The Republic of China, commonly known as Taiwan is a state in East Asia. It governed all of China before it lost control of the mainland to the ► People's Republic of China (PRC) as a result of the Chinese Civil War which ended in 1949, and since then its administration has been restricted to the island groups of Taiwan (Formosa), the Pescadores, Kinmen, and Matsu. Over subsequent decades, the Republic of China has been commonly referred to as "Taiwan", and since the late 1970s the name "China" has been increasingly used to refer to the People's Republic of China. For political reasons, the Republic of China is commonly referred to as "Chinese Taipei" in international organizations. It has maritime borders with ► Japan and the ► Philippines and it claims the ► Paracel and ► Spratly Islands, which are also claimed by ► the People's Republic of China, ► Vietnam, ► Indonesia, ► Brunei, ► Malaysia, and the ► Philippines.
Short name
Taiwan
Official name
Republic of China
Status
Independent country, statehood since 1766 BCE, modern state founded 1912, located in Taiwan since 1949. UN member from 1945-1971, recognized by 21 UN members and Holy See.
This section holds a short summary of the history of the area of present-day Taiwan, illustrated with maps, including historical maps of former countries and empires that included present-day Taiwan.
See also: Atlas of China, which includes the history maps of the Republic of China until its retreat on Taiwan
Map of the Japanese Empire (1870-1942)
Movement of the Republic of China to Taiwan Island
Old maps
This section holds copies of original general maps more than 70 years old.
The first "correct" map of Taiwan in the world, which was drawn by Dutch sailor in 1625 when Taiwan was under the Dutch colonial rule
The Island Formosa and the Pescadores by Johannes Vingboons, ca.1640
Map of Formosa (Taiwan), edited by Reverend William Campbell; taken from the Scottish Geographical Magazine; 1896
Formosa in 1901
Japan and Formosa 1911
Other maps
Taiwan ethnic map
Satellite maps
Satellite map
Notes and references
General remarks:
The WIKIMEDIA COMMONS Atlas of the World is an organized and commented collection of geographical, political and historical maps available at Wikimedia Commons. The main page is therefore the portal to maps and cartography on Wikimedia. That page contains links to entries by country, continent and by topic as well as general notes and references.
Every entry has an introduction section in English. If other languages are native and/or official in an entity, introductions in other languages are added in separate sections. The text of the introduction(s) is based on the content of the Wikipedia encyclopedia. For sources of the introduction see therefore the Wikipedia entries linked to. The same goes for the texts in the history sections.
Historical maps are included in the continent, country and dependency entries.
The status of various entities is disputed. See the content for the entities concerned.
The maps of former countries that are more or less continued by a present-day country or had a territory included in only one or two countries are included in the atlas of the present-day country. For example the Ottoman Empire can be found in the Atlas of Turkey.
