Dutch pacification campaign on Formosa The Dutch Pacification Campaign on Formosa was a series of military actions and diplomatic moves undertaken in 1635 and 1636 by Dutch colonial authorities in Formosa ( modern - day Taiwan ) , aimed at subduing hostile aboriginal villages in the south - western region of the island . Prior to the campaign the Dutch had been in Formosa for eleven years , but did not control much of the island beyond their principal fortress at Tayouan , and an alliance with the town of Sinkan . The other aboriginal villages in the area conducted numerous attacks on the Dutch and their allies , with the chief belligerents being the village of Mattau , who in 1629 ambushed and slaughtered a group of sixty Dutch soldiers . After receiving reinforcements from the colonial headquarters at Batavia , the Dutch launched an attack in 1635 and were able to crush opposition and bring the area around present - day Tainan fully under their control . After seeing Mattau and Soulang , the most powerful villages in the area , defeated so comprehensively , many other villages in the surrounding area came to the Dutch to seek peace and surrender sovereignty to the Europeans . Thus the Dutch were able to dramatically expand the extent of their territorial control in a short space of time , and avoid the need for further fighting . The end of the campaign came in February 1636 , when representatives from twenty - eight villages attended a ceremony in Tayouan to cement Dutch sovereignty . Solidifying the southwest under their rule , the Dutch were able to expand their operations from the limited " entrepôt " trading carried out by the colony prior to 1635 . The expanded territory allowed access to the deer trade , which later became very lucrative , and guaranteed security in food supplies . It provided fertile land , which the Dutch used imported Chinese labour to farm . The aboriginal villages also provided warriors to aid the Dutch in times of trouble , notably in the Lamey Island Massacre of 1636 , the Dutch defeat of the Spanish in 1642 and the Guo Huaiyi Rebellion in 1652 . The allied villages also provided opportunities for the Dutch missionaries to spread their faith . The pacification campaign is considered the foundation stone on which the later success of the colony was built . Background . The Dutch East India Company ( VOC ) arrived in southern Formosa in 1624 and , after building their stronghold of Fort Zeelandia on the peninsula of Tayouan , began to sound out local villages as to the possibility of forming alliances . Although initially the intention was to run the colony solely as an entrepôt ( a trading port ) , the Dutch later decided that they needed control over the hinterland to provide some security . Additionally , a large percentage of supplies for the Dutch colonists had to be shipped from Batavia at great expense and irregular intervals , and the government of the fledgling colony was keen to source foodstuffs and other supplies locally . The Company decided to ally with the closest village , the relatively small Sinkan , who were able to supply them firewood , venison and fish . However , relations with the other villages were not so friendly . The aboriginal settlements of the area were involved in more or less constant low - level warfare with each other ( head - hunting raids and looting of property ) , and an alliance with Sinkan put the Dutch at odds with the foes of that village . In 1625 the Dutch bought a piece of land from the Sinkaners for the sum of fifteen " cangans " ( a kind of cloth ) , where they then built the town of Sakam for Dutch and Chinese merchants . Initially other villages in the area , chiefly Mattau , Soulang and Bakloan , also professed their desire to live in peace with the Dutch . The villages saw that it was in their interest to maintain good relations with the newcomers , but this belief was weakened by a series of incidents between 1625 and 1629 . The earliest of these was a Dutch attack on Chinese pirates in the bay of Wancan , not far from Mattau , in 1625 . The pirates were able to drive off the Dutch soldiers , causing the Dutch to lose face among the Formosan villages . Encouraged by this Dutch failure , warriors from Mattau raided Sinkan , believing the Dutch too weak to defend their Formosan friends . At this point , the Dutch returned to Wancan and this time were able to rout the pirates , restoring their reputation . Mattau was then forced by the colonials to return the property stolen from Sinkan and make reparations in the form of two pigs . The peace was short - lived , however , because in November 1626 the villagers of Sinkan attacked Mattau and Bakloan , before going to the Dutch to ask for protection from retribution . Although the Dutch were able to force Sinkan ' s enemies to back down in this case , in later incidents they proved incapable of fully protecting their Formosan allies . Frustrated by the inability of the Dutch to protect them , the Sinkan villagers turned to Japan ese traders , who were not on friendly terms with the VOC . In 1627 a delegation from the village visited Japan in order to ask for Japanese protection and to offer sovereignty to the Japanese Shōgun Tokugawa Iemitsu . The Shōgun refused them an audience , but on their return to Formosa the Sinkan villagers , along with their erstwhile foes from Mattau , Bakloan and Soulang , went to Governor Nuyts to demand that the company pay an annual tribute to the villages for operating on their land . The Governor refused . Soon after , the Japanese isolationist policy of sakoku removed Japanese support for the Formosans , leaving Sinkan once more at the mercy of its rivals , prompting missionary George Candidius to write that " this village Sinkan has been until now under Dutch protection , and without this protection it would not stand for even a month . " In 1629 however the Dutch were unable to defend either themselves or their allies . Governor Nuyts went to Mattau on an official ( friendly ) visit with a guard of sixty musketeers , who were fêted on their arrival . After leaving the village the next morning , the musketeers were ambushed while crossing a stream and slaughtered to a man , by warriors of both Mattau and Soulang . The Governor had a lucky escape as he had returned to Fort Zeelandia the previous evening . Shortly after the massacre Governor Nuyts was recalled by the VOC Governor - General in Batavia for various offences , including responsibility for the souring of relations with the Japanese . Hans Putmans replaced Nuyts as Governor , and immediately wanted to attack the ringleaders in Mattau , but the village was judged too strong to assault directly . Therefore the Dutch moved against the weaker Bakloan , who they believed sheltered