renamed Fort Zeelandia. The settlement was initially designed as a base to attack their Spanish rivals and as a trading post between China and Batavia. Later the post became the Dutch center of trade between China, Japan and Europe.
The area surrounding Zeelandia expanded as a result of the Dutch trading post in the area. In 1625, they built a new settlement called "The Provintia" in the Sakam area as a center for an agricultural colony. Dutch laid out policies to encourage Chinese farmers to migrate to the colony to grow rice and sugar cane. The settlement at Sakam was so successful it had overtaken Batavia, already a large cultivation area, in the 1650s.
After several expeditions and a forced occupation of the Spanish garrison in Keelung, the Dutch V.O.C. became the first authority to claim control of Taiwan Island; Castle Zeelandia was served as the seat of government.
Several incidents, most notably the Hamada Yahee incident (which took governor Pieter Nuyts as hostage), made the occupation of the area difficult. This was the result of conflicts between the Japanese and the Dutch colonists. Increased Chinese settler activity also diminished the power of the Dutch authorities in the area. Stresses from heavy Dutch taxation on Chinese peasants and the Dutch soldiers' role in the plunder and collapse of Ming dynasty, eventually led to the Guo Huaiyi Rebellion in 1652. Civil order was only restored after the support of the local Sinkanese, and then a new fort was built in Provintia to strengthen and maintain the defense of Dutch officials after the rebellion.
Zheng’s Regime
At the dawn of April 30, 1661, after being defeated by the Manchus in Nanjing, Ming loyalist Zheng Chenggong (Koxinga) lead a fleet of 25,000 soldiers and entered Taijiang via the narrow waterway of Luermen north of Tayouan. In five days, Zheng took down the Provintia and besieged the
