How did it remain uncivilized for millennials despite located right next to the China and Japan? Even Europeans refused to build anything on the Island until 17th century, how is this even possible?
>>18402705Mountainous shithole without natural value that was already populated by aboriginals, who are useless and hostile.
>>18402719>Mountainous shithole without naturalNot true for western Taiwan
>>18402705It was already inhabited by austronesians and had no real value until the 20th century
>>18402705Japan lacked the power projection necessary to occupy Taiwan.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invasion_of_Ryukyu>Approximately 100 ships carrying roughly 3,000 soldiersThat works out to 30 men per ship, at which point we might as well consider these vessels more akin to large boats. Also this is a reference to the Japanese invasion of Ryukyu, a kingdom whose main island is Okinawa, a necessary base for any activity in Taiwan.>The fleet left harbor on March 4>The Satsuma fleet arrived at Amami Ōshima on April 7So it takes them at least 34 days to go the 200 miles, 322 km, from Japan to the northernmost island of Ryukyu archipelago. The northern tip of Taiwan is over 650 miles, 1050 km, from the same harbor in Japan. Even with island hopping through Okinawa it's going to take over three months just to bring in men and supplies from Japan to Taiwan in large boats that can only carry 30 men.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taiwan#Early_colonial_period_(to_1683)>In 1591, Japan sent envoys to deliver a letter requesting tribute relations with Taiwan. They found no leader to deliver the letter to and returned home. In 1609, a Japanese expedition was sent to survey Taiwan. After being attacked by the Indigenous people, they took some prisoners and returned home. In 1616, a Japanese fleet of 13 ships were sent to Taiwan. Due to a storm, only one ship made it there and is presumed to have returned to Japan.If the boats used were the same as those for Okinawa, then they only had 13 x 30 = 390 men, with 360 men drowning in the storm.
>>18402719It has excellent soil for sugarcane and tea and had natural sulphur and petroleum wells. Though yeah it needed wide scale settlement to make it productive
>>18403243Wako pirates sailed further away than Taiwan when they pillaged along the Chinese coasts and just securing an initial bridgehead on an island inhabited by primitive natives only requires like a hundred men.
>>18402705Can someone qrd on the history of this island? I never hear anything great coming out of here, just mediocrity unlike Corsica
Indigenous peoples in southern Taiwan, such as the Tao (Yami), have been actively engaged in trade with their neighbors on the Batanes Islands of the Philippines since the Neolithic era, sharing a high degree of linguistic similarity. Through these ancient maritime networks, nephrite (Taiwan Jade) sourced from eastern Taiwan was distributed throughout Southeast Asia and mainland China.A prominent theory suggests that Taiwan is the Urheimat (homeland) of the Austronesian expansion. This is supported by DNA analysis of the Paper Mulberry (Broussonetia papyrifera), a tree traditionally used by Austronesians to produce bark cloth. As these voyagers migrated across the Pacific, they carried saplings with them. On many remote islands, these trees are found to be monosexual (clones), meaning they could only have been propagated through artificial cuttings by humans. The fact that Taiwan possesses the highest genetic diversity of this species provides compelling biological evidence that the island was the starting point of this epic migration.
>>18403449Wako pirates also managed to sail faster than a 1/4 knot on average.
Same reason as why Ancient China did not attempt an invasion of Japan: fucking why? Its well away from any major Eurasian trading route they know and if they were looking for available land there's land a-plenty in what eventually became Southern china.The place was even discovered during the Three Kingdoms Period by the Eastern Wu Dynasty, and all that happened was a bunch of soldiers landing there, went "wow what a shithole," kidnapped a few hundred austronesian brownoids and presented them as slaves to the Emperor Sun Quan.The only East Asian people who settled there were pirates, smugglers, and fugitives from the law.>>18403449Wako Pirates are mostly Chinese and they have historically been better sailors & shipwrights than Feudal Japan.
Nobody cared.China was never a seafaring civilisation, most of their growth was through land expansion.There was more value in islands further south that grew lots of exotic crops and spices, so it made more sense for chinks to go down there instead for trade.
>>18404312well nowadays they do make like all the processors and stuff
>>18402705parts of Sub-Saharan Africa was next to MENA and they didn't develop much either
>>18406513>parts of Sub-Saharan Africa was next to MENA and they didn't develop much eitherLike which exactly?
>>18402705>>18404312https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhwB0lMoPKQ
>>18406513Literally every part of Africa under regular contact with the Middle East developed at least some rudimentary city-states
