|
From 1683, the Qing Dynasty
ruled Taiwan as a prefecture and in 1875 divided the island into two
prefectures, north and south. In 1885, the island was made into a
separate Chinese province.
The Qing authorities tried to limit immigration to Taiwan and barred
families from traveling to Taiwan to ensure the immigrants would return
to their families and ancestral graves. Illegal immigration continued,
but many of the men had few prospects in war weary Fujian and thus
married locally, resulting in the idiom "mainland grandfather no
mainland grandmother" (有唐山公無唐山媽). The Qing tried to protect aboriginal
land claims, but also sought to turn them into tax paying subjects.
Chinese and tax paying aborigines were barred from entering the
wilderness which covered most of the island for the fear of raising the
ire of the non taxpaying, highland aborigines and inciting rebellion. A
border was constructed along the western plain, built using pits and
mounds of earth, called "earth cows", to discourage illegal land
reclamation.
From 1683 to around 1760, the Qing government limited immigration to
Taiwan. Such restriction was relaxed following the 1760s and by 1811
there were more than two million Chinese immigrants on Taiwan. In 1875
the Taipei government (台北府) was established, under the jurisdiction of
Fujian province. Also, there had been various conflicts between Chinese
immigrants. Most conflicts were between Hans from Fujian and Hans from
Guangdong, between people from different areas of Fujian, between Han
and Hakka settlers, or simply between people of different surnames
engaged in clan feuds. Because of the strong provincial loyalties held
by these immigrants, the Qing government felt Taiwan was somewhat
difficult to govern. Taiwan was also plagued from foreign invasions. In
1840 Keelung was invaded by the British in the Opium War, in 1884 the
French invaded as a part of the Sino-French War. Because of these
incursions, the Qing government began constructing a series of coastal
defense and on 12 October 1885 Taiwan was made a province, with Liu
Mingchuan serving as the first governor. He divided Taiwan into eleven
counties and tried to improve relations with the aborigines. He also
developed a railway from Taipei to Hsinchu, established a mine in
Keelung, and built an arsenal to improve Taiwan's defensive capability
against foreigners.
Reference
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Taiwan |