Japan's five-month conquest of Taiwan in 1895 inaugurated fifty years of Japanese colonial rule over the island following the First Sino-Japanese War.
Key Facts
- Duration
- 29 May – 18 November 1895 (approx. 5 months)
- Triggering treaty
- Qing cession of Taiwan to Japan, April 1895
- Largest battle
- Battle of Baguashan, 27 August 1895
- Japanese landing site
- Near Keelung, northern Taiwan
- Organised resistance ended
- Fall of Tainan, 21 October 1895
- Result of Japanese rule
- Five decades of Japanese colonial administration
By the Numbers
Location
Cause → Event → Consequence
The First Sino-Japanese War ended with the Qing dynasty's defeat, leading to the Treaty of Shimonoseki in April 1895, by which China ceded Taiwan to Japan. Taiwanese officials and residents, unwilling to accept Japanese rule, proclaimed the short-lived Republic of Formosa to resist the transfer.
Japanese forces landed near Keelung on 29 May 1895 and advanced southward through Taiwan over five months. Despite guerrilla resistance and conventional stands by a mix of Chinese regulars and local Hakka militias, the Japanese prevailed in every major engagement, including the decisive Battle of Baguashan on 27 August 1895.
The fall of Tainan on 21 October 1895 ended organised Formosan resistance, completing Japan's takeover of the island. This defeat inaugurated approximately fifty years of Japanese colonial rule over Taiwan, fundamentally reshaping the island's political, social, and economic structure until Japan's defeat in World War II in 1945.
Belligerents & Mobilization Analysis
Side A
1 belligerent
Side B
1 belligerent