Modernization under Colonialist Rule

Taiwan's first steps into modernization were taken at the end of the Qing Dynasty under Taiwan governor Liu Ming-Chuan. In 1895, Taiwan was ceded to Japan, which extended an exploitive and suppressive colonialist rule over the Taiwanese.

However, the Japanese colonialist government believed that it was in its interests to improve the island infrastructure, and thus surveyed natural land resources, learned about local customs, developed roads and railways, provided a modern education, improved public sanitation, and set disease-control measures. The Japanese also established a legal system and improved public security, raising the general quality of life. These moves greatly sped up Taiwan modernization.

It was Japan's efforts at modernizing Taiwan that set it apart from the China at the time. Fifty years of Japanese rule naturally brought a different historical development, creating a disparity between Taiwan and China in terms of the standard of living, as well as large cultural differences. With the arrival of the Nationalists at the end of the war, cultural tensions between the mainland Chinese and Taiwanese started to simmer, and conflicts started to arise, planting the roots of the 2-28 Incident.