淸代臺湾省について

Abstract

The Qing government gradually began to pay attention to Taiwan from the middle of the nineteenth century, almost two centuries after Taiwan was occupied in 1683. With the expansion of the Western powers in East Asia in the nineteenth century, Britain, the United States, and France exhibited great interest in the island and demanded trading privileges, and then Japan sent troops to Taiwan； the Qing government thus came to recognize the importance of Taiwan and to take positive steps to develope it, and finally in 1885 Taiwan was made a province and Liu Ming-chuan 劉銘傳 appointed as its first governor-general. The creation of Taiwan Province was a measure undertaken by way of response as the Qing came increasingly to be confronted by the aggression of the powers. After the establishment of the provincial government on Taiwan there came numerous reforms and new institutions--the strengthening and finer articulation of administrative agencies, and the demarcation of administrative zones, which made the organization of the bureaucracy more complete and speeded the ""modernization"" of Taiwanese politics. The requirements of national defense led to the emergence of industries related to military needs. Moreover, the development of hill-lands, the establishment of educational institutions, land surveys, adjustments of the land tax rates, the development of camphor, sulphur, tea, and salt industries, and the building of railroads all contributed enormously to social and economic change in Taiwan. These reforms and innovations cannot be ignored when considering questions of Taiwan's ""modernization""，so that, the author argues, the establishment of Taiwan as a separate province must be seen as an event of epoch-making significance in its history.