central Canal System).
It was also during this time that the first regiments of what would later become the Taulandt Armed Forces was created. With help from several veterans of European wars that had settled there, combined with local merchants, a militia force was formed to supplement the VOC troops stationed on the island.
Pax Hollandica (1680-1770)
For over a century, the island enjoyed economic prosperity and peace. The steady growth of settlers and high birth rates saw the population grow more and more. The seat of the colonial government was moved to Nieuw Haag in 1732 as it became a population center due to its direct access to Japan and Korea, where the island almost had a monopoly on trade between the two insular kingdoms. This, combined with the alliance with the Qing, meant that through the island Qing merchants were able to buy western goods and western merchants were able to buy the valued Chinese goods from the ever more insular kingdom. This provided more and more wealth to the island's merchants and settlers, and the cities began to expand and proper city planning began to take form. The island became one of the most prosperous colonies that the Dutch possessed at this point, and by 1770 the population had grown to almost 2.3 million from what was in 1662 a mere 2500 settlers. It had grown through several factors, the immigration of Han males and females, with the males often working in the fields, and the females in the cities (mostly in processing centers. With many Dutch sailors, (at the time some 15% of the Dutch male population was on the seas) and former VOC employees settling on Formosa and marrying these ethnic Han women, combined with the general intermixing of Dutch and Han settlers in many villages began to create the ethical and cultural foundation of modern Taulandt’s culture.
A New Culture: A Infusion of East and West
These intermarriages over the decades saw a mix of both Dutch Calvinistic and Confucian values mix to what would eventually become modern-day Tauer culture. One of the first developments started with a so-called Dutch-based creole language that was developing: a mix mostly based on Dutch but with heavy Chinese, Japanese, and Korean influences laying the foundations of modern the Dutch Tauraans dialect.
The earliest mention of what would become Tauaans was described in an official document by the local colonial administrative office about the island's status in 1739. It was around this time as well that the culture started to entrench itself as immigration started to slow down and larger families became the norm and the city population swelled, not just in the coastal areas but also inland and in the Schuyler-patroonship which had turned itself into a large trading hub with its direct access to the forests and the sea.
Administrative Reforms (1680-1770)
The colony of Formosa as it was called had since 1680 been governed by a governor appointed by Batavia. However, daily life was governed by local governments based around the Patroonships, or when there was no patroonship, city councils in the cities. The governor did have an advisory board of influential members of Formosa society called the Raad van Formosa (Council of Formosa), which lasted until 1750.
In 1750, with the decline of the VOC and the general decline of the Netherlands and the rise of the British, Formosa became more and more important as it allowed access to the Qing goods that were so coveted in Europe. Realizing that having direct commands from Batavia or Den Haag would take far too long and after continued demand of the local population, the Staaten der Formosa, an elected body of representatives drawn from a pool of members of the Patroonships and the Generalities-Gebieden, , was instituted to decide domestic affairs. This was what would become the foundation of modern States-General of Taulandt.
The Pirate Wars (1770s)
Rule of Albert Janszoon (1770)
As the 18th century neared its end, the VOC, and subsequently the Dutch Republic were on the decline. For the VOC, it had seemed that its monopoly and excessive focus on spices had brought its death with demands shifting and with them being slow to catch up, combined with blatant corruption within the organization. While in the mainland Netherlands peace reigned and complacency became a norm, the once-mighty Dutch merchant empire in Asia was thus a shadow of its former self.
Formosa was an exception to this. As demand for Chinese goods grew day by day, Formosa became profitable from being a trading hub of the region. However, with the corruption in the VOC blatant and their protection ineffective against the ever-growing number of raids by Japanese and Korean pirates, the States-General of Formosa thus issued a bill the Eyland Weering in 1773, which would see the expansion of Formosan shipyards and the construction of a fleet of 6 frigates to defend against Korean and Japanese pirates. The act was enforced by the first native-born governor by the name of Albert Janszoon.
