The Rise and Fall of Dutch Formosa: A History (Part III)

The Rise of Koxinga

In the southern Japanese city of Hirado, thirty years before the rebellion in late August 1624, a Chinese merchant named Zheng Zhilong and a Japanese woman named Tagawa Matsu gave birth to a son, whom they named Fukumatsu (福松). Zheng Zhilong, however, was not present when his son was born. He had sailed to Penghu to serve as translator for the Ming, who were threatening some “red-haired” foreigners attempting to settle there. The birth of Fukumatsu had coincided with his father witnessing the evacuation of Penghu and founding of Fort Zeelandia.

A few years later, in 1628, Zheng Zhilong became a Ming admiral, and the family moved to Fujian, China. Fukumatsu was also given a Chinese name—Zheng Sen (郑森). Zheng Sen rose though the ranks in the Civil Service Examinations and engaged in scholarly studies. In 1644, however, disaster rocked the declining Ming as Emperor Chongzhen (崇祯) hung himself to a tree in Beijing and the Manchus sacked the capital. In the south, Ming loyalists scrambled to organize resistance governments, some of which the Zheng family backed. Notably, the family had particularly good relations with one of the loyalist, self-proclaimed “Emperors”, who gave the twenty-one year old Zheng Sen a new name, Zheng Chenggong (郑成功), and a new title, Guoxingye (国姓爷). The latter title would, after being latinized by the Dutch, become the internationally used name of this young man—Koxinga.

After being newly christened, Koxinga continued to fight alongside the loyalists against the Manchus, now the Qing Dynasty, but in 1646 the “Emperor” who christened him was captured and killed by the Qing forces. Worse news came when his father was bribed by and surrendered to the Qing despite the family’s objections. Tagawa, who had come to China with Zheng, was also captured in 1647, allegedly committing suicide after refusing to surrender. Despite the loyalist resistance crumbling and his father trying to get him to negotiate, however, Koxinga continued campaigning along the coasts of Southeastern China, scoring victory after victory. Eventually, however, he gave up hope in trying to turn the powerful tide of the Qing’s mainland conquests, instead turning his focus to a nearby island just across the strait.

The Fall of Dutch Formosa

The Siege of Fort Zeelandia

Dutch Formosa after the Guo Huaiyi Rebellion was a weaker colony whose limits had been tested, but continued to serve its purpose as a trading post over the next few years. The VOC still continued with much of their policies, most notably bringing about further Dutchification on the island. In 1656, a Swedish-Dutch VOC employee by the name of Frederick Coyett was appointed governor of the colony. His tenure as governor was abruptly challenged in 1661, however, when he found Fort Zeelandia found itself under siege from a new enemy, coming from across the strait.

Upon landing in Taiwan, Koxinga immediately besieged Fort Provintia, which was undermanned and surrendered to him after a mere few days. He also turned many aboriginals against the Dutch and also gained the backing of the local Chinese, who were dissatisfied with the VOC’s harsh rule. Having secured Provintia, meanwhile, Koxinga surrounded Fort Zeelandia with his far lager army, and as the Dutch refused to surrender, initiated a heavy bombardment and assault of the fort that ended with his loss. The difference in army quality had begun to show, and Koxinga realized that he had to stay put and starve the fort out. Unbeknownst to them, however, a flotilla of VOC ships were now making its way up from Batavia, on their way to relieve the siege.

When the relief force made their way to Fort Zeelandia, they found it still in Dutch hands. Thus, they made their attempts to break out, the first one of which ended in failure. Although Koxinga’s army had a much lower quality, Koxinga himself was a far more experienced strategist. Thus, on the second Dutch attack, he lured their fleet into a narrow waterway and sunk five of their ships, forcing the rest to retreat.

Hearing the news of this second defeat, the Dutch morale began to crumble. In January 1662, a group of German mercenary defectors provided useful information to Koxinga of weakened defenses of the fort, thus allowing Koxinga to confidently launch a final assault on it. Viewing further resistance as hopeless, Governor Coyett surrendered and the VOC evacuated Dutch Formosa, with all its personnel relocated to nearby Dutch colonies.

