Siege of Fort Zeelandia
Date March 30, 1661 - February 1, 1662 Location Tainan, Taiwan Result Decisive Koxinga victory Establishment of Kingdom of Tungning
Belligerents
Koxinga's private army Koxinga's private fleet	Dutch East India Company
Commanders
Koxinga	Frederick Coyett
Strength
25,000 Hundreds of war vessels. Events 240 BC - 1st recorded Perihelion passage of Halley's Comet. Events 1327 - Teenaged Edward III is crowned King of England, but the country is ruled by his mother Queen Taiwan ( Taiwanese: Tâi-oân/Tāi-oân (historically 大灣/台員/大員/台圓/大圓/台窩灣 is an Island in East Asia. The Kingdom of Tungning was the first Han Chinese Government to rule Taiwan, between 1661 and 1683 Koxinga ( Pe̍h-oē-jī: Kok-sèng-iâ/Kok-sìⁿ-iâ Lord with the Imperial Surname) is the traditional Western spelling of the popular appellation of Koxinga ( Pe̍h-oē-jī: Kok-sèng-iâ/Kok-sìⁿ-iâ Lord with the Imperial Surname) is the traditional Western spelling of the popular appellation of The Dutch East India Company ( Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie or VOC in old-spelling Dutch, literally "United East Indian Koxinga ( Pe̍h-oē-jī: Kok-sèng-iâ/Kok-sìⁿ-iâ Lord with the Imperial Surname) is the traditional Western spelling of the popular appellation of Frederick Coyett ( born in Stockholm in 1615? died in the Netherlands, October 17, 1687, Swedish nobleman and the last colonial	Garrison: 1,200[1] unknown number of native allies and civilians Reinforcement: 10 ships, 700 sailors
Casualties and losses
unknown	1,600 killed or diseased 2 ships sunk 3 vessels captured

The Siege of Fort Zeelandia (Traditional Chinese: 鄭成功攻台之役; literally "Koxinga's Invasion of Taiwan"), which took place in 1661 and 1662, ended the Dutch East India Company's hold on Taiwan and began the Kingdom of Tungning's rule over the island. Koxinga ( Pe̍h-oē-jī: Kok-sèng-iâ/Kok-sìⁿ-iâ Lord with the Imperial Surname) is the traditional Western spelling of the popular appellation of The Dutch East India Company ( Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie or VOC in old-spelling Dutch, literally "United East Indian The Kingdom of Tungning was the first Han Chinese Government to rule Taiwan, between 1661 and 1683 Taiwanese scholar Lu Chien-jung described this event as "a war that determined the fate of Taiwan in the four hundred years that follow"^[2].

Prelude

Painting of Fort Zeelandia in 1635 from The Hague National Bureau of Archives, Netherlands

In the year of 1659, after an unsuccessful attempt to capture Nanjing, Koxinga, leader of the Ming loyalist remnants, felt that the Qing Empire had already consolidated their position in China, and that his troops needed more supplies and manpower. Fort Zeelandia ( POJ: Ji̍at-lân-jia Siâⁿ was a fortress built over ten years from 1624&ndash1634 by the Dutch Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie ( Chinese: 南京 Romanizations Nánjīng ( Pinyin) Nan-ching ( Wade-Giles Not to be confused with Qin Dynasty, the first dynasty of Imperial China He began actively searching for a suitable location as his base of operation, and soon a Chinese man named He Bin (Traditional Chinese: 何斌), who was working for the Dutch East India Company in Taiwan, fled to Koxinga's base in Xiamen and provided him with a map of Taiwan. The Dutch East India Company ( Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie or VOC in old-spelling Dutch, literally "United East Indian The Dutch had established a post at Tayoan (Traditional Chinese: 大員), which is now called Tainan, that consisted of two forts in 1632. The first was Fort Zeelandia, situated at the entrance to the bay at Tayoan, and was the main settlement of the Dutch. Fort Zeelandia ( POJ: Ji̍at-lân-jia Siâⁿ was a fortress built over ten years from 1624&ndash1634 by the Dutch Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie The second was Fort Provintia, located at the bay and was less important and thus smaller in size. Frederick Coyett, the governor of Taiwan for the company, was stationed in Fort Zeelandia with 1,800 men; his subordinate Valentyn was in charge of Fort Provintia and its garrison of 500 men. Frederick Coyett ( born in Stockholm in 1615? died in the Netherlands, October 17, 1687, Swedish nobleman and the last colonial

