American Formosa

How could Taiwan have become American territory (most likely some sort of Commonwealth a la Philippines and the other Spanish-American War acquired territories, as opposed to an actual state)?

1. I think it would require a drastic change to American policy towards China, which was rather moderate as opposed to the Europeans' actions at the time.

2. It would require the U.S. to actually bother to want to take Taiwan and go through all of the trouble of governing it. Not to mention fight a war over it, or negotiate with the Europeans and the Japanese.

3. It would require the Europeans to allow the U.S. to grab Taiwan.

Anything else?
 
Wouldn't it make more sense if the USA took Taiwan after the Japanese defeat in the Second World War, rather than a pre-1900 POD?
 
Wouldn't it make more sense if the USA took Taiwan after the Japanese defeat in the Second World War, rather than a pre-1900 POD?

I don't see it happening. Taiwan represents the last vestige of Nationalist Chinese resistance (if things go as OTL), and the US taking it would rather defeat the purpose of Taiwanese separatio from mainland China.

It would also be a propaganda field day for the PRC. Ruthless capitalist imperialists unjustly taking Taiwan from its rightful owners...

For American Taiwan Pre-1900, the best way is for it to take it from Japan before WW2 and Japan's rise to power. That would probably stunt Japan, too...
 
this might trigger a war as the PRC attempts to capture Taiwan before the Americans move in. and depending on when Taiwan was admitted, it might have trigged other groups to push for statehood (IE Sicily).
 
I remember one American Admiral wanted the USA to purchase the island but was turned down by Congress. Was it Dewey? Perry? I can't remember.
 
I remember one American Admiral wanted the USA to purchase the island but was turned down by Congress. Was it Dewey? Perry? I can't remember.

IIRC, Perry wanted America to occupy Taiwan for use as a base for exploration and trade, but Congress ignored his request.
 
Part 4: Perry's and Nye's Grand Designs on Taiwan in the Mid-19th Century

In the 1850s, several far-sighted Americans planned to occupy or purchase Taiwan, or establish new settlements on the island. Among them were Commodore Matthew C. Perry, Commodore James Armstrong, Gideon Nye, Jr., Isaac J. Allen (U.S. Consul to Hong Kong), Townsend Harris (U.S. Envoy to Japan), and Peter Parker (U.S. Envoy to China).

Commodore Perry ardently urged the U.S. Government to occupy Taiwan and turn it into a permanent U.S. military, commercial, trading, and cultural stronghold in the western Pacific. He proposed to set up some indigenous organizations to promote the idea of statehood. He also proposed a "Joint Sino-American Economic and Administrative Program," by which a U.S.-Formosa integration project could be introduced, to implement a slow, smooth, and step-by-step transition of Taiwan to full statehood over the years.

Gideon Nye, Jr., an American merchant, also laid out an occupation and settlement plan and presented it to Secretary of State William L. Marcy of the Pierce Administration.

Commodore Perry and his contemporaries worked and pushed hard, but to no avail. The timing was bad -- the issue of slavery was torturing the American soul and the specter of a civil war was looming larger and larger. Understandably, Formosa, an island thousands of miles away, was definitely not seen as pressing business on the U.S. Government's agenda, and required no immediate attention.

Here. Information from a web source, not sure how credible.
 
Americans wants to occupy Formosa together with Philippines but Japanese had already occupied in Formosa and if America occupies Formosa, I think there would be more Filipinos in Formosa than in OTL.
 
Wouldn't that be more suitable for After 1900?

(Also, how about a Korean War escalation, wherein China tries to invade Taiwan, which is then miraculously saved by the USA. Or Turkey)
 
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