Access Lost Colony: The Untold Story Of Chinas First Great Victory Over The West Executed By Tonio Andrade Displayed In Manuscript

enjoyed this book, which is well written without much jargon, The author deserves serious props for not bogging down such a fascinating episode of history, I was looking for a discussion of the fascinating Koxinga, the son of Chinese pirateturnedadmiral and a samurai daughter, who was a Ming loyalist during the Qing invasion of China.
Koxinga was pushed out of the mainland, and fought the Dutch VOC in Taiwan, taking it over as a base, The power changes in that area are quite complex and interesting, Koxinga's father got his start likely working for the Dutch VOC and likely originally recommended building their operations in Taiwan, When the Qing were taking over the mainland, Koxinga's father who at that point was an admiral for the Ming rump state went where the power seemed to be, but Koxinga decided to stay loyal to the Ming pretender.
Despite Qing threats to execute his father, Koxinga never betrayed the Ming pretender, and his father was eventually executed perhaps an interesting side effect of Koxinga's childhood in Japan, which might have empathized loyalty to a lord instead of the typical chinese stress on familial connections.
The author is mostly focused on how Koxinga triumphed over the Dutch, The Dutch had more guns, and better ships at least in deep waters, but Koxinga's junks were better in shallow waters and made better use of strategy in particular the strategy of feigning retreats.
Particularly interesting was the fact that it appears the historical evidence indicated that both the Ming troops and the Dutch had independently developed the volley.
Because of failures to reinforce in Taiwan the Dutch eventually lost, but not before prolonging the siege significantly through the

use of renaissance forts that had multiple sides on corners to make it difficult for invaders to win using brute force.
In fact, it was not until there was a defector who taught Koxinga how to build the necessary counter forts that Koxinga was able to finally take the fort.
Koxinga went on to establish an independent kingdom in the area that lasted until his grandson, Highly recommend for anyone with an interest in Chinese history, early colonialism, or just a good story, This book focused on the KoxingaCoyet military standoff, but the side stories the deserters from each side, the Dutch envoy to enlist the help of the Qing were so much more interesting.
Uitstekend nonfictie werk over de in vergetelheid geraakte geschiedenis van de Nederlandse kolonisatie van Formosa, het vroegere Taiwan, tijdens de zeventiende eeuw, Op zeer leesbare wijze vertelt de Amerikaanse wereldhistoricus Tonio Andrade hoe het komt dat een superieure zeemacht zoals die van de VOC het kon verliezen tegen het leger van de Chinese krijgsheer Koxinga, de zoon van een piraat.

Leest bijna als een roman, Aanrader voor iedereen die belangstelling heeft voor de koloniale geschiedenis van Nederland, ook voor een minder glorieuze periode zoals deze, waarin een kolonie verloren is gegaan.

Goede Nederlandse vertaling door Tristan Mostert, en voorzien van prachtig historisch beeldmateriaal, 鄭成功在我們這一代是以民族英雄的角色出現的但神奇的是中華民國說他是民族英雄中華人民共和國認定他為民族英雄連日本人也說他是民族英雄天啊國姓爺您還真吃得開可見鄭成功的故事一定有相當多的面向可供完全敵對的各種政權自由提取做政治使用

中華民國愛他因為他與中國國民黨一樣有著從中國被迫轉移到台灣力圖中興的背景中華人民共和國愛他因為他正是明朝政權的延伸跨海驅逐外國勢力荷蘭人收復台灣在目前的中國論述中台灣就是被美帝這個外國勢力帶壞的日本愛他因為他有一半的日本血統媽媽受過日本教育是個增進台灣人認同日本的好圖騰統治好用

如果你想給孩子更生動的完整補充一個去政治化的鄭成功故事該怎麼說當然是根據史實來說根據人性來說這本決戰熱蘭遮就是很棒的素材

決戰熱蘭遮曾在年由時報文化出版過最近因為作者歐陽泰的火藥時代上市決戰熱蘭遮一起再版湊成套書換上一個我個人更喜歡的漂亮封面

這本決戰熱蘭遮真的好歐陽泰收集了許多台灣中國與荷蘭的珍貴史料尤其荷蘭東印度公司保存的各式文件與會議記錄交叉比對再旁及過去各派學者的論點選擇他認為最合理的解釋有議的他還會明白跟你說重建當年這場讓荷蘭東印度公司丟失最大殖民地的戰役

