Fort Zeelandia (Taiwan)

Timeline

1. 1624–1640Dayuan (Tainan Bay) · AnpingAfter the Dutch East India Company moved from Penghu to southwestern Taiwan, it built a wooden palisade fort on the Dayuan sandbar, later rebuilt as the brick-and-stone bastion Fort Zeelandia. The fort controlled the bay's channel, and housed trading posts, warehouses, and administrative organs, becoming the company's command center for trade, taxation, and missionary activity in Taiwan.
2. 1640–1660Fort Zeelandia and the Chihkan Tower trading post district · TainanThe fortifications were repeatedly reinforced into a star-shaped bastion system, and the Chihkan area outside the city developed into a settlement for Chinese and Dutch merchants. Exports of deerskin, sugar, and rice connected East and Southeast Asian networks, and Zeelandia's port became one of the western Pacific's important transshipment nodes in the 17th century.
3. 1661–1662Fort Zeelandia · AnpingIn 1661 Koxinga landed in Taiwan with a fleet, first taking Fort Provintia (Chihkan Tower), then besieging Fort Zeelandia for a prolonged period. After nine months of attack and defense, in February 1662 the Dutch governor Frederick Coyett surrendered and left the fort, ending Dutch rule in Taiwan; the site was thereafter renamed Anping and incorporated into the Ming Zheng regime.