Taiwan History
Taiwan, whose name means “terraced bay”, was originally inhabited by peoples with Austronesian languages who settled in the plains and were only pushed into the mountains by the Chinese immigrants, where their descendants still live today (Ami, Atayal). The second name Formosa (Ilha Formosa, “beautiful island”) was given to the island by the Portuguese, who came here in 1590 as the first Europeans. In 1624 the Dutch landed on Taiwan and established a trading post; the Spaniards, who had settled…