Events on the high seas and islands alike reach a fevered pitch as the Dutch, Japan, China, and Portugal all vie for profit and supremacy over Taiwan and its lucrative trade. Meanwhile – call them what you will (because it’s hard to keep track – but the “independent merchants” or “pirate lords” … sometimes even turned government agents keep looking to exploit every opportunity to enrich themselves while avoiding the noose.
Take what you can, give nothin’ back!
Timeframe Covered:
ca. 1600-1639
Major Historical Figures:
Dutch East India Company/Batavia/Ft. Zeelandia:
Capt. Elie Ripon
Pieter Nuyts, Governor of Formosa [1598-1655]
Catholic Church:
Georgius Candidus [1597-1647]
Independent Traders/Pirates of Taiwan:
Salvador Diaz of Macau
Yan Siqi [d. ~1625]
Li Dan “Captain China” [d. ~1625]
Li Kuiqi (“Quitsicq”)
Zhong Bin
Liu Xiang
Ming China:
Chen Di, Ming imperial official [1541-1617]
Xu Xinsu (“Simpsou”), merchant-contact
“Patrolling Admiral” Zheng Zhilong [1604-1661]
Shogunate Japan:
Toyotomi Hideyoshi, “The Great Unifier” [1537-1598]
Suetsugu Heizo Masanao, merchant-lord [1546-1630]
Suetsugu Heizo Masafusa, the scion
Taiwan Aboriginal Groups:
the Sinkan
the Mattau
Major Sources Cited:
Andrade, Tonio (2005). How Taiwan Became Chinese: Dutch, Spanish, and Han Colonization in the Sevententh Century.
Andrade, Tonio (2004). “The Company’s Chinese Pirates: How the Dutch East India Company Tried to Lead a Coalition of Pirates to War against China, 1621-1662” in Journal of World History, Vol. 15, No. 4 (Dec., 2004).
Clements, Jonathan (2004). Coxinga and the Fall of the Ming Dynasty.
Ripon, Elie [Leonard Blussé & Jaap de Moor, trans.] (2016). Captain Ripon’s Maritime Adventures in the East Indies: The Diary of a Mercenary Soldier, 1617-1627.
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