The history of the island of Taiwan dates back tens of thousands of years to the earliest known evidence of human habitation. The sudden appearance of a culture based on agriculture around 3000 BC is believed to reflect the arrival of the ancestors of today's Taiwanese indigenous peoples. People from China gradually came into contact with Taiwan by the time of the Yuan dynasty (1271–1368) and Han Chinese people started settling there by the early 17th century. Named Formosa by Portuguese explorers, the south of the island was colonized by the Dutch in the 17th century whilst the Spanish built a settlement in the north which lasted until 1642. These European settlements were followed by an influx of Hoklo and Hakka immigrants from Fujian and Guangdong.
Statue of Chen Di in Lianjiang County
Chinese depiction of Chikan (Fort Provintia), 1752
Bird's eye view of Fort Zeelandia in Dutch Formosa in the 17th-century
Depiction of a Chinese man, woman, and soldier, by Georg Franz Müller (1646–1723)
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is an island country in East Asia. The island of Taiwan, formerly known as Formosa, makes up 99% of the land area of the territories under ROC control. The main island is 35,808 square kilometres (13,826 sq mi) and lies some 180 kilometres (112 mi) across the Taiwan Strait from the southeastern coast of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The East China Sea lies to the north of the island, the Philippine Sea to its east, the Luzon Strait directly to its south and the South China Sea to its southwest. The ROC also controls a number of smaller islands, including the Penghu archipelago in the Taiwan Strait, the Kinmen and Matsu Islands in Fuchien near the PRC's coast, and some of the South China Sea Islands.
Taiwan is mostly mountainous in the east, with gently sloping plains in the west. The Penghu Islands appear in the Taiwan Strait to the west of the main island.
Taiwan lies on the western edge of the Philippine Plate.
The Sanguang River in northwestern Taiwan
Formosan serow