On This Day In History: Chinese General Koxinga Seizes The Island Of Taiwan – On Feb 1, 1662

AncientPages.com - On February 1, 1662, the Chinese general Koxinga seized the island of Taiwan after a nine-month siege. Koxinga (1624-1662) was a Chinese military leader by many regarded as a pioneer and freedom fighter. Some consider him an army pirate.

Zheng Chenggong statue in Xiamen, Fujian, China. The granite statue is 15.7 m tall and weighs 1617 tons. Image credit: Gisling - CC BY 3.0

Koxinga was born in a small Japanese coastal town to a Japanese mother and a Chinese father. At a young age, Koxinga showed a particular fondness for history and the military treatises written by the famous army theoreticians Sun Tsu and Wu Chi.

Away from studies, he devoted his time to the arts of fencing, archery, and horsemanship. It was a logical outcome that he would become a great military leader one day.

In 1661, Koxinga landed on Taiwan near the main Dutch stronghold at Anping (near present-day Tainan) with a force of more than 25,000 men. The military plan was to attack Dutch colonists in Dutch Formosa.

The Taiwanese Aboriginal tribes who were previously allied with the Dutch against the Chinese during the Guo Huaiyi Rebellion in 1652 turned against the Dutch during the Siege of Fort Zeelandia and defected to Koxinga's Chinese forces. After a nine-month siege, the small Dutch garrison capitulated and was allowed to leave Tainan safely with their possessions. On February 1, 1662, the Dutch Governor of Formosa, Frederik Coyett, surrendered Fort Zeelandia to Koxinga.

Koxinga followed this military success by establishing an effective civil administration in Taiwan and settling the island with his soldiers and refugees from Fujian. However, his larger ambitions on the mainland and half-formed plans for ousting the Spaniards from the Philippines were cut short by his premature death in June 1662.

Updated on January 30, 2023

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