1. ★ 450,000–190,000 years ago Partial jawbone (Penghu 1) found in Taiwan Strait channel suggests a previously...
2. ~20,000–30,000 years ago Oldest evidence of modern human presence on Taiwan
3. ~15,000–5,000 years ago Changbin culture (Paleolithic chipped-pebble tools) found in Taitung
4. ~11,000 years ago Evidence of slash-and-burn agriculture at Sun Moon Lake (pollen/spore analysis)
5. ~10,000 years ago Sea levels rise at the start of the Holocene, forming the Taiwan...
6. ~8,000 years ago Liangdao Man skeleton found on Liang Island (Matsu archipelago)
7. ★ ~3,000 BC Neolithic Dapenkeng culture appears abruptly and spreads around the coast; characterised by...
8. ★ Post-3,000 BC Some Dapenkeng descendants migrate from Taiwan to Southeast Asia and across the...
9. 230 AD Sun Quan, emperor of the Wu dynasty (Three Kingdoms period), sends troops...
10. ~400 AD Wrought iron being produced locally using bloomeries, technology possibly introduced from the...
11. 1171 Chinese fishermen settled on the Penghu Islands near Taiwan
12. 1292 Yuan dynasty emperor Kublai Khan sends officials to demand loyalty; they end...
13. 1349 Wang Dayuan visits Taiwan and provides the first detailed written description of...
14. Early 1400s Ming navy at its pinnacle with over 3,500 vessels, ~2,700 of which...
15. 1500s Taiwan used as a base by Japanese and Chinese merchants and pirates
16. Late 1500s Chinese from Fujian begin settling in southwestern Taiwan
17. 1542 Portuguese sailors note Taiwan on their maps as *Ilha Formosa* ("beautiful island")
18. 1582 Portuguese shipwreck survivors spend 45 days on Taiwan battling malaria and aborigines
19. 1603 Chen Di visits Taiwan on an anti-pirate expedition; writes *Dongfanji* ("An Account...
20. c. 230 Early 7th century
21. By 1623 When the Dutch arrive, they find ~1,500–2,000 Chinese visitors and residents in...
22. ★ 1624 Dutch East India Company (VOC) builds Fort Zeelandia on the islet of...
23. 1624–25 Li Tan ("Captain China") oversees a fleet of pirate ships while based...
24. 1625 Dutch buy land from the Sinkan village and build the town of...
25. 1626 Spanish establish a settlement at Santísima Trinidad in northeastern Taiwan (modern Keelung),...
26. 1629 Spanish build Fort Santo Domingo at Tamsui
27. 1633 Zheng Zhilong (Koxinga's father) defeats Dutch fleet in sea battle near Quanzhou
28. 1635–36 Dutch defeat Mattau and Baccluan; pacify multiple aboriginal villages
29. 1636 Favorolang (largest aboriginal village north of Mattau) kills three Chinese – beginning...
30. 1638 Dutch build Fort Provintia on the main island's harbour shore
31. Late 1630s VOC encourages mass Chinese migration to Taiwan; advertises economic benefits, even pays...
32. 1642 Dutch seize Spanish fortress at Keelung; Spanish and Filipino garrisons disperse or...
33. 1646 Zheng Zhilong (Koxinga's father) defects to the Manchu Qing; is captured and...
34. 1646–59 Koxinga rebuilds his father's pirate fleet and army; establishes a major Ming...
35. 1650 Dutch estimate ~50,000 natives in the western plains
36. 1652 Guo Huaiyi rebellion: Chinese farmer leads army of peasants against Dutch over...
37. c. 1652 Dutch legacy: Introduced romanised script of Formosan languages, Christianity, a unified tax...
38. 1659 Koxinga besieges Nanjing with ~170,000 men; on the verge of victory, he...
39. ★ April 1661 Koxinga launches invasion of Taiwan with 25,000 soldiers on 400 war junks...
40. May 1661 Dutch warship *Hector* explodes and sinks in battle
41. c. 1662 Koxinga renames: Fort Zeelandia to Anping, Fort Provintia to Chikan
42. 1662–81 Koxinga's son Zheng Jing rules
43. ★ February 1662 After a nine-month siege, Fort Zeelandia surrenders
44. June 1662 Koxinga dies at age 37
45. 1674–80 Zheng Jing joins the Revolt of the Three Feudatories
46. 1681 Zheng Jing dies; political turmoil as his son Zheng Keshuang murders his...
47. c. 1683 Tungning legacy: By end of Zheng rule, cultivated area had tripled since...
