Qualla: Fort Zeelandia https://qualla.com/fort-zeelandia-taiwan en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:37 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/w/s/j/6/fort-zeelandia-taiwan-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Fort Zeelandia https://qualla.com/fort-zeelandia-taiwan Fort Zeelandia: Introduction https://qualla.com/fort-zeelandia-taiwan/ Photo credit Smiley.toerist, CC BY-SA 4.0. The mortar that holds Fort Zeelandia together is made of sugar, sand, ground seashells, and glutinous rice. That recipe, carried halfway around the world from Batavia, tells you everything about Dutch ambitions on Formosa: they intended to stay. Built between 1624 and 1634 by the Dutch East India Company on a sandy peninsula at the entrance to Tainan's harbor, the fortress served as the nerve center of a trading empire that stretched from Japan to Iran. From its bastions, the VOC could watch Spanish galleons bound for Manila, intercept Portuguese traders heading to Macau, and manage a lucrative commerce in silk, sugar, and deerskins. For 38 years it worked. Then Koxinga arrived with 25,000 men.

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Image: Smiley.toerist | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/s/j/6/fort-zeelandia-taiwan-wp/wsj6-fort-zeelandia-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Fort Zeelandia: A Fortress Born from Failure https://qualla.com/fort-zeelandia-taiwan/ Photo credit Diego Ruschel, CC0. The Dutch did not come to Formosa by choice. In August 1624, expelled from the Pescadores after failing to strong-arm Ming China into a trade agreement, they sailed east under Martinus Sonck and landed at the settlement of Tayouan. They found 25,000 Chinese already living on the ...

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Image: Diego Ruschel | CC0

]]> Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/s/j/6/fort-zeelandia-taiwan-wp/wsj6-fort-zeelandia-a-fortress-born-from-failure.mp3 0:06 2 full Fort Zeelandia: The Trading Crossroads https://qualla.com/fort-zeelandia-taiwan/ Photo credit KevinAction, CC BY-SA 3.0. From Fort Zeelandia, VOC ships could sail north to Japan, west to Fujian, or south to Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, Cambodia, India, and beyond. Formosa's strategic value lay not in its own resources but in its position: a base from which the Dutch could harass Spanish and Portug...

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Image: KevinAction | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/s/j/6/fort-zeelandia-taiwan-wp/wsj6-fort-zeelandia-the-trading-crossroads.mp3 0:06 3 full Fort Zeelandia: Nine Months of Siege https://qualla.com/fort-zeelandia-taiwan/ Photo credit Cyyang3935, CC BY 3.0. On 30 April 1661, Ming dynasty loyalist Koxinga brought 400 warships and 25,000 soldiers to Formosa. Inside the fort, Governor Frederick Coyett commanded just 2,000 defenders. The siege lasted nine months. Koxinga's initial assaults were repelled by the fort's bastion design, but...

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]]> Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/s/j/6/fort-zeelandia-taiwan-wp/wsj6-fort-zeelandia-nine-months-of-siege.mp3 0:06 4 full Fort Zeelandia: Sugar and Seashells Still Standing https://qualla.com/fort-zeelandia-taiwan/ Photo credit Johan Jönsson (Julle), CC BY-SA 4.0. Today the site is known in Chinese as Anping Old Fort, a name that strips away the layers of colonial history and replaces them with something more local. The original Dutch bricks, laid in a precise alternating pattern called Dutch bond, are still visible in surviving wall secti...

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Image: Johan Jönsson (Julle) | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/s/j/6/fort-zeelandia-taiwan-wp/wsj6-fort-zeelandia-sugar-and-seashells-still-standing.mp3 0:06 5 full