What is the history of Taiwan?

Question asked at WikiAnswers

The island of Taiwan (excluding the Pescadores) was first populated by Austronesian people. It was colonized by the Dutch in the 17th century, followed by an influx of Han Chinese including Hakka immigrants from areas of Fujian and Guangdong of China, across the Taiwan Strait. The Spanish also built a settlement in the north for a brief period, but were driven out by the Dutch in 1642.

In 1662, Zheng Cheng-gong, popularly known in the West as Koxinga, a Ming Dynasty loyalist, defeated the Dutch and established a base of operations on the island. Zheng's forces were later defeated by the Qing Dynasty in 1683. The Qing Dynasty ruled Taiwan for two hundred years before it ceded the island to Japan in 1895 following the First Sino-Japanese War. Taiwan produced rice and sugar to be exported to Japan and also served as a base for the Japanese colonial expansion into Southeast Asia and the Pacific during World War II. Japanese imperial education was implemented in Taiwan and many Taiwanese also fought for Japan during the war.

Following World War II, the Republic of China, under the Kuomintang (KMT) became the governing polity on Taiwan. In 1949, after losing its former territories following the Chinese civil war, the ROC government under the Kuomintang (KMT) withdrew to Taiwan. Japan formally renounced all territorial rights to Taiwan in 1952 in the San Francisco Peace Treaty. The KMT ruled Taiwan as a single-party state for forty years, until democratic reforms were mandated during the final year of authoritarian rule under Chiang Ching-kuo. The reforms were promulgated under Chiang's successor, Lee Teng-hui, which culminated in the first ever direct presidential election in 1996. In 2000, Chen Shui-bian was elected the president, becoming the first non-KMT president on Taiwan.