Qualla: Siege of Fort Zeelandia https://qualla.com/siege-of-fort-zeelandia 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/siege-of-fort-zeelandia-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Siege of Fort Zeelandia https://qualla.com/siege-of-fort-zeelandia Siege of Fort Zeelandia: Introduction https://qualla.com/siege-of-fort-zeelandia/ Photo credit Albrecht Herport, Public domain. The Dutch warship Hector exploded before the battle even began. A cannon had fired too close to the gunpowder magazine, and the VOC's most powerful vessel in Formosan waters blew apart as Koxinga's fleet of hundreds of junks threaded through a shallow waterway the Dutch had believed impassable. It was April 2, 1661. By the time the smoke cleared, the Ming loyalist commander controlled the seas around Taiwan, and the 905 soldiers inside Fort Zeelandia were staring at a force that outnumbered them twenty to one. What followed was a nine-month siege that would end Dutch colonial rule, establish the first Chinese government on Taiwan, and leave behind a legacy of courage, cruelty, and competing historical narratives that the island is still sorting through.

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Image: Albrecht Herport | Public domain

]]> Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/s/j/6/siege-of-fort-zeelandia-wp/wsj6-siege-of-fort-zeelandia-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Siege of Fort Zeelandia: A Map and a Grudge https://qualla.com/siege-of-fort-zeelandia/ Photo credit Gisling, CC BY 3.0. Koxinga, born Zheng Chenggong, was the son of the pirate-admiral Zheng Zhilong and a Japanese mother. After a failed attempt to capture Nanjing from the Qing in 1659, he needed a new base. Taiwan offered a defensible island with agricultural potential and a garrison weakened by d...

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Image: Gisling | CC BY 3.0

]]> Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/s/j/6/siege-of-fort-zeelandia-wp/wsj6-siege-of-fort-zeelandia-a-map-and-a-grudge.mp3 0:06 2 full Siege of Fort Zeelandia: The Fortress Holds, Then Breaks https://qualla.com/siege-of-fort-zeelandia/ Photo credit Thijs Haarhuis, CC BY-SA 3.0. Valentyn surrendered Fort Provintia on April 4 after just two days. Fort Zeelandia proved harder. Koxinga sent the captured Dutch missionary Antonius Hambroek as an emissary to demand surrender. Hambroek entered the fort, urged the garrison to resist, then walked back to the Chin...

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Image: Thijs Haarhuis | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/s/j/6/siege-of-fort-zeelandia-wp/wsj6-siege-of-fort-zeelandia-the-fortress-holds-then-breaks.mp3 0:06 3 full Siege of Fort Zeelandia: Betrayal and Surrender https://qualla.com/siege-of-fort-zeelandia/ Photo credit User:KevinAction, CC BY-SA 3.0. By December 1661, morale inside the fort was collapsing. German mercenaries deserted to Koxinga, bringing intelligence about the garrison's weakness. In January 1662, a German sergeant named Hans Jurgen Radis allegedly defected and revealed the strategic importance of a redoubt t...

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Image: User:KevinAction | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/s/j/6/siege-of-fort-zeelandia-wp/wsj6-siege-of-fort-zeelandia-betrayal-and-surrender.mp3 0:06 4 full Siege of Fort Zeelandia: The Human Toll https://qualla.com/siege-of-fort-zeelandia/ Photo credit Albrecht Herport, Public domain. The siege's aftermath was brutal for everyone caught in it. Koxinga ordered the mass execution of many Dutch male prisoners, mostly by crucifixion and decapitation. Dutch and part-Dutch women and children were enslaved. Koxinga took Hambroek's teenage daughter as a concubine; oth...

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Image: Albrecht Herport | Public domain

]]> Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/s/j/6/siege-of-fort-zeelandia-wp/wsj6-siege-of-fort-zeelandia-the-human-toll.mp3 0:06 5 full