Dutch Formosa

Governorate of Formosa Gouvernement Formosa (Dutch) 臺灣荷蘭統治時期 (Chinese)
1624–1668
Flag of the Dutch East India Company Emblem of the Dutch East India Company
The locations of Dutch Formosa, overlapping a map of the present-day island.   Dutch Formosa   Spanish Possessions   Kingdom of Middag
Status	Dutch colony
Capital	Zeelandia (now Anping, Tainan)
Official languages	Dutch
Common languages	East Formosan languages • Hokkien
Religion	Dutch Reformed, native animistic religion, Chinese folk religion
Government	Governorate
Governor
• 1624–1625	Martinus Sonck
• 1656–1662	Frederick Coyett
Historical era	Age of Discovery
• Established	1624
• Siege of Fort Zeelandia	1661–1662
• Abandonment of Keelung	1668
Currency	Dutch guilder
Preceded by Succeeded by Prehistory of Taiwan Kingdom of Middag Spanish Formosa Kingdom of Tungning
Today part of	Republic of China (Taiwan)

The island of Taiwan, also commonly known as Formosa, was partly under colonial rule by the Dutch Republic from 1624 to 1662 and from 1664 to 1668. In the context of the Age of Discovery, the Dutch East India Company established its presence on Formosa to trade with the Ming Empire in neighbouring China and Tokugawa shogunate in Japan, and also to interdict Portuguese and Spanish trade and colonial activities in East Asia.

The Dutch were not universally welcomed, and uprisings by both aborigines and recent Han arrivals were quelled by the Dutch military on more than one occasion. With the rise of the Qing dynasty in the early 17th century, the Dutch East India Company cut ties with the Ming dynasty and allied with the Qing instead, in exchange for the right to unfettered access to their trade and shipping routes. The colonial period was brought to an end after the 1662 siege of Fort Zeelandia by Koxinga's army who promptly dismantled the Dutch colony, expelled the Dutch and established the Ming loyalist, anti-Qing Kingdom of Tungning.