The Republic of Formosa was a short-lived unrecognized state that existed on the island of Taiwan in 1895 during the interregnum between the formal cession of Taiwan by the Qing dynasty of China to the Empire of Japan after the Treaty of Shimonoseki. The Republic lasted for 151 days; it was proclaimed on 23 May 1895 and extinguished on 21 October, when its capital of Tainan was taken over by the Japanese and they established control on the island.
Etymology
The name Formosa dates from 1542 when Portuguese sailors sighted an uncharted island and noted it on their maps as Ilha Formosa ("beautiful island"). The name Formosa eventually "replaced all others in European literature" and remained in common use among English speakers into the 20th century.
The term was an early Chinese translation of the English word republic, pioneered by William Alexander Parsons Martin with his Chinese translation of Henry Wheaton's Elements of International Law. The Japanese equivalent during this time was , which became the standard translation for republic in East Asia, while mínzhǔguó came to mean "democratic country" instead. There was also a similar alternative, , pioneered by Sun Yat-sen (see Republic of China (1912–1949)#Name).
Background
In 1894, China and Japan went to war. In a few months, the Japanese defeated China's Beiyang fleet, routed the Chinese armies in Manchuria, and captured Port Arthur and Weihaiwei. Although nearly all the fighting took place in northern China, Japan had important territorial ambitions in southern China. As the war approached its end, the Japanese took steps to ensure that Taiwan would be ceded to Japan under the eventual peace treaty and that they were well placed militarily to occupy the island. In March 1895 peace negotiations between Japan and China opened in the Japanese city of Shimonoseki. Although hostilities in northern China were suspended during these negotiations, Taiwan and the Pescadores were specifically excluded from the scope of the armistice. This exclusion allowed the Japanese to mount a military operation against the Pescadores Islands in March 1895. The Pescadores, lying midway between mainland China and Taiwan, were the key to a successful occupation of Taiwan. In a swift campaign in the last week of March the Japanese captured the islands, preventing further Chinese reinforcements from being sent across the Taiwan Strait to Taiwan. This brisk fait accompli influenced the peace negotiations, and the ensuing Treaty of Shimonoseki, concluded on 17 April 1895, duly provided for the cession by China of Taiwan to Japan. On 10 May, Admiral Kabayama Sukenori was appointed the first Japanese governor-general of Taiwan.
Prior to the independence declaration, gentry in Taiwan approached Britain and then France in a failed attempt to gain protectorate status for Taiwan.
Proclamation of the Republic
When the news of the treaty's contents reached Taiwan, a number of notables from central Taiwan led by Qiu Fengjia decided to resist the transfer of Taiwan to Japanese rule. On 23 May, in Taipei, these men declared independence, proclaiming the establishment of a free and democratic Republic of Formosa. Tang Jingsong, the Qing governor-general of Taiwan, was prevailed upon to become the republic's first President, and his old friend Liu Yongfu, the retired Black Flag Army commander who had become a national hero in China for his victories against the French in northern Vietnam a decade earlier, was invited to serve as Grand General of the Army. Qiu was appointed Grand Commander of Militia, with the power to raise local militia units throughout the island to resist the Japanese. On the Chinese mainland Zhang Zhidong, the powerful governor-general of Liangkiang, tacitly supported the Formosan resistance movement, and the Republicans also appointed Chen Jitong, a disgraced Chinese diplomat who understood European ways of thinking, as the Republic's foreign minister. His job would be to sell the Republic abroad.
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International recognition
Since the island had already been ceded to Japan in the Treaty of Shimonoseki, Western powers were not in a position to recognize the Republic of Formosa as a legitimate government. There was therefore little sympathy in Europe for the Republic, despite its impeccably 'Parisian' manifesto.
thumb|upright=1.4|National flag of the 1895 Republic of Formosa exhibited in the [[National Taiwan Museum]]
Spurned by European public opinion and officially disavowed by China, the Republic of Formosa enjoyed only one week of uninterrupted existence. During this time it decked itself out with the conventional trappings of sovereignty. The Republicans adopted a national flag with a yellow tiger on a blue background, ordered a large silver state seal to be made, and began to issue paper money and postage stamps in the name of the Republic. The foreign minister Chen Jitong, who had lived in France for many years, was responsible for crafting much of this republican symbolism.
