Taiwan
POPULATION 22,603,001
CHINESE RELIGION (BUDDHIST, TAOIST, CONFUCIAN, AND CHINESE FOLK RELIGION) 89.1 percent
I-KUAN TAO 3.9 percent
PROTESTANT 2.6 percent
ROMAN CATHOLIC 1.3 percent
OTHER 3.1 percent
Country Overview
Introduction
Taiwan is an island located nearly 100 miles from the southeast coast of mainland China. It is bordered on the south by the Bashi Channel; on the north by the East China Sea; on the east by the Pacific Ocean; and on the west by the Taiwan Strait, which separates Taiwan from mainland China. In addition to the main island, the Taiwanese government (called the Republic of China) has jurisdiction over the P'eng-hu, Quemoy, and Matsu archipelagos and about 20 other remote islets.
From the end of the sixteenth century C.E. to the beginning of the seventeenth, the first Europeans (such as Portuguese, Dutch, and Spaniards) went to the island; the latter two introduced Protestant Christianity and Roman Catholicism, respectively. Though Taiwan was known to the Chinese as early as the third century C.E., significant Chinese settlement did not take place until the seventeenth century, when Ming-dynasty loyalists used the island as a center of opposition to the Manchu (Ch'ing) regime that had taken control of the mainland. In 1683 part of the island fell to the Ch'ing and subsequently was incorporated into Fukien province.
This page contains 201 words.
Taiwan article
Read the rest of this article.
This article contains 3,308 words
(approx. 11 pages at 300 words per page).
Order our Taiwan Article