The Siege

Koxinga and his fleet set sail from Kinmen on March 23, 1661. Kinmen, ( Traditional Chinese: 金門 Simplified Chinese: 金门 Hanyu Pinyin: Jīnmén Tongyong Pinyin: Jinmén Wades-Giles His fleet consisted of hundreds of junks and ships of various sizes, with roughly 25,000 soldiers and sailors aboard. -HK CityHall Seaview 51217 5png|thumb|300px|A modern junk in Hong Kong]]A junk is a Chinese sailing vessel. They arrived in the Pescadores the next day, left a garrison there, and set sail again on March 30. The Pescadores ( from Portuguese, "fishermen" pron pɨʃ The fleet arrived at Tayoan on April 2, and, after passing through a shallow waterway unknown to the Dutch, landed at Luermen (Traditional Chinese: 鹿耳門) in the bay. The assault forces immediately laid siege to Fort Provintia, catching Valentyn unprepared since the fort was supposedly protected by Fort Zeelandia; facing overwhelming enemy force, Valentyn surrendered the fort on April 4. Three days after the capture of Fort Provintia, Koxinga's troop surrounded Fort Zeelandia and demanded the garrison's surrender. Coyett, however, rejected the ultimatum and asked the company's regional headquarter in Jakarta for reinforcement. Jakarta (also DKI Jakarta) is the Capital and largest city of Indonesia. Koxinga's fleet then began massive bombardment, and troops on the ground attempted to storm the fort, but were repulsed with considerable losses. Koxinga then changed his tactics and laid siege to the fort.

On May 28, news of the siege reached Jakarta, and the company decided to send a fleet of 10 ships and 700 sailors to relieve the fort. Jakarta (also DKI Jakarta) is the Capital and largest city of Indonesia. The fleet arrived on July 5 and had some small scale confrontations with Koxinga's fleet upon its arrival. On July 23, the two sides gave battle as the Dutch fleet attempted to break the blockade while Koxinga's fleet tried to hold off the Dutch. After a brief engagement, the Dutch fleet was forced to retreat with two ships sunk and three smaller vessels captured. The Dutch attempted to break the siege again in October, but were beaten back by the besieging army. This victory, coupled with news of low morale among the garrison from deserted German mercenaries, convinced Koxinga to launched a final assault in December. On January 12, 1662, Koxinga's fleet began another bombardment, while the ground force prepare to assault the fort. With supplies dwindling and no sign of reinforcement, Coyett finally ordered the hoisting of the white flag and negotiated the surrender terms. The surrender was made complete on February 1, and the remaining Dutch East India Company personnel left Taiwan on February 17. The Dutch East India Company ( Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie or VOC in old-spelling Dutch, literally "United East Indian All personnel were allowed to take with them their personal belongings, as well as provisions sufficient for them to reach the nearest Dutch settlement.

Aftermath

Statues of Koxinga and Dutch emissary at Chihkan Tower, the site where Fort Provintia once stood.

After arriving in Jakarta, Coyett was tried for surrendering the post and exiled to Banda Islands. The Banda Islands (Kepulauan Banda are a group of ten small volcanic Islands in the Banda Sea, about 140km south of Seram island and about 2000km east of He was eventually pardoned after strong lobbing by his friends and relatives. He published a book named Neglected Formosa (Dutch: 't Verwaerloosde Formosa) in 1675. Dutch ( is a West Germanic language spoken by around 24 million people 22 million of which are from the Netherlands, Belgium and Suriname In the book he defended his actions in Taiwan and criticized the company for neglecting his pleas for reinforcement.

After the loss of the post at Tayoan, the Dutch East India Company made several attempts to recapture it, and even formed an alliance with the Qing Empire to battle Koxinga's fleet. They captured Keelung in northern Taiwan, but were forced to abandon it due to logistical difficulties and because the Qing fleet suffered numerous crushing defeats at the hands of Koxinga's veteran sailors. Keelung City (also Jilong or Chilung) ( is a major port city situated in the northeastern part of Taiwan.

Cultural influences

The battle was depicted in the movie Zheng Chenggong 1661 (Traditional Chinese: 鄭成功1661), which ended in Koxinga's victory over the Dutch. The movie's English title is Sino-Dutch War 1661^[3].

See also

• Koxinga
• Dutch East India Company
• Kingdom of Tungning

References