Spanish Formosa

Common card · No. 316181

Spanish Formosa (Spanish: Gobernación de Formosa Española) was a small colony of the Spanish Empire established in the northern tip of the island now known as Taiwan, then known to Europeans at the time as Formosa or to Spaniards as "Isla Hermosa" from 1626 to 1642. It was ceded to the Dutch Republic during the Eighty Years' War. The Portuguese were the first Europeans to reach the island in 1544, and named it Formosa (Portuguese for "beautiful") due to the beautiful landscape as seen from the sea. The Spanish had translated the name into Spanish as "Hermosa" and is what was historically used in Spanish maps and documents about the colony. The Spanish set up a colony in the north of the island in 1626 as part of the Manila-based Spanish East Indies that was also subordinated to New Spain (Mexico) at that time. As a Spanish colony, it was meant to protect the regional trade of Spanish Philippines, especially Manila-bound junk ships coming from Ming China and Japan from interference by the...

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