The name Formosa dates from 1542 when Portuguesesailors sighted an uncharted island and noted it on their maps as Ilha Formosa ("beautiful island"). The name Formosa eventually "replaced all others in European literature" and

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In 1894, China and Japan went to war. In a few months, the Japanese defeated China's Beiyang fleet, routed the Chinese armies in Manchuria, and captured Port Arthurand

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When the news of the treaty's contents reached Taiwan, a number of notables from central Taiwan led by Qiu Fengjiadecided to resist the transfer of Taiwan to Japanese rule. On 23 May,

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The declaration has not been preserved in its original Chinese version, although an English version of it was recorded by the American war correspondent James Wheeler Davidson, who was in Taipei when it was issued. Davidson's version reads as follows:

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Premises were found for the republican parliament and the republican ministries in the yamens of the former Qing administration in Taipei.

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Knowing that a Japanese landing was imminent, the Republican leaders did what little they could in the short time given to them to prepare the

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Since the island had already been ceded to Japan in the Treaty of Shimonoseki, Western powers were not in a position to recognize the Republic of Formosa as a legitimate government.

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