proponents of the massacre , setting out on 23 November 1629 and returning later that day " having killed many people and burned most of the village . " The Bakloan villagers sued for peace , and Mattau too signed a nine - month peace accord with the company . However in the years that followed , the Mattau , Bakloan and Soulang villagers continued a concerted campaign to harass employees of the Company , particularly those who were rebuilding structures destroyed by the Mattauers in Sakam . The situation showed no signs of improvement for the Dutch , until relations between Mattau and Soulang soured in late 1633 and early 1634 . The two villages went to war in May 1634 , and although Mattau won the fight , the Company was happy to see divisions among the villages which it felt it could exploit . Dutch retaliation . Although both Governor Nuyts and subsequently Governor Putmans wanted to move against Mattau , the garrison at Fort Zeelandia numbered only 400 , of which 210 were soldiers – not enough to undertake a major campaign without leaving the Dutch fortress guard under - strength . After persistent unheeded requests from the two Governors , in 1635 Batavia finally sent a force of 475 soldiers to Taiwan , to " avenge the murder of the expeditionary force against Mattau in 1629 , to increase the prestige of the Company , and to obtain the respect and authority , necessary for the protection of the Chinese who had come all the way from China , to cultivate the land . " By this stage relations with the other villages had also deteriorated to the extent that even Sinkan , previously thought to be tightly bound to the Dutch , was plotting rebellion . The missionary Robert Junius , who lived among the natives , wrote that " rebels in Sinkan have conspired against our state . . . and [ are planning ] to murder and beat to death the missionaries and soldiers in Sinkan . " The Governor in Tayouan moved quickly to quell the uprising , sending eighty soldiers to the village and arresting some of the key conspirators . With potential disaster averted in Sinkan , the Dutch were further encouraged by the news that Mattau and Soulang , their principal enemies , were being ravaged by smallpox , whereas Sinkan , now back under Dutch control , was spared the disease - this being viewed as a divine sign that the Dutch were righteous . On 22 November 1635 the newly arrived forces set out for Bakloan , headed by Governor Putmans . Missionary Junius joined him with a group of native warriors from Sinkan , who had been persuaded to take part by the clergyman in order to further good relations between themselves and the VOC . The plan was initially to rest there for the night , before attacking Mattau the next morning , but the Dutch forces received word that the Mattau villagers had learned of their approach and planned to flee . They therefore decided to press on and attack that evening , succeeding in surprising the Mattau warriors and subduing the village without a fight . The Dutch summarily executed 26 men of the village , before setting fire to the houses and returning to Bakloan . On the way back to Fort Zeelandia , the troops stopped in Bakloan , Sinkan and Sakam , at each step warning the chiefs of the village of the price of angering the VOC , and obtaining guarantees of friendly conduct in the future . The village of Soulang sent two representatives to the Dutch while they were resting in Sinkan , offering a spear and a hatchet as a symbol that they would ally their forces to the Dutch . Also present with offers of friendship were men from Tevorang , a collection of three villages in the hills previously outside Dutch influence . Finally two chiefs from Mattau arrived , kow - tow ing to the Dutch officials and wishing to sue for peace . The aborigines signalled their surrender by sending a few of their best weapons to the Dutch , and then by bringing a small tree ( often betel nut ) planted in earth from their village as a token of the granting of sovereignty to the VOC . Over the next few months as word of the Dutch victory spread , more and more villages came to pay their respects at Fort Zeelandia and assure the VOC of their friendly intentions . However , the new masters of Mattau also inherited their enemies , with both Favorlang and Tirosen expressing hostility towards the VOC in the wake of their victory . After the victory over Mattau the Governor decided to make use of the soldiers to cow other recalcitrant villages , starting with Taccariang , who had previously killed both VOC employees and Sinkan villagers . The villagers first fought with the Sinkanders who were acting as a vanguard , but on receiving a volley from the Dutch musket eers the Taccariang warriors turned and fled . The VOC forces entered the village unopposed , and burnt it to the ground . From Taccariang they moved on to Soulang , where they arrested warriors who had participated in the 1629 massacre of sixty Dutch soldiers and torched their houses . The last stop on the campaign trail was Tevorang , which had previously sheltered wanted men from other villages . This time the Governor decided to use the carrot rather than the stick , offering gifts and assurances of friendship , with the consequences of resistance left implicit . The Tevorangans took the hint , and offered no opposition to Dutch rule . Pax Hollandica . On hearing of the Dutch show of force , aboriginal tribes from further afield decided to submit to Dutch rule , either through fear of Dutch military might or hope that such an alliance would prove beneficial to the tribe . Representatives came from Pangsoia , 100 km to the south , to ally themselves with the VOC . The Dutch decided to hold a " Landdag " ( a grand convention ) to welcome all the villages into the fold and impress them with Dutch largesse and power . This duly took place on 22 February 1636 , with 28 villages represented from southern and central Formosa . The Governor presented the attendees with robes and staffs of State to symbolise their position , and Robert Junius wrote that " it was delightful to see the friendliness of these people when they met for the first time , to notice how they kissed each other and gazed at one another . Such a thing had never before been witnessed in this country , as one tribe was nearly always waging war against another . " The net effect of the Dutch campaign was a " pax hollandica " ( Dutch peace ) , assuring VOC control in the southwest of the island . The Dutch called their new area of control the " Verenigde Dorpen " ( " United Villages " ) , a deliberate allusion to the United Provinces of their homeland . The campaign was vital to the success and growth of the Dutch colony , which had operated as more of a trading post than a true colony until that point .