Taipei is an island that floats throughout the South China Sea, which is about 100 miles off the shoreline of mainland China. Eastern Asia has had many exciting things happen to it over the years. It has been a place to hide, a mystic land, and perhaps a place where people could make money. Today, Taiwan has to deal with the fact that it hasn’t been fully recognized by other countries. However, it has a strong economy and is now a working capitalist democracy.
History
During the 7th century, Chinese from the places now known as Fukien and Kwangtung started moving to Taiwan, and they quickly became the majority there. In 1590, the Portuguese went to the area and called it the Wonderful (Formosa). They built castles in the south and the north. The Dutch ended up taking over the island in 1641, and they ruled it till 1661, whenever a Chinese general named Koxinga decided to take it and made it his kingdom. They took the island in 1683 and kept it till 1895, once it was given to Japan after the very first Sino-Japanese Conflict when it went to them. Japan built and manipulated Formosa.
After destroying its troops on the peninsula, the Nationalist govt of Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek fled to Taiwan in December 1949, leaving the mainland. Although only 15% of the people on the island were from 1949, the Kuomintang, Chiang ruled the island. He kept a 600,000-strong army in the hopes of one day retaking the mainland. Beijing thought the Taiwanese government was suspicious and angry because they called Taiwan a part of China that had split off.