A British Formosa? A thought exercise.

Along with camphor and tea as additional major exports, so based on that Formosa should technically have a comfortable existence, if it were not for the neglect of the place by the Qing.

I'd argue it did have a comfortable existence, by the standards of the time; it was continuing to attract immigrants, after all.
 
I'd argue it did have a comfortable existence, by the standards of the time; it was continuing to attract immigrants, after all.

I agree with you on that. Yet the big obstacles for Taiwan's success is largely the land issues and all the restrictions the Qing put up. Even if they were supposed to help reduce the pressure on the aboriginal peoples there, that they were ignored (making conflict inevitable due to pressures from the land question) and that the Qing neglected the island - which probably led a good portion to view the island as ungovernable, leading to Taiwan's other reputation as a pirate haven - are huge problems that would have to be addressed. Either when its too late, as the Qing did in OTL, or earlier, whether by the Qing or someone else, of which the big one is the land question.
 
Here's a couple of posts from a discussion of which colonies were profitable on the old soc.history.what-if group, unfortunately I can't find the one in question now so couldn't say how accurate they are but they seem generally believable.

OK, after that. Here the domestic political economy gets a bit tricky. OTL Taiwan got turned into the Japanese sugar island. But Germany grows beets. They also used Taiwanese hydroelectric power to produce aluminum, but demand was still limited before the development of duraluminum... and World War One is on the horizon.
Don't forget rice; bigger even than sugar by value, I believe.

Taiwan was just astounding, as colonies go. Japanese subsidies to the local government ceased in 1904; by 1922 it was sending tax revenue _back_ to Tokyo. (Mississippi, take note.) Massive trade surplusses. Real consumption per person on the island rose 20 percent in 1910-40; real GDP per person rose 55 percent. The place was financing _Japan_.

But lest one think the place was squeezed dry, note that over half of all Taiwanese made it out of primary school by 1940. Admitted, Japan itself hit this level in _1891_, but Mexico didn't manage to get half of primary-school-age children _enrolled_ until 1960, let alone graduated.

Now of course within a larger British Empire they night not as much attention as opposed to in the smaller Japanese Empire where it's more important, but once you get the land problems sorted out I think it would of still developed fairly well. You might even offset it thanks to being part of the British Empire and the extra investment and immigrants it could provide.
 
Here's a couple of posts from a discussion of which colonies were profitable on the old soc.history.what-if group, unfortunately I can't find the one in question now so couldn't say how accurate they are but they seem generally believable.

Now that's amazing. :cool:


Now of course within a larger British Empire they night not as much attention as opposed to in the smaller Japanese Empire where it's more important, but once you get the land problems sorted out I think it would of still developed fairly well. You might even offset it thanks to being part of the British Empire and the extra investment and immigrants it could provide.

Oh, definitely - on all counts. Of course, that leaves the question of what will happen to Hong Kong in this case. They're still going to get some attention as it's on the way to Guangzhou (refuelling stop, perhaps?), but in the scenario of it and Taiwan being in the same united colony with Tainan as the colonial capital, the position of HK is unknown.
 
If the British demand Formosa in the negotiations I'm not really sure that they would ask for Hong Kong as well.
 
If the British demand Formosa in the negotiations I'm not really sure that they would ask for Hong Kong as well.

Well, is there a way to get both HK and Formosa in the same package? Preferably HK at its current OTL extent, or delayed as pert OTL, but with the New Territories annexed rather than leased.

Another way is if the British don't expect it but the Qing demand that the British take it, for reasons that one would have to come up with for the TL to be pulled off.
 
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