Koxinga Drives the Dutch from Taiwan

In the spring of 1661, a large armada led by the Ming loyalist commander Zheng Chenggong, remembered widely as Koxinga, sailed toward southern Taiwan. Dislodged from his continental footholds after failing to take Nanjing from the rising Qing Empire, Koxinga sought a secure island redoubt to sustain his armed movement. On 23 March, roughly 25,000 soldiers and sailors embarked from Kinmen aboard hundreds of vessels, guided partly by navigational charts provided by He Bin, an employee who had fled Dutch service. After securing the Penghu archipelago, the fleet landed near the Tayoan peninsula on 30 April, directly threatening the commercial holdings of the Dutch East India Company.

The primary Dutch colonial base centered on Fort Zeelandia, a multi-walled coastal fortress situated at the entrance of a shallow lagoon, supported by the smaller administrative post of Fort Provintia. Company governor Frederick Coyett commanded Fort Zeelandia with an enclave of 1,733 residents, including 905 soldiers and officers, 547 enslaved laborers, and European civilians. When Dutch naval vessels engaged the invading armada, an explosion aboard the warship Hector destroyed their main naval combatant, leaving the defenders unable to control the surrounding waters. Koxinga quickly accepted the surrender of the isolated Fort Provintia before directing his full strength against Fort Zeelandia.