One of the Chessmen Museum´s eye catchers is a beautiful chess set with large wooden pieces and a corresponding game board with copper fittings. This set is made in Taiwan and when you take a closer look at the chess pieces, you can observe some Chinese features. Taiwan in part has the Dutch to ´thank´ for this.
Until sometime into the 17th century, Taiwan was no man´s land really. The Chinese called it Dong Fan, meaning oriental barbaric land, and just left it alone. The native tribes were more closely related to tribes on the Philippines and spoke a language that resembled Malaysian more than it did Chinese. The Chinese conquest of the island in 1683 changed the whole situation.
DEIC in search of luxury items
In the 17th century the Dutch, or rather the Dutch East India Company (DEIC) tried to set foot on Chinese shores to start trading. The Chinese did not want to hear of it and kept the gates firmly shut. From 1624 onwards, the DEIC were allowed however, to settle down in the nearby no man´s land that was known as Formosa in Europe. It allowed the DEIC to trade not only with China but also Japan. There was a high demand for luxury items such as silk, porcelain and later, tea; all of which were imported from the oriental countries. With wealth levels rising in the Netherlands, demand for this sort of luxury products increased. The DEIC built forts on the coast and kept other countries from trading with Japan. The DEIC also employed jobless traders to hijack ships that maintained trade relationships with the Spanish on the Philippines.
After being in business for about ten years it was high time to expand the trading area. Vicars that had travelled along took part in the expansion. They had converted part of the natives farther inland. The Dutch expelled the Spanish that had a fort on the north coast, and took over large areas of the inland. Many villages were completely destroyed, including the largest town, Formosa, with some 4000 inhabitants. Part of the natives, the hunters, put up a hard fight. They were massacred though and their wives and children spread out over other villages.
Fort Zeelandia in Taiwan
Reading and writing
Before the Dutch came to the island, many tribes were at war with each other and some of them converted to Christianity in exchange of protection from the DEIC. Lower taxes for Christian residents might have had an influence on the high number of conversions. Although missionary work was not a priority for the DEIC, a Christian community flourished. The ministers taught these people how to read and write in the Latin alphabet. The Christianisation on Formosa was unique in the history of the DEIC. It wasn´t the only change the island saw. It took its residents only one generation to change from a hunting society to an agricultural one, because of the high demand of agricultural products by the DEIC.
The island of Formosa became a true success story under the short rule of the DEIC, from 1624 to 1662. The DEIC made a profit of 1,5 million Dutch florins from trade and agriculture on a yearly basis. This was an enormous amount of money in those days. The DEIC leased out large plots of land to Chinese peasants in order to meet the demand for produce. The number of the Chinese population and plantations increased rapidly; around 1650, the number of villages had gone from 44 to 315 and around 15.000 Chinese people lived in the area surrounding the DEIC fort Zeelandia. This caused tension between the newcomers and the original residents of Formosa, and the Dutch didn´t feel very safe anymore, for a good reason, as it turned out later on.
Ruins of fort Zeelandia
The Chinese wanted to get their hands on the flourishing trade and agriculture with new kinds of crops and advanced water works, and so they conquered the island in 1662. Fort Zeelandia was surrounded and after a nine-month during siege the Dutch surrendered. They were allowed to leave with some of their personal belongings, but the rest of their possessions had to stay behind. A painful loss of face for the DEIC, that had been practically invincible up until then.
Dutch spelling
As part of the Chinese empire, the Chinese population grew even faster and they were soon a majority on the island. Some Dutch influences can still be found though. The remains of Fort Zeelandia are still there and a few Dutch names can be found on the island. The Dutch language doesn´t appear to have made much of an impact. However, until well into the 19th century, sales contracts were bilingual: they were written in Chinese characters and curly 17th century Latin handwriting in Dutch spelling. The legacy of Dutch ministers with a missionary zeal.