Spanish expedition to Formosa

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Formosa Expedition

Flag of New Spain.
Date1626
Location
Keelung, Taiwan
Result

Spanish victory

  • Spanish establishment in Formosa
Belligerents
Kingdom of Middag Spain Spanish East Indies
Strength
200 Spaniards and 400 native Filipinos

The Spanish expedition to Formosa was a campaign mounted by the Spanish based in Manila, Philippines in 1626. It was the Spanish response to Dutch settlements being built in Formosa, now known as Taiwan. In cooperation with the Portuguese, this venture was made to attract Chinese traders and curtail the expansion of Dutch power in Asia.

Background

As part of its campaign in Asia, the Dutch East India Company attempted to establish a trading outpost on the Penghu Islands (Pescadores) in 1622, but were driven off by the Ming authorities.[1] In 1624, the Company established a stronghold called

Anping, Tainan.[2]
David Wright, a Scottish agent of the Company who lived on the island in the 1650s, described the lowland areas of the island as being divided among 11 chiefdoms ranging in size from two settlements to 72. Some of these fell under Dutch control while others remained independent.[3] The Company began to import laborers from Fujian and Penghu (Pescadores), many of whom settled.[1]

Expedition

Location of Keelung, Taiwan

On 5 May 1626, the first Spanish landing on Formosa, as ordered by

Spaniards (Spanish Filipino) and native Filipino
soldiers from the Philippines. The colony was designed to protect Spanish and Portuguese trade from interference by the Dutch base in the south of Taiwan.

Aftermath

Fort San Domingo was built by the Spanish in 1629 at Tamsui after which the present site of the Fort was named in order to bolster the success of establishing Spanish power in Formosa.[5]
On a night in 1636, a group of local people, angered by the taxes that the Spanish governor had imposed, successfully attacked the fort and demolished it. In 1637, the Spanish rebuilt the fort using stone and raised the height of the walls to twenty feet or more.

However, in August 1642, the Dutch returned to

Dutch Empire in Southeast Asia, and financial troubles within the Spanish Empire
, were also contributing factors.

See also

References

  1. ^
    ISBN 978-0-7656-1495-7
    .
  2. ISBN 978-90-247-2635-6
    .
  3. ^
    LCCN 04007338
    .
  4. ^ Davidson (1903), p. 19.
  5. ^ Davidson (1903), p. 20.
  6. ^ a b c Andrade, Tonio (2005). How Taiwan Became Chinese: Dutch, Spanish and Han Colonization in the Seventeenth Century. Columbia University Press.
  7. ^ Jose Eugenio Barrio (2007). "An Overview of the Spaniards in Taiwan" (PDF). University of Taiwan Foreign Languages in Literature. University of Taiwan. Retrieved 16 May 2012.

Bibliography

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