Under his leadership, a core of educated, trained, and experienced shipbuilders and a core of architects and craftsmen were developed. Formosa, under his rule, would see the expansion of the forts across the major coastal cities and the construction of new ones, as well as the deepening and widening of the Midden Rivier Kanaal to allow ship construction to happen in a well-defended harbor. In 1775, construction started for Formosa's first 'native' ships, using materials procured from the Qing and using the forests on the island itself. As the construction of new ships was taking place, the VOC administration also funded it to an extent, as the general VOC trade had also been affected by these pirate raids.
As the ships were constructed, volunteers from the local militia were trained in marine combat, and sailors were recruited from the various merchant ships. When the ships were ready by 1778, they were all fully manned and ready for what would become the first of many conflicts with the Japanese and Korean pirates.
With the frigates ready, the Formosan colonial government and the Admiraliteit van Formosa had taken up the independent role of a Formosa defense force. They began to identify 'hotspots' of pirate activity, and began assessing them by economic impact. Three were identified:
- The largest trouble was the southern Chinese pirates, as they raided ships coming and going from Formosa to the mainland.
- The East China sea where the weak kingdom of Ryukyu had become a stronghold of the pirates, and
- The south china sea, which would need to be secured to promote merchants to and from Formosa.
Based upon this, a plan was hatched to crack down on piracy and a zero-tolerance policy would be enacted.
Coastal punitive expedition (Late 1778-Late 1779)
Piracy was a problem for the local Qing government as well, but due to a lack of political will and a corrupt system, they had been unable to do anything about it. Thus, when a representative from Formosa came to the Qing with the offer of cracking down on piracy, the Qing court did not hesitate.
What followed were marine landings that took the small islands from which the pirates operated. In a brutal set of actions, the Formosan marines took the islands to burn them to the ground and eventually claim these islands. This first set of operations took all winter in 1778. The ships returned home hailed as heroes, and the second expedition was prepared towards the Ryukyu Islands. It had ended with the Kinmen island now becoming part of the Formosa colonial administration.
Ryukyu island invasion (1779)
The invasion of the Ryukyu islands was a plan that had been going on in the minds of many but never took place. However, through 1779 Formosan colonial authorities made use of the fact that the Qing empire was weak and ineffective, it had no navy, and the recent actions on the coast where Formosa took several islands gave the Formosan government hope. It, of course, knew that local politics did not allow an outright invasion of a tributary state and thus send a message to the Qing court, requesting permission to bring back order to the islands for the Qing empire.
While the Formosan emissaries talking the Qing court into agreeing to the invasion, Formosan officials and VOC officials had begun assembling a large transport fleet to move the troops to the islands. The invasion fleet has set sail in the summer of 1779, and within less than one week, six large frigates had aimed their cannons upon the Ryukyuan capital.
This was enough to force a general surrender and allow the troops to land and begin a general campaign of taking the pirate controlled areas. This brought the Ryukyu islands under the administration of the Formosan government, and thus created a complex and tense relationship with the Qing empire: a unique relationship that had the Dutch paying tribute to the Qing, but at the same time exploiting the weak Qing government.
Southern punitive expedition (1780)
In what was the last punitive expedition, the South China sea saw it's very small islands captured, and pirate nests being burned with little resistance. It was a swift and easy victory. Despite the Qing Empire's claims to these small island chains, they were integrated into the Formosan colonial territories.
It is often assumed that the fact that Formosa was able to take those islands under the Qing empire her nose was due to three main reasons
(1) The infective government of the Qing empire.
(2) Their weak navy
(3) and the weakness of the VOC to prevent the piracy, to begin with.
The French Revolution
This was also the time that the Staaten der Formosa began to form the civil service. From 1780 all the way up to 1795, when the Dutch Republic collapsed under the hands of the French Republic, the Formosan colonial administration had been busy solidifying its recently captured islands. All changed however when in 1795 a letter from William IV, stadtholder of the Dutch Republic, came in, ordering the colonial government to surrender to the British as the Netherlands had been invaded by the French.
