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The military history of Taiwan spans at least 400 years and is the history of battles and armed actions that took place in Taiwan and its surrounding islands. The island was the base of Chinese pirates who came into conflict with the Ming dynasty during the 16th century. From 1624 to 1662, Taiwan was the base of Dutch and Spanish colonies. The era of European colonization ended when a Ming general named Koxinga (Zheng Chenggong) retreated to Taiwan as a result of the Ming-Qing War and ousted the Dutch in 1661. The Dutch held out in northern Taiwan until 1668 when they left due to indigenous resistance. Koxinga's dynasty ruled southwestern Taiwan as the Kingdom of Tungning and attacked the Qing dynasty during the Revolt of the Three Feudatories (1673-1681).
In 1683, the Qing invaded Taiwan and ousted the Zheng regime, establishing Taiwan Prefecture (later Taiwan Province) in southwestern Taiwan. The Qing administration lasted for over two centuries, during which it rarely tried to conquer the Taiwanese indigenous peoples and instead tried to restrict settlers from entering Taiwan. Despite official restrictions, Han Chinese settlers increased and crossed into indigenous territory across the western Taiwanese plain, leading to conflicts with indigenous peoples in central and northeastern Taiwan. Most rebellions during the Qing period occurred due to Han discontent while the indigenous people were left to their own devices.
The Qing ceded Taiwan and Penghu to the Empire of Japan after losing the First Sino-Japanese War in 1895. There was brief military resistance from Qing forces in Taiwan before retreating, after which decades of Japanese military suppression followed. During the Second Sino-Japanese War, Taiwan served as a base for invasions of China, and later Southeast Asia and the Pacific during World War II. Some Taiwanese served in the Japanese military, although not in combat positions until in the late stages of the war. Some 207,000 Taiwanese served in the Imperial Japanese military and 50,000 Taiwanese Imperial Japanese Servicemen went missing in action or died.
Following World War II and the retreat of the Republic of China to Taiwan in 1949, Taiwan's military has been the Republic of China Armed Forces. Until 1972, a primary aim of the Chiang Kai-shek-controlled armed forces was to retake mainland China by large-scale invasion. In the modern era, the focus of Taiwan's military has been national defense to thwart any possible attacks primarily from the People's Republic of China and its People's Liberation Army forces.