The Political Development of Taiwan

With growing risk of superpower conflict in the Taiwan Straits, Taiwan – home today to 23.4 million people – has become a major focus for global attention. This seminar is premised on three ideas – that to understand Taiwan, one must go beyond the geopolitical, and instead delve deeply into Taiwan’s multi-century political evolution; that doing so will offer insights into some of the most significant macro-political phenomena in human history (e.g., settler colonialism, imperialism, authoritarianism, democratization, etc.); and, that doing so will also offer greater understanding of, and a wider range of potential solutions for, contemporary geopolitical concerns. Topics include Taiwan under Dutch rule, Taiwan as part of the Qing Empire, Taiwan’s socio-political evolution under Japanese colonial rule, the building of the KMT state on Taiwan, authoritarianism and the “White Terror,” Taiwan’s democratization, and post-democratization identity formation.