Historically, the United States attempted to occupy Taiwan earlier than Japan

Author:Jia Zhongwei (Taiwan)

In early 2004, Hollywood's "The Last Samurai" was released in Taiwan, and the story was based on the "Southwest War" of 1877, which took place in the early Meiji Restoration in Japan. Among them, Ken Watanabe plays Katsumoto, whose role is from Saigo Takamori, one of the three masters of the Meiji Restoration; and the famous Japanese young and powerful director Makoto Harada cross-knife plays Omura, who is an allusion to Saigo's political enemy Okubo Ritsu.

But you may wonder who Captain Nathan Algren, a U.S. military officer played by American movie star Thomas Cruise Mapother IV., is alluding to. I think that represents two meanings: a self-aggrandizement of the role of Americans as mentors to Japan during the Meiji Restoration, and an allusion to the anecdote of Charles W. Le Gendre, who was once the U.S. consul in Xiamen.

Li Xiande, also known as Li Rangli, was born on August 26, 1830 in France, and graduated from the University of Paris. In 1854, she married Clara Victoria Mulock, the daughter of a famous lawyer in New York, and moved to New York.

Historically, the United States attempted to occupy Taiwan earlier than Japan

Lee Sin Tak

When the Civil War broke out in 1861, Lee Chose to be loyal to the Union of the North, because he recruited more than 100 volunteers for the 51st Division in New York and was appointed as a major company commander by the Union Army, he personally led this unit to North Carolina to participate in the war, after several battles he was finally incorporated into General Grant's direct unit, promoted to the rank of colonel, in May 1864 in a battle in which the left eye and nose were penetrated by bullets, resulting in blindness in the left eye, he was honorably discharged from the army that year, and was allowed to be promoted to brigadier general.

After the end of the Civil War, because his friend General Grant (1822-1885) was elected as the eighteenth president of the United States, he was sent to serve as the U.S. consul in Xiamen in 1867 and to handle the consular affairs of Tamsui, Chicken Coop, Anping, and Dog Fighting.

At the beginning of his term of office, Li Xiande encountered the shipwreck of the Rover on March 12, 1867, and the following year (1,868) the British Navy's Gurdon-led gun attack on Anping, as well as countless teaching cases and business disputes... Either way, we can see the one-eyed general. Because of such frequent contact with Taiwan, Li Xiande is regarded as a "Taiwanese fanjie", and these experiences helped him to "induce" or "guide" Japan to launch a war of aggression against Taiwan's Pingtung in 1874, that is, the "Peony Society Incident"!

Only recently more and more research shows that Japan was not simply induced by Li Xiande to launch the so-called "Conquest of Taiwan" campaign in 1874, and of course, it is not possible to push Li Xiande that Japan will later embark on the road of militarism. All of these studies may have been induced by the long-term exoneration theory of exoneration in Japanese academic circles, concealing Japan's long-standing intention to invade Taiwan and its aggressive intentions lurking in Japanese culture. In other words, Li Xiande did have a key factor in launching a war of aggression against Taiwan in Japan, but this actually contained quite complicated international political conspiracies and calculations, but the Japanese imperialism produced by the influence of the Western powers after the Meiji Restoration was probably the main factor, of course, Li Xiande's personal ambitions were definitely one of the factors constituting Japan's foreign expansion, he was at best a strategist, and everyone was just a wretched treachery and using each other.

But in any case, Li Xiande was also the first to propose the concept of the "moon bend of East Asian civilization": he clearly pointed out in a memorandum to the Japanese government in 1873: "The half-moon-shaped region of Japan, Korea, Ryukyu, and Taiwan, under the leadership of Japan, will be the center of gravity of Asia's modernization, and for the future prosperity of Asia, It is both natural and inevitable that Japan will use troops to Taiwan." (Japanese Admiralty Document JN-R34-F44937-45) "This concept is the source of Japan's so-called "Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere" in the future. As the goto Shinpei Sho biography put it: "This young empire is beginning to implement a new national policy initiated by Li Xiande's advice, the mainland policy, that is, from Huatai in the north to Taiwan in the south, from a series of islands to complete the half-moon encirclement of Indochina, and even more to control Korea and Manchuria, otherwise it will not be able to ensure the security of the empire and control the situation in East Asia." This is the strategy proposed by Li Xiande. This strategy spurred the leaders of Japan to become the heads of my new empire. "(Note 2)]