48. Over 200 years of Qing rule Taiwan described as in "a state of constant rebellion
49. c. 1683 By late Qing: Western plains fully developed with ~2
50. July 1683 Shi Lang leads Qing fleet of 238 ships and 21,000+ men against...
51. October 1683 Zheng Keshuang surrenders; shaves his head in Manchu style
52. ★ 1684 After debate (some officials advocated abandoning Taiwan entirely), Kangxi Emperor accepts Shi...
53. c. 1684 Qing initially forbids: mainlanders from moving to Taiwan; sends most people back...
54. c. 1684 Permit system: Migrants barred from bringing families (to ensure they would return)
55. 1721 Zhu Yigui rebellion: anti-Qing uprising sparked by increased taxation
56. 1722 Boundary markers (54 stelae) erected to segregate Chinese settlers from aboriginal territory
57. ★ 1786–88 Lin Shuangwen rebellion: Tiandihui (Heaven and Earth Society) members break jailed members...
58. 1840s British suggest seizing Taiwan during the First Opium War
59. 1867 American barque *Rover* shipwrecks off southern Taiwan; captain and crew killed by...
60. 1871 Ryukyuan sailors shipwreck on southeastern Taiwan
61. 1874 Japan invades southern Taiwan using the Mudan Incident as pretext; 3,600 Japanese...
62. 1875 Ban on entering Taiwan lifted
63. 1884–85 Sino-French War: French invade northern Taiwan (Keelung Campaign)
64. 1885 Taiwan elevated to a full province (previously a prefecture of Fujian)
65. 1885–91 Liu launches 40+ military campaigns against aborigines with 17,500 soldiers; a third...
66. c. 1885 Railway: Plagued by corruption, incompetence, and sabotage
67. 1891 Liu resigns due to political opposition and recurring malaria
68. ★ c. 1895 May 23: Taiwan Republic formally declared in Taipei
69. c. 1895 May 25: T'ang inaugurated as president
70. c. 1895 May 29
71. c. 1895 June 3: Keelung falls after a day's hard fighting
72. c. 1895 June 5: President T'ang flees on a German passenger ship
73. c. 1895 Ch'iu Feng-chia: also leaves for the mainland
74. c. 1895 June 7: Japanese enter Taipei unopposed after Guangdong warriors go on a...
75. c. 1895 September–October: Resistance stiffens in the south
76. c. 1895 October 21
77. ★ c. 1895 Not one of the European powers or the United States ever recognised...
78. c. 1895 Significance
79. 1895–1902 Five months of sustained warfare after the invasion, followed by partisan attacks...
80. 1895–1920 At least 8,200 Taiwanese arrested each year for alleged attempts to overthrow...
81. ★ April 1895 Treaty of Shimonoseki: after losing the First Sino-Japanese War, Qing cedes Taiwan...
82. May 16, 1895 Civic leaders led by Hakka gentry member Ch'iu Feng-chia pressure Governor T'ang...
83. June 1896 6,000 Taiwanese slaughtered in the Yunlin Massacre
84. ★ 1898 Goto Shimpei appointed chief civil administrator
85. c. 1898 Japan brings
86. c. 1898 Agricultural transformation: Food production increases fourfold; sugar cane production increases 15-fold between...
87. c. 1898 Average lifespan
88. c. 1898 Most Taiwanese felt their lives had improved
89. 1903 Government implements harsher policies toward aborigines: expands guard lines, restricts living space
90. 1907 Beipu uprising: Hakka and Saisiyat insurgents kill 57 Japanese
91. 1911 Army invades mountainous areas; by 1915 many aboriginal villages destroyed
92. 1913 Luo Fuxing (Tongmenghui member) plans a rebellion
93. 1915 Tapani Incident: Yu Qingfang's religious group defies Japanese authority
94. 1919–34 Aborigines relocated; allotted 3 hectares of reserve land each, later reduced
95. 1920 Lin Hsien-tang and 178 Taiwanese file a petition seeking self-determination; rejected
96. 1921 Chiang Wei-shui founds the Taiwanese Cultural Association (TCA); promotes vernacular Chinese language
97. 1923 TCA co-founds Taiwan People's News (published in Tokyo, shipped to Taiwan, subjected...
98. 1927 TCA splits
99. ★ 1930 Musha (Wushe) Uprising: last major aboriginal rebellion
100. c. 1930 Total casualties
101. 1931 TPP terminated by authorities
102. 1937 Full-scale war with China; kōminka (imperial Japanisation) project launched
103. 1937–45 Over 207,000 Taiwanese employed by Japanese military
104. c. 1937 Taiwan as military base: Used for invasion of Guangdong (1938), occupation of...