News had already come in that New Netherland in North America had blatantly refused the British to take over of their colony. Within Formosa, the now Tau-dominated Raad der Formosa considered the surrender orders, and knew that Formosa's situation was different from New Netherland's, for the British barely had a presence in the east as compared to North America. However, they knew that they would not survive a war against Britain, and therefore a deal had been struck with the British. The deal stipulated that Formosa would not be taken over, but it would neither help the French war effort. This would remain the status quo all the way until the end of the wars in Europe and the establishment of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
The Dominion of Taulandt, and the Return of the Dutch Rule (1814-1890)
Early Dominion era (1815-1830)
With the establishment of the fledgling Kingdom of the Netherlands back in Europe and the restoration of the House of Oranje, the Colony of Taulandt was faced with a dilemma. During the wars in Europe, to prevent itself from being captured by the British, a deal had been struck in a treaty: the House of Oranje would be guaranteed the return of Dutch Formosa to their domain. However much had changed and the economic position of Formosa was a strong one and the Dutch were aware of it. It was feared by Formosa that the Netherlands would want to reclaim the island by force should they resist, backed by Britain this was certainly an option for the Dutch. The Staaten der Formosa understood that any war would at this moment not be in the favor of Taulandt thus it took the initiative and sent representatives to Den Haag in Europe to start negotiations.
Negotiations in the Hague
The Formosan delegation (which called themselves the Taulandt Delegation) led by Tsjen Hendricksen arrived in the Hague in early 1816 and immediately met with the King and his advisors. What followed was a year of negotiations where various proposals were raised: such as Formosa being treated as an equal instead of a trade colony. But eventually, after months of talking and getting to know one another a compromise was found in the form of a Dominion (precisely, a Gemenebest in Dutch). This gives the King of the Netherlands the title of Lord-Protector of Taulandt. Taulandt was allowed full autonomy on internal policy, while the broader direction of administration was to be dictated in Amsterdam. Taulandt would have its own domestic policy, its own Asian foreign policy, its own military, and would have the power to make its own treaties with local Asian powers, as long as it aligned with the greater goals of the Dutch. It was during this meeting that the nations name switched from Formosa to Taulandt.
This deal was agreed upon, and after it had finished its negotiations with the Netherlands, the colonial government began making business contacts within the Kingdom of the Netherlands, knowing that the European market would be a valuable one. In 1818, the delegation headed not back home but to Nieuw Netherland in America, where several trade treaties had been signed. It was only in 1820 that the delegation returned to Taulandt. They had returned victorious, and the Royal Dutch flag the Taulandt flag flew side-by-side.
Throughout the 1820s, trade prospered, the population grew and its influence in Asia on its own grew as well. It also saw the start of early industrialization, mostly related to the maritime industry due to the Netherlands investing large amounts of money into Taulandt (to have a naval manufacturing hub outside of Europe and allow far quicker reactions to threats to the Indies). This not only spurred industrial development on Taulandt but also laid not just the physical foundations of technical expertise. With these investments, universities came and started working together with local schools. Education was made mandatory and the literacy rate skyrocketed. All of this would lay the foundations of the modern high technology economy of Taulandt.
The Domestic reforms (1830-1840)
Ever since the late 1700s, voting had been restricted to the patroons and the wealthy land-owning elite. But in the 1830s, calls to expand suffrage came from the ever-growing middle class. The conservative elite was resistant to the idea, but as the middle class started to grow in numbers, wealth, and most importantly became more educated, the calls grew stronger and stronger.
This resulted in the so-called Verbreiding van de Stem Bill being passed in 1834, which would see the vote being expanded to the middle classes. Voting was granted to all males, both Tauer (Taulander) and Dutch from the age of 25, they thus were granted the status of Burgher with all its responsibilities and benefits. This shift in voting power from a small Patroonen elite to a large middle class would see the creation of the Huis der Burghers (House of Burghers) and would see the formation of the first few political parties. This bill was the first of many reform bills enacted in the 19th century. Soon, labor laws would follow, expansion of infrastructure, laying of railroads, more factories being built and standardizations would be enacted, laying the foundation of the modern Republiek van Taulandt in the present day.
