Taiwan Expansion of Chinese Settlement

Chinese Colonization of Taiwan

The Chinese colonization of Taiwan has been a slow and difficult process. The map shows how from the middle of the 17th century until the middle of the 19th century, Chinese settlers from the Province of Fujian across the straits displaced the aboriginal inhabitants from the coastal plains in the west, and contained them to the mountainous eastern half of the island. Even by the end of the 19th century large parts of the hinterland remained unexplored. In the first half of the 20th century, under the Japanese rule, the Chinese began the colonization of the eastern coastline that has been the graveyard of ships over many centuries. The absence of good natural harbors, not only here but in the west as well, was a major reason in times past for the slowness of the island's economic development. The aboriginal Inhabitants were the Gaoshan. For information on this Chinese Minority click on Gaoshan.