Fort Zeelandia (Taiwan) - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Fort Zeelandia was a fortress built over ten years from 1624–1634 by the Dutch

Taiwan under Dutch rule

Dutch Formosa refers to the period of colonial Dutch government on Formosa , lasting from 1624 to 1662. In the context of the Age of Discovery the Dutch East India Company established its presence on Taiwan to trade with China and Japan, and also to interdict Portuguese and Spanish trade and...

Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie, in the town of Anping (Tainan

Tainan

Tainan City is a city in southern Taiwan. It is the fifth largest after New Taipei, Kaohsiung, Taichung, and Taipei. It was formerly a provincial city, and in 2010, the provincial city merged with the adjacent Tainan County to form a single special municipality. Tainan faces the Taiwan Strait in...

) on the island of Formosa, present day Taiwan

Taiwan

Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...

, during their 38-year rule

Taiwan under Dutch rule

over the western part of it. Although the site has been previously named Orange City (奧倫治城), Anping City (安平城), and Tayoan City (台灣城), the current name of the site in Chinese is Anping Fort (安平古堡).

During the 17th century, the European have been sailed to Asia to develop their trade. Formosa then has become one of the most important transit ports in the East Asian, and Fort Zeelandia has been an international business center. On behalf of the Dutch East India Company

Dutch East India Company

The Dutch East India Company was a chartered company established in 1602, when the States-General of the Netherlands granted it a 21-year monopoly to carry out colonial activities in Asia...

, the ships departed from Formosa

Formosa

Formosa or Ilha Formosa is a Portuguese historical name for Taiwan , literally meaning, "Beautiful Island". The term may also refer to:-Places:* Formosa Strait, another name for the Taiwan Strait...

, north forward to Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

, west to Fujian, south to Vietnam

Vietnam

Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...

, Thailand

Thailand

Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...

, and Indonesia

Indonesia

Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...

, India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

, Iran

Iran

Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...

or Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

The strategic location

The Dutch chose a sandy peninsula off the coast of Tainan

Tainan

as the site of the fortress since this would allow the fortress direct access to the sea and with it, supplies and reinforcements from Batavia

Jakarta

Jakarta is the capital and largest city of Indonesia. Officially known as the Special Capital Territory of Jakarta, it is located on the northwest coast of Java, has an area of , and a population of 9,580,000. Jakarta is the country's economic, cultural and political centre...

in event of a siege. Unfortunately, the site chosen lacked adequate supplies of fresh water, which had to be shipped in from the mainland.

The importance of Anping’s geographical position is obvious, and can be seen from its depiction on an ancient map. According to the topography, there were a series of sandbars that extended from south to north; the east side of such sandbars was the Taijian Inner Sea. Fort Zeelandia was established on the largest sandbar to control the channel for entering the inner sea. The Taijian Inner Sea was also a good harbor for docking vessels.

The bricks used for the construction of the fortress were brought over from Java

Java

Java is an island of Indonesia. With a population of 135 million , it is the world's most populous island, and one of the most densely populated regions in the world. It is home to 60% of Indonesia's population. The Indonesian capital city, Jakarta, is in west Java...

, and the mortar used consisted of a mixture of sugar, sand, ground seashells and glutinous rice. The fort was designed to be surrounded by three concentric layers of walls and the four corners of the fort were built into protruding bastions for better defense.

Dutch bond was used for laying bricks to build Fort Zeelandia. It is created by alternately laying headers and stretchers in a single course to avoid gaps. The next course is laid so that a header lies in the middle of the stretcher in the course below. The Dutch bricks should have a 10-days kilning, the texture is solid and compact, and its color is red.

There were three layers of wall, and a protruding bastion on each of four corners on Fort Zeelandia, in order to expand the defense scope; this is the typical European fort of the 17th century. Inside the fort was the military and administration center, the were church, garrisons, and jailhouse; outside was the downtown, Between the fort and downtown, there were market, slaughter house, the gallows execution ground and city weighing station.

The defense function

The complete Fort Zeelandia included an “inner fort” and an “outer fort”, the inner fort was a square and 3-layer construction. The lowest was the storage of ammunition and fodd, the second only has around the wall to revolve, and the middle part of each side has a semicircle protruding barrack to strengthen the defense. Above the third storey was the administrative center, including offices, garrison and church, all of them were independent houses. There were walls on the periphery, with protruding bastion on each of the four corners, armed with huge canons; a watch tower was set at the southwest bastion. The one-storey outer fort was a rectangular fort, also with the bastion on the northwest and southwest corners, armed with several artilleries. Inside the outer fort, there were residences, hospital and houses; the plaza was the commercial area.

The Dutch surrender

On 30 April 1661, General Zheng Chenggong ("Koxinga

Koxinga

Koxinga is the customary Western spelling of the popular appellation of Zheng Chenggong , a military leader who was born in 1624 in Hirado, Japan to Zheng Zhilong, a Chinese merchant/pirate, and his Japanese wife and died in 1662 on the island of Formosa .A Ming loyalist and the arch commander of...

") of Ming China

Ming Dynasty

The Ming Dynasty, also Empire of the Great Ming, was the ruling dynasty of China from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan Dynasty. The Ming, "one of the greatest eras of orderly government and social stability in human history", was the last dynasty in China ruled by ethnic...

(1368-1644) laid siege to the fortress

Siege of Fort Zeelandia

The Siege of Fort Zeelandia , which took place in 1661 and 1662, ended the Dutch East India Company's rule over Taiwan and began the Kingdom of Tungning's rule over the island...

(defended by 2,000 Dutch soldiers) with 400 warships and 25,000 men. After a nine-month siege with the loss of 1,600 Dutch lives, the Dutch surrendered the Fortress on 1 February 1662, when it became clear that no reinforcements were forthcoming from Batavia (present day Jakarta

Jakarta

, Java

Java

, Indonesia

Indonesia

) and when the defenders ran short of fresh water.

Under the Koxinga-Dutch Treaty (1662) signed on 1 February 1662 between Koxinga

Koxinga

and Frederick Coyett

Frederick Coyett

Frederick Coyett , born in Stockholm or Moscow in 1615?, buried in Amsterdam, October 17, 1687, was a Swedish nobleman and the last colonial governor for the Dutch colony of Formosa...

, the Dutch governor, the Dutch surrendered the Fortress and left all the goods and property of the VOC behind at Fort Zeelandia. In return, all officials, soldiers and civilians were free to leave with their personal belongings and supplies.

On 9 February 1662, Frederick Coyett

Frederick Coyett

Frederick Coyett , born in Stockholm or Moscow in 1615?, buried in Amsterdam, October 17, 1687, was a Swedish nobleman and the last colonial governor for the Dutch colony of Formosa...

handed over the keys to the fort and led the remaining Dutch forces and civilians back to Batavia by sea, ending 38 years of Dutch

Netherlands

The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

colonial rule on Taiwan

Taiwan

External links

Old print of Fort Zeelandia, Amsterdam 1675 (high resolution zoomable scan)

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