ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a brief account of Taiwan in history, including the successive European, Chinese Zhengs and Qing administrations. It presents the Taiwanese aboriginal groups and their land tenure, and outlines the spread of Chinese settlement before and during the Qing period. This chapter establishes that land settlement throughout the 17th to 19th centuries was a slow but continuous expansion. The varying degrees of acculturation of the aborigines followed the spread of land settlement. The various statuses of the different aboriginal groups in present-day Taiwan, as recognised by the government, were the result of varying degrees of acculturation throughout history.
