Information 8: Why did the Ming Dynasty officials encourage the Netherlands to occupy Taiwan?
In June of the second year of Tianqi (1622), the Dutch occupied Penghu for the second time and continued to threaten the Ming Dynasty for trade. In the negotiations between the two sides, the Ming Dynasty proposed that the Dutch withdraw from Penghu and move to Taiwan to exchange trade. According to the British A letter from the East India Company's archives sent to the board of directors from Batlia on February 23, 1923 stated: "The Chinese envoy proposed to the Dutch that if they wish to abandon the Penghu Islands and move to Taiwan, they can be allowed to trade; the envoy said They also proposed to us that if we are willing to go to Taiwan, we can do the same trade." However, the Dutch had already worked hard to lay the foundation in Penghu and refused to give in. Nan Juyi, the governor of Fujian, sent a petition to drive the Dutch away. In the fourth year of Tianqi ( In the first month of 1624 (1624), they began to attack Penghu. They used 200 warships and a force of ten thousand people to deal with the Dutch, who had only 13 warships and more than 900 troops. However, they were still unable to attack. After eight months of fierce fighting, the Ming Dynasty had already More than 177,000 taels were spent on the military, causing financial difficulties, and the Netherlands was also faced with the dilemma of being isolated and helpless. After peace talks, the Dutch withdrew to Taiwan and ended the war, leaving behind the people who were the first to establish government organizations in Taiwan. Historical facts about the Dutch.
Regarding this period of history, many scholars lamented the ignorance of the Ming Dynasty, which allowed the Dutch to have the opportunity to occupy Taiwan first without knowing it. However, most of them are unclear or omitted. According to the information I have, Chen Shuiyuan The book "The Trajectory of Taiwan's History" has the most detailed discussion. It quotes "Batavia City Diary" on p106 and p134 of the book and Campbell "The Dutch under Formosa under the Dutch" on p86. Among them, "Batavia City Diary" The information is particularly reliable. In addition, the "History of Taiwan's Foreign Relations" written by Lin Zihou is also quite detailed and worth reading.
[Batavia City Diary] records that at that time, pirate Li Dan was in the middle to coordinate, and the conditions for the withdrawal were:
(1) The Netherlands evacuated from Penghu Island
(2) The Ming Dynasty had no objection to the Dutch occupation of Taiwan
(3) Guaranteeing trade between the Netherlands and China
Although the Chinese documents only mentioned that the withdrawal of the Dutch troops was the result of Nan Ju Yi's vigorous fighting, they also left traces of tacitly allowing the Dutch troops to occupy Taiwan. Gu Zuyu's "Reading Shi Fang Yu's Notes" Volume 99 mentioned that " The commander-in-chief Yu Zigao used time to move the Red Barbarians to Beigang (another name for Taiwan) and regain Penghu." This shows that the two sides agreed that if the Netherlands gave up Penghu, the Ming Dynasty would not object to its occupation of Taiwan.
This move reflected that after the Ming Dynasty had been in seclusion for a long time and implemented a maritime ban, they did not understand the changes in the international situation. They still only had Penghu in their minds. They believed that since Taiwan was not within the territory, it did not matter if it was occupied by the Dutch first.