ABSTRACT
Throughout the nineteenth century, Japan’s leaders worried that their nation would attract the attention of European and North American empires looking to expand into the Pacific. Thus, the Meiji period, which began in 1868, was marked by vigorous campaigns to convince the West that Japan was neither terra nullis nor isle of savages, but a modern nation on the road to economic and political self-development. When China signed the Treaty of Shimonoseki ceding Taiwan to Japan in 1895, the Japanese government seized the opportunity to establish a model colony on the island. Taiwan would prove that the Japanese could out-colonize those who might dream of colonizing Japan. As it turned out, the project was a success. Within two decades, Taiwan no longer required subsidies from Tokyo. And by the time the Japanese withdrew from the island in 1945, Taiwan outpaced mainland China in nearly every measure of material development-per capita income, economic infrastructure, health, educational attainment, and so on. Decades later, this gap contributed to serious problems.
