Why go
The Dutch fort at Tayouan grew from a maritime trading foothold into a seat of power. Spanish forces separately occupied Keelung and Tamsui in the north, before Dutch forces displaced them. Zheng Chenggong’s capture of Fort Zeelandia and the later Qing takeover changed who governed the island, while migration from Fujian reshaped its settlements.
The full story
After an unsuccessful attempt to hold Penghu, the Dutch East India Company built Fort Zeelandia in 1624 on Tayouan, a coastal islet at today’s Anping, Tainan. The company imported workers from Fujian and Penghu, and some stayed. Dutch control did not extend evenly across the island: Indigenous chiefdoms retained different degrees of independence. In 1626, Spanish forces established northern bases at Keelung and Tamsui. Their presence ended in 1642 after Dutch military victories. Zheng Chenggong, or Koxinga, captured Fort Zeelandia in 1662 and expelled the Dutch administration. His family’s Kingdom of Tungning lasted until Qing forces defeated it in 1683. Under Qing rule, immigration from southern Fujian continued, and the frontier between settler lands and Indigenous territories shifted, often through conflict. The Qing later made Taiwan a province in 1887 and pursued modernization, including a railway. Fort sites in Anping and the north are therefore evidence of different ambitions and time periods, not interchangeable colonial landmarks.