Republic of Formosa in the context of "Tainan"

The island of Taiwan, along with the Penghu Islands, became an annexed territory of the Empire of Japan in 1895, when the Qing dynasty ceded Fujian-Taiwan Province in the Treaty of Shimonoseki after the Japanese victory in the First Sino-Japanese War. After Japanese forces crushed the consequent Republic of Formosa resistance movement, Japan ruled Taiwan for 50 years. Its capital was located in Taihoku (Taipei), the seat of the Governor-General of Taiwan.

Taiwan was Japan's first colony and can be viewed as the first step in implementing their "Southern Expansion Doctrine" of the late 19th century. Japan, which aimed to turn Taiwan into a showpiece "model colony", made efforts to improve the island's economy, public works, industry, cultural Japanization (1937 to 1945), and support the necessities of Japanese military aggression in the Asia-Pacific. Japan established monopolies and by 1945, had taken over all sales of opium, salt, camphor, tobacco, alcohol, matches, weights and measures, and petroleum on the island. Most Taiwanese children did not attend schools established by Japan until primary education was made mandatory in 1943.

The Japanese invasion of Taiwan, also known as Yiwei War in Chinese (Chinese: 乙未戰爭; May–October 1895), was a conflict between the Empire of Japan and the armed forces of the short-lived Republic of Formosa following the Qing dynasty's cession of Taiwan to Japan in April 1895 at the end of the First Sino-Japanese War. The Japanese sought to take control of their new possession, while the Republican forces fought to resist Japanese occupation. The Japanese landed near Keelung on the northern coast of Taiwan on 29 May 1895, and in a five-month campaign swept southwards to Tainan. Although their advance was slowed by guerrilla activity, the Japanese defeated the Formosan forces (a mixture of regular Chinese units and local Hakka militias) whenever they attempted to make a stand. The Japanese victory at Baguashan on 27 August, the largest battle ever fought on Taiwanese soil, doomed the Formosan resistance to an early defeat. The fall of Tainan on 21 October ended organised resistance to Japanese occupation, and inaugurated five decades of Japanese rule in Taiwan.

The Battle of Baguashan (Chinese: 八卦山戰役), the largest battle ever fought on Taiwanese soil, was the pivotal battle of the Japanese invasion of Taiwan. The battle, fought on 27 August 1895 near the city of Changhua in central Taiwan between the invading Japanese army and the forces of the short-lived Republic of Formosa, was a decisive Japanese victory, and doomed the Republic of Formosa to early extinction. The battle was one of the few occasions on which the Formosans were able to deploy artillery against the Japanese.

Malolos [maˈlɔlɔs], officially the City of Malolos (Filipino: Lungsod ng Malolos), is a component city and capital of the province of Bulacan, Philippines. According to the 2024 census, it has a population of 269,809 people. It is the capital city of the province of Bulacan as the seat of the provincial government.

It was the site of the constitutional convention of 1898, known as the Malolos Convention, that led to the establishment of the First Philippine Republic led by Emilio Aguinaldo, at the sanctuary of the Barasoain Church. The convent of the Malolos Cathedral served as the presidential palace at that time. The First Philippine Republic is sometimes characterized as the first proper constitutional republic in Asia, although there were several Asian republics predating it – for example, the Mahajanapadas of ancient India, the Lanfang Republic, the Republic of Formosa, or the Republic of Ezo. Aguinaldo himself had led a number of governments prior to Malolos, like those established at Tejeros and Biak-na-Bato which both styled themselves República de Filipinas ("Republic of the Philippines"). Unlike the founding documents of those governments, however, the Malolos Constitution was duly approved by a partially elected congress and called for a true representative democracy.