Maritime forces confront a colonial base
In the seventeenth century, the Zheng organization combined military and commercial activity along the southeastern coast amid Ming-Qing conflict. The Dutch East India Company had established a Taiwan base in 1624. Indigenous societies and Chinese migrants encountered new relations of taxation and control. Zheng Chenggong crossed in 1661 and besieged Dutch positions. Ships, food and landing arrangements connected commercial resources with military operations in a struggle over the island’s administration.
Dutch withdrawal and a new regime
In 1662, besieged Dutch forces surrendered and withdrew. Zheng authorities established new military and administrative arrangements. Migration and settlement expanded, affecting indigenous land and relationships. Zheng Chenggong died soon afterward, and successors continued governing and maintaining maritime connections. A change of ruler did not make social positions equal. Production, trade and land control continued changing as residents faced the longer consequences of military supply, migration and local administration.
Trade, migration and later Qing government
Qing forces defeated Zheng successors in 1683 and incorporated Taiwan into provincial administration. Maritime policy and migration continued shaping island life, while Zheng’s memory received different interpretations. The history includes indigenous communities, settlers and commercial workers alongside dynastic and colonial competition. Land, routes and government control interacted across successive regimes. The surrounding sea remained essential to migration, supplies and contact as local society developed within repeated political changes.