105. 1940 Name-changing campaign
106. c. 1940 Comfort women: Between 1,000–2,000 Taiwanese women forced into the system
107. 1942 Taiwan's real GDP per capita peaks at $1,522
108. c. 1942 End of war: 40% of railroads unusable; 200+ factories bombed; 3 of...
109. Late 1944 Taiwan bombed in US air raids
110. c. 1945 Chen Yi establishes: a military administration staffed exclusively by mainlanders and his...
111. c. 1945 Economy collapses: Consumer price index spirals: food prices rise 21,000+ points between...
112. c. 1945 Wall posters
113. August 15, 1945 Emperor Hirohito announces Japan's surrender
114. October 25, 1945 General Chen Yi (appointed by Chiang Kai-shek) arrives and receives Japanese surrender
115. ★ c. 1947 February 28: Several thousand people march on commission offices and then the...
116. c. 1947 March 1–7: Civic leaders form a settlement committee; present 32 demands including...
117. c. 1947 March 8: 10,000 Kuomintang reinforcements land at Keelung, 3,000 at Kaohsiung
118. c. 1947 Aftermath: Government forces systematically hunt anyone considered a leader of Taiwanese society:...
119. c. 1947 Chen Yi recalled: in March; promoted to governor of Zhejiang
120. February 27, 1947 Widow Lin Chiang-mai, selling cigarettes in a Taipei park, is accosted by...
121. 1949 Communists win the Chinese Civil War
122. c. 1949 Chiang's plan: : regroup on Taiwan, then return to the mainland
123. c. 1949 Mainlanders dominate: government and civil services
124. c. 1949 Martial law continues: from 1947 to 1987 – the "White Terror" period
125. 1949–53 Land reform: rents capped at 37
126. ★ December 1949 Chiang Kai-shek formally moves the ROC capital to Taipei
127. 1950–65 Taiwan receives $1
128. January 1950 President Truman announces US will have no further involvement in the Chinese...
129. ★ June 25, 1950 Korean War breaks out
130. 1951 Japanese Peace Treaty signed in San Francisco: Japan formally relinquishes Taiwan but...
131. 1953 Inflation finally curbed by trimming money supply and high-interest savings deposits
132. 1954 US and ROC sign a defence treaty
133. 1958 Communist shelling of Kinmen and Mazu
134. 1960s–70s Light industrial revolution: Taiwan becomes an export-driven "economic miracle" economy
135. 1960s Vietnam War
136. 1963 US shuts off economic aid tap
137. c. 1963 Military spending
138. 1969 Chiang orders advanced nuclear weapons program using a Canadian research reactor
139. 1971 US official position: Taiwan's status is "undetermined
140. 1972 Nixon visits China
141. c. 1975 Chiang Ching-kuo: formerly head of the feared secret police – recognises that...
142. April 1975 Chiang Kai-shek dies
143. 1979 US formally recognises Beijing (PRC) and derecognises Taipei (ROC)
144. 1979 Kaohsiung Incident: pro-democracy demonstrators attacked by police
145. 1986 Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) established as the first opposition party
146. ★ 1987 Martial law lifted after 40 years
147. 1988 Chiang Ching-kuo dies
148. ★ 1996 First direct presidential election
149. c. 2000 Chen's inaugural speech: promises not to declare independence unless China attacks; not...
150. c. 2000 Beijing miscalculates: courts the KMT, believing mainlander conservatives will negotiate unification
151. ★ March 2000 DPP candidate Chen Shui-bian wins presidency with 39% of the vote (KMT...
152. 2001 DPP becomes the largest party in the legislature (with support from Lee...
153. April 2001 US reconnaissance plane forced down by Chinese jets
154. September 2001 9/11 attacks shift US priorities
155. 2004 Chen narrowly re-elected (assassination attempt the day before the election)
156. 2005 Pentagon admits Chinese submarine force already a deterrent to swift US intervention...
157. 2008 KMT's Ma Ying-jeou wins presidency (58
158. 2012 Ma re-elected
159. 2014 Sunflower Movement: students occupy parliament protesting undemocratic KMT methods in pushing through...
160. January 2016 DPP's Tsai Ing-wen wins presidency with 56% of the vote
161. 2018 Local elections: major setback for DPP
162. ★ May 2019 Taiwan becomes the first country in Asia to legalise same-sex marriage
163. January 2020 Tsai re-elected
164. February 2022 Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine changes Taiwanese public perceptions of the Chinese...
165. August 2022 Nancy Pelosi visits Taiwan
166. ★ January 2024 William Lai Ching-te (DPP) wins presidential election