According to records, the first American businessman to land in Taiwan in modern times was Li Ji Deng. Gideon Nye Jr. (1812–1888). In 1833, at the age of 21, he and several brothers founded the Nye Brothers & Co. in Guangzhou, China, engaged in the import and export of opium, sugar, and tea. In 1853 he wrote to his longtime friend, the American chargé d'affaires in China, Peter. Petter Parker (1804-1888) suggested that the U.S. government send troops to occupy Hongtou Island in southern Taiwan, which is now Orchid Island, as a base for the U.S. Far East Pacific Route, but received no response.

Images of Taiwanese hill tribes captured by the Japanese army in "Taiwan Shengbo Race Photo Posters"

In 1855 (the fifth year of The Qing Dynasty), the Ney Brothers and two other American merchants, William, Anthon & Co., and W. Robinette M. Robinet & Co.) cooperated in bribing Yu Duo (1854-1858), the Manchurian minister who was then the prefect of Taiwan and the Manchurian Minister of State who was then serving as the prefect of Taiwan and the Manchurian Minister of State who was on patrol of Taiwan Bingbi Province (formerly known as fujian province). Ney obtained exclusive rights to Taiwan's camphor exports and the privilege of using Dog Harbor (present-day Kaohsiung). From 1855 to 1857, Ligydon. Ney invested about US$45,000 to dredge the harbor and build terminals and warehouses, and exported 78 cargo ships worth US$500,000 during the same period. Relatively liky. Ney must provide maritime protection and anti-piracy in the dog harbor area. As a result, the American flag flew on the beach of the dog for more than a year, which also deterred the rampant pirates at that time. (Note 3)

Also, as early as 1848, Lijideng. Ney's brother Thomas Nye disappeared in a shipwreck while passing through the Taiwan Strait on the Kelpie merchant ship, and in order to rescue him, Li Jideng put pressure on the Chinese government to continuously ask the U.S. government for help, asking the government to send personnel to Taiwan to search and rescue. The U.S. government sent four groups of warships to patrol Taiwan's waters, the most famous of which was that On June 29, 1854, Mathew Perry, the Navy' Navy, sent Captain Abbot and Lieutenant Commander Sinclair to lead two warships, "the Macedonant" and "the theory.", respectively Misisippi (supply ship) "departed from Shizuoka Shimoda, Japan, to Keelung, and the most important purpose, apart from searching for possible American crew members, was to investigate local coal deposits and to measure hydrological data in the port of Keelung and to produce charts."

After Perry returned to China, according to Colonel Albert's report, he wrote an article entitled "Powerful Beauty", arguing that although this beautiful island was nominally part of China (the Qing Dynasty), it was actually independent, and Chinese officials only maintained weak and unstable rule in some isolated areas. Moreover, most of the island is owned by the "Independent Fan". Geographically, Taiwan "can establish transportation with China, Japan, Ryukyu, Jiaotongina, Cambodia, Siam, the Philippines, and all nearby islands." It is capable of supplying abundant coal.combustible. "It occupies a superior position in land, sea and military,...... It not only overlooks, but also controls these commercial ports and the population northeast of the Sea of China. At the same time, he proposed that the United States should occupy the Ryukyu Islands and the Ogasawara Islands (known to Americans as the Baolin Islands) and connect with Taiwan as a first step in establishing a network of U.S. bases in the East. (Note 5)

U.S. Consul in Ningbo T. Harris

In March of the same year, the U.S. Consul in Ningbo, T. T. Townsend Harris (1804–1878, July 1856, then the first U.S. minister to Japan. He also suggested to the U.S. government that in order to expand U.S. commercial and military bases, Taiwan should be "purchased" from China. In a more than 100-page opinion paper he submitted to the Secretary of State, detailing Taiwan's resources, history, and current situation, he believed that Taiwan would serve the United States at least five major roles: first, as a relay station for American goods into China; second, as a base for spreading Christianity; third, to control trade between China's northern and southern provinces at sea; fourth, to serve as a trade gateway to China on the west coast of the United States; and fifth, to seek development toward Japan from Taiwan.

