Fort Zeelandia (Taiwan)

Common card · No. 340571

Fort Zeelandia (Chinese: 熱蘭遮城; pinyin: Rèlánzhē Chéng; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Ji̍at-lân-jia Siâⁿ; Tâi-lô: Jia̍t-lân-jia-siânn) was a fortress built over ten years from 1624 to 1634 by the Dutch East India Company (VOC), in the town of Anping (now Anping District of Tainan) on Formosa, the former name of central island of Taiwan, during their 38-year rule over the western part of the island. The site had been renamed several times as Fort Orange (奧倫治城), Fort Anping (安平城) and Taiwan City (臺灣城) . The current name of the site in Chinese means Anping Old Fort (Chinese: 安平古堡; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: An-pêng Kó͘-pó). During the seventeenth century, when Europeans from many countries sailed to Asia to develop trade, Formosa became one of East Asia's most important transit sites, and Fort Zeelandia an international business center. As trade at the time depended on "military force to control the markets", the value of Formosa to the Dutch was mainly in its strategic position. "From Formosa the Spanish commerce between...

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