而且最酷的是他是用故事的形式來寫不是課本式的重點條列不是吊書袋的學術語言所以你可以清楚看到每一個人栩栩如生的個性他們的開心他們個性的弱點他們陷入絕境的反應

sitelink innovarad. tw This is the third book I've read about Koxinga and the SinoDutch Warthis year, It's impressively researched, and it offers wonderful insights about Koxinga, the Ming loyalist, and Frederic Coyet, the leader of Dutch troops at Fort Zeelandia, The book really excels in Andrade's coverage of military techniques, weaponry, and logistical problems, although stormy weather was often the deciding factor in the war to control the island of Taiwan.
Fun and fast read about the Sino Dutch War of the midth century, The author pulls together sources and tells the story in a colloquial engaging manner, The historical theory that loops in an around the story is also interesting, Highly recommended. A fun and fast read with a compelling narrative, This book is an intervention in comparative military history, Rather than look at either the Dutch as Europeans or the Chinese as East Asians in isolation, Andrade compares how they fared in a direct confrontation in midth century Taiwan.
The conclusion is the Dutch nearly won because they had RenaissanceStyle fort architecture, comprised of crossfiring bastions and thickly walled redoubts, as well as superior ships.
They ultimately lost Zeelandia Castle in western Taiwan to the halfChinese, halfJapanese Koxinga Zheng Chenggong because he was an exceptional strategist who drew from multiple traditions when creating, outfitting, and training his versatile armies.
In comparison, the Dutch leader Coyet was a poor strategist who missed many opportunities to break the siege of his fort, Weapons technology cannon and muskets were much closer across parties than I would have expected, Indeed, one of Andrade's main arguments is that we can't look at Europe as simply breaking away from and superseding Asia in regards to military technology in the latend millennium.
There was much more diffusion and crosslearning, That being said, the superiority of the Dutch ships and forts was acknowledged by all sides even then, One lingering question for me was: why the Chinese didn't then start adapting the architectural technology in their coastal forts That had the ruins of many examples.
Is architecture an inherently more conservative technology Could only a cosmopolitan like Koxinga pick it up Andrade also makes an argument about global cooling in theth century driving warfare and ruining crops.
For me this was a bit of a distraction, reading more like an effort to dip into climate change interest than really engage with the problem and its potential consequences.
That is, it stimulated many more questions for me than it answered, Also, his climate related citations are all to military historians, and not to environmental historians, A very detailed story about a chunk of history I was completely ignorant of, The author did a great job of explaining known events and relating them to the time period, without becoming dull or droning, I definitely recommend this read to history buffs, particularly military history buffs, Well written and well illustrated including detailed maps, The tone of this writing is on the lighter side, but it has an extremely critical take on internal Chinese policy during the Sino Dutch war, a good read nevertheless.
要說這場仗是近代東方戰勝西方的代表性戰役恐怕也不甚公允雙方戰力差太多過程又是你蠢我更蠢的交鋒鄭森的能力果然在傳統洗腦宣傳中誇大甚多 Wereldgeschiedenis weet me steeds beteri als onderwerp te boeien, Dit boek behandelt de wereldgeschiedenis op een redelijk microniveau dan ik gewend ben, De Val van Formosa behandelt een episode in de EuropeseChinese geschiedenis en de Militaire Revolutie, Tonio Andrade heeft vele bronnen geraadpleegd voor dit boek, zowel Chinese als Europese en daarmee weet hij een zeer volledig beeld van de belegering van Fort Zeelandia te geven.
Leest als een spannend boek, After sitting on my shelf for years this title received only the occasional glance, the time never seeming quite right to make a start, The clamour of recent sabre rattling changed all that as I eagerly decided I should learn more of Taiwan's history,

Lost Colony catalogues a complex period of historical exchange between European and Asian powers, colonialist, pirates, and merchant capitalists, While being a keen student of Asian history I admit to having known nothing of the SinoDutch War, Europe's first war with China, The amount of research that has gone into this work is obvious, yet Andrade has done a great job of weaving the many threads into a highly readable book.


With the exception of a sweary Swiss bloke who kept flashing his bum I found not one other character I cared for so this was perhaps a slower read for me than most.
Other may of course have an entirely different take on the various personalities involved,

As a final note, I found it a bit of a shame that there wasn't more exploration in the epilogue of how the impact of these events have rippled through history right up to the present day.
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