The capital of Dutch Formosa had fallen, and soon the Dutch also lost their settlements in Keelung and Tamsui. Coyett left the island safely, but was imprisoned by the VOC, tried for high treason, and exiled to an Indonesian island for his loss of Formosa. After being released in 1674, he returned to Amsterdam, where he would die four years later.

As thus, the systems of the short-lived but nonetheless influential Dutch Formosa crumbled apart. Koxinga took over the colony and established his Chinese Kingdom of Tungning (东宁), a small kingdom based around Fort Zeelandia.

Meanwhile, thousands of miles away in Beijing, Zheng Zhilong, who had been arrested a few years back as the Qing government investigated the loyalty of defected Ming officials, was executed. The admiral’s complex career came to an end, this time with his death coinciding with his son witnessing the fall of Fort Zeelandia and Dutch Formosa. In 1662 Koxinga himself would also pass away, ending his loyal and remarkable career serving Ming China until its end and taking Taiwan from a fate of Dutch colonization. Tungning, meanwhile, lasted as a Ming successor state that survived until 1683, when the Qing invaded and later unified Taiwan.

The Final Attempt of the VOC

The 1661-62 loss of Dutch Formosa, however, just like the 1644 fall of the Ming, did not mark the complete end of their resistance. Unwilling to lose the strategically important colony, the VOC allied the Qing and made an attempt to retake it in 1664. Under Admiral Balthasar Bort, they set off and made a failed attempt to seize Fort Zeelandia. They did successfully retake Keelung, however, holding onto it and trading there for four more years before the VOC abandoned the colony due to fierce aboriginal resistance and a lack of progress being made in re-colonization, which rendered Formosa unprofitable. Thus was the true end to the history of Dutch Formosa.

Most of the Dutch forts, however, still stand today, and serve as popular tourist destinations displaying this lesser-known chapter of the island’s history to visitors all around the world. The VOC would also reach the peak of their power later on despite the loss of Formosa, building up a wealthy and powerful maritime empire in the East Indies that lasted until the gradual breakup of the Dutch colonial empire in the 1900s.

Throughout Dutch Formosa’s just-shy-of-four-decade long history, the VOC had caught themselves in the middle of East Asian affairs, and the more Dutch Formosa grew, the more they got involved int these affairs. Thus, when things got muddy on the Chinese mainland, Taiwan was also deeply affected, showing truly how closely the two regions are tied to each other even four hundred years before today. The tale of Dutch Formosa can be interpreted as a demonstration of these close links, but it was also a sort of microcosm of the world in the 1600s—from the complex intermingling of cultures to the intriguing dynamics between Western and Eastern civilizations, and then to the the intricate global systems forming during the century… Or, more simply, this history can be enjoyed as a collective story, one in which a bunch of different individuals and peoples find themselves caught in the midst of powerful global interactions and trends.

Additional Reading: Zheng Zhilong, a Pirate King of China

Koxinga’s father, Zheng Zhilong, was a famous merchant-turned-pirate who terrorized the Chinese coast for decades. He started his career as a Chinese merchant trading in Japan, but in 1624 turned to the Dutch and became a pirate. With the VOC’s support, he built up a massive pirate empire, complete with a large fleet with Western arms that controlled practically all the trade along the South China coast. Using this empire, he helped the Dutch in fighting their wars and fulfilling their desires for increased trade power.

After going rampant on the seas for years and crushing the Ming southern fleet, however, the weakened Ming government decided to try and recruit Zheng, to which he accepted. Under the Ming, he lead a massive armada that guarded trade along the Chinese coast. He now turned against the Dutch and the Chinese pirates working for them (his former colleagues and officers), dealing the “red barbarians”, as the Dutch were known in China, a hard blow in the 1633 Battle of Liaoluo Bay (料罗湾海战).

After the battle, Zheng continued to serve the Ming before defecting to the Qing in 1645 as he deemed further resistance futile. He would serve the Qing for another decade, but his status as a Ming defector attracted investigation from the Qing government. They imprisoned him in 1655 and executed him in 1661, which was, ironically, the same year that his Ming loyalist son conquered Dutch Formosa and established the Kingdom of Tungning