History
	A museum display depicts the Changbin culture dating back to the Paleolithic Age, which flourished in Taitung until 5,000 years ago. (Chang Su-ching) The Republic of China was founded in 1912 on the Chinese mainland. At that time, Taiwan was under Japanese colonial rule as a result of the 1895 Treaty of Shimonoseki, by which the Ching court ceded Taiwan to Japan. The Nanjing-based ROC government began exercising jurisdiction over Taiwan at the end of World War II when Japan renounced sovereignty over the island as a term of surrender. Four years later, when the Kuomintang (KMT) was defeated in the Chinese Civil War, the ROC government relocated to Taiwan. Since then, the ROC has continued to exercise effective jurisdiction over the large island of Taiwan and a number of smaller ones, leaving Taiwan and the Chinese mainland each under the rule of a different government. The authorities in Beijing have never exercised sovereignty over Taiwan or other islands administered by the ROC government in Taipei. There are differences of opinion among ROC citizens over whether it is best to maintain this status quo indefinitely or work out a different relationship with the Chinese mainland. Regardless, they share the conviction that their future must be based on freedom, democracy, human rights and the rule of law, and that only they have the right to decide their own future. As the ROC’s effective territory primarily comprises Taiwan, the following timeline focuses mainly on the island’s recorded history dating from about 400 years ago.   Timeline of Recorded History 1624 The Dutch East India Company establishes a base in southwestern Taiwan and employs Chinese laborers to work on its rice and sugarcane plantations. Home to Austronesian peoples for many millennia, Taiwan experienced brief visits in earlier centuries by small numbers of Chinese and Japanese merchants, fishermen and pirates. 1626 Spanish adventurers based in the Philippines establish bases in northern Taiwan, but are ousted by the Dutch in 1642. 1662 Seeking refuge from the Manchu conquerors of Ming-dynasty (1368-1644) China, an army under Zheng Cheng-gong (Koxinga) drives out the Dutch and establishes a new kingdom. 1683 The Ching forces invade Taiwan’s western and northern coastal areas. 1885 Taiwan is declared a province of the Ching Empire. 1895 Following defeat in a war with Japan, the Ching government signs the Treaty of Shimonoseki, by which it cedes sovereignty over Taiwan to Japan, which rules the island until the end of World War II in 1945. 1911~ 1912 Chinese revolutionaries overthrow the Ching dynasty and establish the Republic of China. 1943 During World War II, ROC leader Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek meets with U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill in Cairo. Several days after the conclusion of the conference, a joint communiqué known as the “Cairo Declaration” is released, stating: “… all the territories Japan has stolen from the Chinese, such as Manchuria, Formosa [Taiwan], and the Pescadores [Penghu Islands], shall be restored to the Republic of China.” 1945 After World War II, the ROC government receives the surrender of the Japanese military in Taiwan and declares the island a province of the ROC. 1947 The ROC Constitution is promulgated in Nanjing on the mainland on January 1 and is scheduled to take effect on December 25. In March and following months, ROC troops dispatched from the mainland suppress a large-scale uprising of Taiwanese sparked by the February 28 Incident. 1948 As civil war rages in China between the KMT-led ROC government and Chinese Communist Party (CCP) rebels, the Temporary Provisions Effective During the Period of Communist Rebellion are enacted, overriding the Constitution and greatly expanding presidential powers. 1949 The ROC government and 1.3 million Chinese relocate to Taiwan, and the CCP establishes the People’s Republic of China on the mainland. Martial law is declared and continues to be in force until 1987. Thereafter, Taiwan and the Chinese mainland are each ruled by a different government. 1971 The ROC withdraws from the United Nations in anticipation of a General Assembly vote to give the China seat to the authorities in Beijing. 1979 Democracy activists demonstrating in the southern city of Kaohsiung are detained by the KMT government, convicted of sedition by a military court and imprisoned for many years. Some of them and their defense attorneys later play key roles in the formation and development of today’s largest opposition party, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). 1987 Martial law is lifted in July and democratization goes into high gear.  1991 The Temporary Provisions Effective During the Period of Communist Rebellion are abolished. Beginning this year until 2005, the ROC Constitution undergoes seven rounds of revision to make it more relevant to the contemporary situation. 1996 The ROC holds its first-ever popular presidential election, with Lee Teng-hui and running mate Lien Chan of the KMT garnering 54 percent of the vote. 2000 Chen Shui-bian and Lu Hsiu-lien of the DPP are elected president and vice president, respectively, with 39 percent of the vote in a five-way race, ending the KMT’s 55-year rule and marking the first transfer of governmental executive authority in Taiwan between political parties. 2004 A first national referendum is held in conjunction with the third direct presidential election, in which Chen and Lu are re-elected with a slight majority. 2008 Ma Ying-jeou and Vincent C. Siew of the KMT are elected as the president and vice president of the ROC, garnering 58 percent of the vote, marking the second transfer of governmental executive authority in Taiwan between political parties.
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