• 4000 BCE, first settlers arrive in Taiwan. Theorized to have arrived from Southern China
    • (Ko, A. M. S., Chen, C. Y., Fu, Q., Delfin, F., Li, M., Chiu, H. L., … & Ko, Y. C. (2014). Early Austronesians: into and out of Taiwan. The American Journal of Human Genetics, 94(3), 426-436.)
  • 2000 BCE, outward settlement of Taiwanese Austronesians to Philippines and throughout Southeast Asia
  • post-1000 CE “Han” settlement is sporadic
    • Taiwan Ministry of Foreign Affairs, History, 2018
  • 1624 Dutch East India Company colonizes Tainan, constructing rice and sugar plantations and paying Han laborers
    • ibid
  • 1662 Koxinga (國姓爺) 曾成功 on behalf of the Ming Dynasty drives the Dutch from Taiwan
    • Taiwan Ministry of Foreign Affairs, History, 2018
  • 1683 Qing dynasty defeats the last of the Ming loyalists in Taiwan
    • Taiwan Ministry of Foreign Affairs, History, 2018
  • 1895 Qing dynasty China cedes Taiwan to Japan under the Treaty of Shimonoseki
    • Taiwan Ministry of Foreign Affairs, History, 2018
  • 1945 Taiwan is ceded to a different Chinese government, the ROC, after Japans loss in WWII
    • Taiwan Ministry of Foreign Affairs, History, 2018
  • 1947 228 Uprising and massacre
    • Taiwan Ministry of Foreign Affairs, History, 2018
  • 1949 KMT move their government to Taiwan after losing China during the civil war
    • Taiwan Ministry of Foreign Affairs, History, 2018
  • 1979 Kaohsiung Incident – after a demonstration in Kaohsiung, nine activists are arrested and imprisoned and those participants and their lawyers go on to form the core of the new Democratic Progressive Party
    • Taiwan Ministry of Foreign Affairs, History, 2018
  • 1987 Martial law is lifted, new parties are allowed to form
    • Taiwan Ministry of Foreign Affairs, History, 2018
  • 1996 Taiwan holds the first ever direct democratic election for the presidency, Li Deng Hui, a native born Taiwanese man, is elected
    • Taiwan Ministry of Foreign Affairs, History, 2018
  • 2000 Taiwan has its first transition of power, and DPP candidate Chen Shui Bian is elected
  • 2008 Taiwan elects its third president Ma Ying Jiu
  • 2016 Taiwan has its first woman leader as Tsai Ying Wen is elected president