Administrative organisation
Premises were found for the republican parliament and the republican ministries in the yamens of the former Qing administration in Taipei. Tang Jingsong, the president of the republic, remained in the palatial Government House he had previously occupied as the Qing governor-general of Formosa. Tang's cabinet included the heads of the four great ministries of state (war, the navy, home affairs and foreign affairs), who ran their ministries from the large yamens that had previously been the premises of the provincial treasury. The yamens previously used as the headquarters of the Defense Board became Parliament House. The navy department was housed in the old military secretariat.
Defense
Knowing that a Japanese landing was imminent, the Republican leaders did what little they could in the short time given to them to prepare the island's defenses against invasion. Taiwan in May 1895 was not short of soldiers. Tang Jingsong, in order to raise morale, exaggerated their numbers considerably, claiming that he had under his command 150,000 soldiers, regulars and volunteers. Judicious observers believed that this figure should be halved. In all, they calculated, there were 75,000 soldiers scattered throughout the island, of whom 50,000 were in the northern half and 25,000 in the southern half. These troops included the regular soldiers of the Qing garrison, local volunteers, and Hakka militia units hastily raised on the orders of Qiu Fengjia.
The Qing garrison of Formosa amounted to around 50,000 soldiers, armed for the most part with modern repeating rifles. Liu Yongfu commanded around 20,000 men down in the south, around Tainan, while Qiu Fengjia commanded the central garrisons, perhaps another 10,000 men. The 30,000 men of the northern garrisons were under the command of a Chinese admiral named Yang. Local volunteer and Hakka militia units seem to have accounted for a further 25,000 men.
Collapse
thumb|Japanese troops enter [[Taipei, 11 June 1895]]
The Republic of Formosa survived for only five months. The Japanese landed near Keelung on the northern coast of Taiwan on 29 May 1895, and in a five-month campaign swept southwards to Tainan. During the night of 4 June 1895, on the news that the Japanese had captured Keelung, President Tang and General Qiu fled to Tamsui, and from there sailed for the mainland on the evening of 6 June. The Japanese entered Taipei shortly afterwards.
Following Tang's flight, Liu Yongfu assumed the mantle of leadership of the Republic in Tainan. He refused to serve as president, however, and stressed instead his role as commander-in-chief of the resistance against the Japanese. The capture of Tainan now became both a political and a military imperative for the Japanese. During the next three months, although their advance was slowed by guerilla activity, the Japanese defeated the Formosan forces whenever they attempted to make a stand. The Japanese victory at Baguashan on 27 August 1895, the largest battle ever fought on Taiwanese soil, doomed the Formosan resistance to an early defeat. The fall of Tainan on 21 October 1895 ended organised resistance to Japanese occupation, and inaugurated five decades of Japanese rule in Taiwan.
One of the republic's resistance fighters was Lin Sen, future President of the Republic of China. During World War II, Lin urged the return of Taiwan be included in the Allies' war aims which was accomplished shortly after his death with the Cairo Declaration. There are roads named after him throughout the island.
Historical significance
In spite of the similarities between their names, modern supporters of Taiwan independence who call for the establishment of a Republic of Taiwan are wary of claiming that their own movement owes anything to the example of the 1895 republic. The reason for this is that Tang Jingsong and his adherents continued to recognise Chinese suzerainty, while modern advocates of a Republic of Taiwan seek complete independence.
Nitobe Inazō wrote, "Mr. Tang was elected president and the Republic of Formosa lasted three or four months, leaving behind nothing but some post-stamps valuable for collectors."
Leaders
{|class=wikitable
!No.!!Portrait!!width=200|Name<br>!!Place of birth!!colspan=2|Term of Office!!Days
|-
|align=center style="background:#28537F; color:white;"|1||100px
|align=center|Tang Jingsong<br><br>
|Guilin, Guangxi, China
|25 May 1895<br>
|5 June 1895<br>||align=center|
|-
|align=center style="background:#28537F; color:white;"|2||100px
|align=center|Liu Yongfu<br><br>
|Qinzhou, Guangxi, China
|5 June 1895<br>||21 October 1895<br>||align=center|
|}
In popular culture
- In 2007 the Taiwan Public Television Service Foundation broadcast the 20-episode historical drama The War of Betrayal 1895 (亂世豪門).
- The Taiwanese movie 1895 was released in 2008. It is based on the novel Love Back to the Earth (情歸大地) by Li Chiao (李喬).
See also
- History of Taiwan
- Taiwan under Qing rule
- Taiwan under Japanese rule