Fort Zeelandia (Taiwan)

Fort Zeelandia (Chinese: 熱蘭遮城; pinyin: Rèlánzhē Chéng; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Ji̍at-lân-jia Siâⁿ) was a fortress built over ten years from 1624 to 1634 by the Dutch East India Company (VOC), in the town of Anping (now Anping District of Tainan) on Formosa, the former name of central island of Taiwan, during their 38-year rule over the western part of the island. The site had been renamed several times as Fort Orange (奧倫治城), Fort Anping (安平城) and Taiwan City (臺灣城) . The current name of the site in Chinese means Anping Old Fort (Chinese: 安平古堡; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: An-pêng Kó͘-pó).

During the seventeenth century, when Europeans from many countries sailed to Asia to develop trade, Formosa became one of East Asia's most important transit sites, and Fort Zeelandia an international business center. As trade at the time depended on "military force to control the markets", the value of Formosa to the Dutch was mainly in its strategic position. "From Formosa the Spanish commerce between Manila and China, and the Portuguese commerce between Macau and Japan could by constant attacks be made so precarious that much of it would be thrown into the hands of the Dutch, while the latter's dealings with China and Japan would be subject to no interruptions."

On behalf of the VOC, ships departing from Formosa could head north to Japan, west to Fujian, or south to Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, Cambodia, India, Iran or Europe.

Text adapted from “Fort Zeelandia (Taiwan)” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Fort Zeelandia (Taiwan) ranks #367 of 7,738 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #1 of the 21 mapped in Taiwan. Founded 1624, it is older than 30% of the atlas's dated landmarks — one of 580 atlas entries founded in the 17th century. Its Wikipedia articles were opened 13,300 times in the last 60 days, more than 95% of the atlas. 4 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. The nearest day-trip guide is Tainan, 3 km away. See how Taiwan compares in the castle statistics.

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