The Taiwanese resistance movement that emerged in the early 1920's addressed issues that had been fermenting since the beginning of the occupation period, muffled by the stern hand of the Japanese. Many of the grievances voiced by the protesters were directly precipitated by Japanese colonization methods in Taiwan.

     The history of Taiwan before 1895 is filled with incidents of foreign colonization attempts: attempts to take advantage of the islands rich resources. The island had the reputation of a "formidable wilderness," inhabited by "Chinese fisherman, pirates, and lawless adventures." Before 1622, Taiwan was used as a refuge for Chinese and Japanese pirate ships. Most of the permanent inhabitants were wither aborigines or Chinese settlers who had crossed over from the mainland. By 1624, the Dutch East India Company attempted to develop aborigine territory. Dutch rule lasted almost forty years. The island was then invaded by Zheng Chenggong (known to the west as Koxinga), a Ming Dynasty loyalist who vowed to overthrow the Manchu Qing Dynasty from his base in Taiwan. It was absorbed into China in 1683 and thereafter administrated as a prefecture of Fukien. Taiwan remained under Chinese jurisdiction until China's defeat in the Sino-Japanese war of 1895, when the island was ceded to Japan 'in perpetuity" under the terms of the Shimonoseki Peace Treaty.

     Taiwan, Japan's first colony, served as an important testing ground for the training of colony officials, as well as for the implementation of colonial development programs such as land surveying, the taking of a population census, and the establishment of government monopolies. In 1905, Japan acquired the colonies of Sakhalin (Karafuto) and Guandong, in 1910 Korea, and in 1914 the Pacific Islands. Japan had become the only non-western colonizing nation.

     In the first few years of the occupation period, the Japanese had their hands full, attempting to bring order to chaos that prevailed throughout the island. Taiwan was placed under the rule of a Govern-General, appointed by the Japanese emperor. His primary task in 1895 was to implement strict police control over the island, to rid the colony of rampant banditry, guerilla warfare, and disease. By the early 1900's, the widespread disorder was largely under control, and the Japanese began to lay the foundations for economic development of the island.

     Japan hoped to develop an integrated economy, in which its colonies would provide supplies of raw materials and foodstuffs for Japan, and in return, Japan would provide the colony with capital and modern technology.

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