raharris1973
Gone Fishin'
, ,Apparently according to wiki It was not a foregone conclusion that the Qing dynasty would annex Taiwan after conquering the "Ming loyalist" tungning kingdom ruled by the heir of koxinga in 1683. According to the entry in history of Taiwan (I cannot successfully paste the link here for some stupid reason on this iPad) ministers argued for rounding up the Chinese fugitives and then abandoning the island with only admiral shi lang's lobbying convincing the court in the end to keep the island.
Well what if after the campaign and after evacuaTing the Chinese population on the island, the Qing abandoned it? So from 1684 on the island is "terra nullius" except of course for the Malayo Polynesian aborigines ( some were animists, some were Calvinist) and their kingdoms/chiefdoms.
What happens to the island if it is never claimed by Beijing for the two centuries following 1684?
Is the territory largely left to the aborigines for this time, until it is perhaps occupied by the French or Japanese in the age of high imperialism? Or do other colonizers take it over in the late 1600s or 1700s?
Some candidate colonizers might be the Dutch who held it earlier for a 40 year stretch, or the Spanish who had a for there for 20 years
Well what if after the campaign and after evacuaTing the Chinese population on the island, the Qing abandoned it? So from 1684 on the island is "terra nullius" except of course for the Malayo Polynesian aborigines ( some were animists, some were Calvinist) and their kingdoms/chiefdoms.
What happens to the island if it is never claimed by Beijing for the two centuries following 1684?
Is the territory largely left to the aborigines for this time, until it is perhaps occupied by the French or Japanese in the age of high imperialism? Or do other colonizers take it over in the late 1600s or 1700s?
Some candidate colonizers might be the Dutch who held it earlier for a 40 year stretch, or the Spanish who had a for there for 20 years