Influenced by old friend Li Ji Deng. Ney's constant advocacy of annexation or leasing of Taiwan has influenced the influence of the Company, and the attitude toward Taiwan has gradually changed. At that time, China was in the midst of the Taiping Rebellion (1851-1864), and the great powers wanted to take advantage of this opportunity to extort money from China.

Britain, France, and the United States sent envoys twice in 1854 and 1856 to demand that the Chinese government amend the treaty. Petter Parker took advantage of this time to propose to Secretary of State William L. Marcy, 1786-1857, that it should take advantage of this opportunity to pressure China to expand its trade and give more business preferences. At the same time, he suggested that if China refused, the three countries would occupy three Chinese territories by force, the United States occupy Taiwan, britain occupy the Zhoushan Islands, and France occupy Korea. It was only this proposal that was shelved after the end of the Second Opium War.

Scene of the signing of the Treaty of Tianjin (painting)

After the Second Opium War, representatives of China and Britain, France and the United States signed the Treaty of Tianjin in Tianjin from June 23 to 26, 1858 (the eighth year of Qing Xianfeng). The Treaty of Tianjin consists of 56 paragraphs, and the Treaty on the Aftermath of the Treaty of Commerce is attached. Among them, two treaty ports in Taiwan, Tainan and Huwei (Tamsui), were opened. In 1863 (the second year of Tongzhi), the Chinese government opened two more treaty ports, Dadao (Kaohsiung) and Jilong (Keelung), and the United States and Britain gradually reduced their ambitions to occupy Taiwan. Of course, at that time, the national strength of the United States was obviously inferior to that of Britain, France, Germany... Waiting for the European powers, so to occupy Taiwan independently may cause the intervention of the great powers, coupled with the fact that the United States was falling into a north-south war (Civil War: 1861 ~ 1865) because of the issue of the emancipation of black slaves, it was simply unable to send troops overseas, in this time and space background, so that the United States businessmen had to withdraw from the Taiwan market due to political and military pressure from other countries, and the vacated positions were taken over by British businessmen from 1858 onwards. (Note 9)

However, the United States still has a haunting dream of Taiwan, especially after the end of the Civil War, the rapid recovery of the United States' national strength, the demand for overseas markets and strategic bases continues to rise, the United States in addition to stepping up the struggle for the Panama Canal excavation and jurisdiction, Central and South America and China have become the United States in the Americas and Asia is the first attempt of the United States to occupy Chinese territory, but this idea has not been realized due to many factors.

annotations:

Note 1: See Yin Zhangyi: "American Expansionism and Taiwan's Fate~ A Review of U.S.-Taiwan Relations over the Past 160 Years (I)"

(Monthly History / Issues 112-113/2006.04.20~30).

Note 2: See Li Li and Zhao Guohui, "A Study of The Modern History of Li Xiande and the First Japanese Invasion of Taiwan" (No. 3, 2007), p115.

Note 3: See ( I. Ye Zhenhui: A Preliminary Study on the Development of Early Internationalization in Kaohsiung (Kaohsiung Municipal Literature Committee), pp27-30. (II) Li Dingyi: A History of Early Sino-AMERICAN Diplomacy (Sanmin Bookstore), p302-303.

Note 4: See – Li Dingyi: A History of Early Sino-US Diplomacy (Sanmin Bookstore), pp. 301-302.

Note 5: See - Chen Bisheng, History of the People of Taiwan (People's Publishing House), p186.

Note 6: See – Li Dingyi: A History of Early Sino-AMERICAN Diplomacy (Sanmin Bookstore), p298.

Note 7: Li Jideng and others have established bases in Kaohsiung, which have made great profits, and are naturally ambitious for Taiwan. However, they believed that it would be very difficult for the US Navy to occupy Taiwan, so they instead proposed the establishment of a Taiwan government protected by the US Government. Bo Driving and Li Ji Deng are old friends for many years, and the impact of Li Ji Deng's propositions on Bo Ji is obvious.