An Ever-growing Distance (1840-1890)
It is often said that in the 1840s, a true cultural-rift occurred between the Netherlands and Taulandt. Taulandt culture had been flourishing. Its language, simply called Tau, was a mix between Dutch, Romanized Hokkien, Japanese and Korean that had nevertheless developed, was starting to be taught in schools together with the Tau values which itself were a mix between Dutch-Calvinism but infused with concepts of openness and Confucian beliefs. Through the years, a national identity began to form around Taulandt her history: the development of the language, the pirate raids, the building of a nation, and the Dutch heritage.
As communication became easier and easier through the 19th century, news from the Netherlands and more importantly the rather depressing economic state of the country came flooding in Taulandt. Worse news was yet to come: the War of Dutch humiliation, with war and conflict spreading throughout Dutch nations in North America (New Netherland and Tussenland) and the Asian Dutch holdings.
War of Dutch Humiliation (1850-1857)
The War of Dutch Humiliation (commonly known as the Great Chinese War in Taulandt and outside of Dutch spheres) had been a long time coming. , A weakened Qing empire (due to various revolts) was the opportunity to break the long-standing Dutch-Qing monopoly that many European nations had been looking for. This, coupled with growing southern secessionism in China, was the spark that led to the Great Chinese War that lasted from 1850 until 1857. This saw the Dutch (and consequently, Taulandt) fighting the combined forces of the secessionist Kingdom of Canton in southern China, Britain, and France. Soon, Spain joined in the conflict but fought mainly on the American theatre (with occasional raids from Manila), seeking to take territory from the Dutch American colony of Tussenland. The war ended in a devastating defeat for the Dutch.
Calls for More Reform
The war was eye-opening to many in Tauandt. After this event, there had been many calls to reform the country's navy and army. After this dark chapter of Dutch history, the coastal defense fleet was reformed into a navy that would match the might of European navies in the region in less than twenty years. They owed this to the shipyards and manufacturing bases built under Albert Janszoon, which were rather advanced for their time. It also saw the reform of the commando-militia system into a major permanent army that would have a defensive character in mind.
This continued autonomy from the Netherlands was more evident once the Kingdom of the Netherlands' requests for Taulander troops to be deployed to the Dutch East Indies were increasingly denied, while the islands that Taulandt controlled directly were increasingly better protected. A real sense of unequal dealing had emerged in the Tau people, as it was apparent that when dealing with Dutch traders, they had looked down upon them. Dutch administrators who thought they were barbarians. The final blow to Dutch-Taulandt relations was the request of the Dutch king to strip Taulandt of its autonomy. Thus with both the general population and the ruling elites of Taulandt having a consensus, they knew it was not long until they would finally receive independence, or, on the other side of the coin, be crushed by their European overlords. It was liberty or death.
Eventually, in 1889 a delegation was sent once again as it was understood that Taulandt needed the Netherlands for access to the European market and vice-versa.
Talks of Independence, and the Treaty of Batavia (1891)
Talks were held, not in the Hague, but this time in Batavia, and it lasted for several months. With the Netherlands not giving in and Taulandt demanding more and more, it is said that the threat of war was used multiple times on both sides. These talks were followed closely by the press, with the invention of the telegraph it was one of the most reviewed events yet.
It ended in early 1891 with the following conditions being set for independence:
- Dutch merchants would not have to pay tolls to Taulandt. However, Dutch products would still have reduced tariffs. This also applied to Taulandt's products and ships.
- Taulandt would not involve itself within the Dutch East Indies
- The Paracel islands would remain a part of Taulandt
- The Kingdom of the Netherlands would not interfere with the internal affairs of the Republiek van Taulandt.
These conditions were finalized, and Taulandt independence was official. The delegation arrived back in Taulandt on 20 April 1891. they were welcomed as heroes. The 20th of April is still, to this day, celebrated as a national holiday. Upon its independence, nothing changed in the daily lives of many citizens. The same currency was used which was the Taulandt Guilder, the same laws still applied, and local foreign policy did not change. However almost immediately upon gaining word that the treaty was a success the Staaten der Formosa send out ambassadors to their Asian neighbors and Dutch American cousins. While at the same time a large reform was about to take place.
