Siege of Fort Zeelandia

Prelude

The Dutch had been defeated in a war over the Pescadores from 1623–1624, and again at the Battle of Liaoluo Bay where the Chinese were led by Zheng Zhilong, the father of Koxinga.

In the year of 1659, after an unsuccessful attempt to capture Nanjing, Koxinga, leader of the Ming loyalist remnants, felt that the Qing Empire had already consolidated their position in China, and that his troops needed more supplies and manpower. He began actively searching for a suitable location as his base of operation, and soon a Chinese man named Ho-Bin (Chinese: 何斌), who was working for the Dutch East India Company in Formosa (Taiwan), fled to Koxinga's base in Xiamen and provided him with a map of Taiwan.

By 1632, the Dutch had established a post on a peninsula named Tayoan (now Anping District of Tainan), which was separated from the main part of Formosa by a shallow lagoon historically referred to as the Taikang inland sea. The Dutch fortification consisted of two forts around the bay. The first was the multiple-walled Fort Zeelandia situated at the entrance to the bay; this was the main fortification of the Dutch. The second was Fort Provintia, a walled administrative office located at the bay, which was smaller in size. Frederick Coyett, the governor of Taiwan for the company, was stationed in Fort Zeelandia with 1,800 men; his subordinate, Valentyn, was in charge of Fort Provintia and its garrison of 500 men.

The Siege

On March 23, 1661 Koxinga's fleet set sail from Kinmen. His fleet consisted of hundreds of junks of various sizes, with roughly 25,000 soldiers and sailors aboard. They arrived in the Pescadores the next day, left a garrison there.

On March 30 they left the Pescadores.

On April 2 the fleet arrived at Tayoan. After passing through a shallow waterway unknown to the Dutch, they landed at the bay of Lakjemuyse.

Koxinga was abundantly provided with cannons and ammunition in addition to two companies of former Dutch slaves of African descent who had learned to use small arms. They caused much harm to the Dutch during the war. His troops wore iron scale armor and either used two handed swords, swords and shields, or bows and arrows. Swordsmen were intended to cause "fearful massacre amongst the fugitives" after enemy lines were smashed through by shield bearers, since Koxinga had no cavalry to break through the enemy forces.

On April 4 Valentyn surrendered to Koxinga's army after it laid siege to Fort Provintia. The rapid assault had caught Valentyn unprepared since he had believed the fort was protected by Fort Zeelandia.

On April 7, Koxinga's troop surrounded Fort Zeelandia and demanded the garrison's surrender by sending the captured Dutch priest Antonius Hambroek as emissary to persuade the garrison to surrender. Hambroek, however, urged the garrison to resist instead of surrender, and was executed after returning to Koxinga's camp. Koxinga ordered his artillery to advance and used 28 cannon to bombard the fort. Koxinga's fleet then began massive bombardment, and troops on the ground attempted to storm the fort, but were repulsed with considerable losses. Koxinga then changed his tactics and laid siege to the fort.

On May 28, news of the siege reached Jakarta, and the company dispatched a fleet of 10 ships and 700 sailors to relieve the fort.

On July 5 the relief force arrived and engaged in some small scale confrontations with Koxinga's fleet.

On July 23 the two sides gave battle as the Dutch fleet attempted to break Koxinga's blockade. After a brief engagement, the Dutch fleet was forced to retreat with two ships sunk, three smaller vessels captured, and 130 casualties.

In October the Dutch attempted to break the siege again but were repulsed back by the besieging army.

In December Koxinga decided to launch another assault, based on news of low morale among the garrison from deserted German mercenaries, which ended unsuccessful.

In January 1662 a Swiss defector named Hans Jurgen Radis gave Koxinga critical advice on how to capture the fortress from a redoubt whose strategic importance had gone hitherto unnoticed by the Chinese forces. Koxinga followed his advice and the Dutch redoubt fell a day later. This claim of a Swiss defector only appears in a post hoc account of the siege written by Frederick Coyett, which scholars have noted sought to absolve the author of responsibility for the defeat, and Ming records make no such mention of any defector or Swiss named Hans Jurgen Radis.

On January 12 Koxinga's fleet began another bombardment, while the ground force prepare to assault the fort. With supplies dwindling and no sign of reinforcement, Coyett finally ordered the hoisting of the white flag and negotiated the surrender terms.

On February 1 the conditions of surrender was finalized.

On February 17 the remaining Dutch East India Company personnel left Taiwan. All personnel were allowed to take with them their personal belongings, as well as provisions sufficient for them to reach the nearest Dutch settlement.

Taiwanese Aborigines

The Taiwanese aboriginal tribes who were previously allied with the Dutch against the Chinese during the Guo Huaiyi Rebellion in 1652 turned against the Dutch during the Siege of Fort Zeelandia and defected to Koxinga's Chinese forces. The aboriginals (Formosans) of Sincan defected to Koxinga after he offered them amnesty. They then proceeded to work for the Chinese in executing captured Dutchmen. On May 17, 1661 the frontier aboriginals in the mountains and plains also surrendered and defected to the Chinese, celebrating their freedom from compulsory education under the Dutch rule by hunting down Dutch people and beheading them and trashing their Christian school textbooks.

Aftermath

After arriving in Jakarta, Coyett was imprisoned for three years and tried for high treason, for surrendering the post and the loss of valuable goods.

In 1674 he was released after strong lobbying by his friends and relatives. He was pardoned and exiled to the most eastern of the Banda Islands. He published a book named Neglected Formosa (Dutch: 't Verwaerloosde Formosa) in 1675. In the book he defended his actions in Taiwan and criticized the company for neglecting his pleas for reinforcement.

After the loss of the post at Tayoan, the Dutch East India Company made several attempts to recapture it, and even formed an alliance with the Qing Empire to defeat Koxinga's fleet. They captured Keelung in northern Taiwan, but were forced to abandon it due to logistical difficulties and because the Qing fleet suffered numerous crushing defeats at the hands of Koxinga's veteran sailors.

Dutch prisoners

During the Siege of Fort Zeelandia the Chinese took Dutch women and children prisoner. The Dutch missionary Antonius Hambroek, two of his daughters, and his wife were among the Dutch prisoners of war with Koxinga. Koxinga sent Hambroek to Fort Zeelandia demanding he persuade them to surrender or else Hambroek would be killed when he returned. Hambroek returned to the Fort, where two of his other daughters were. He urged the Fort not to surrender, and returned to Koxinga's camp. He was then executed by decapitation, and in addition to this, a rumor was spreading among the Chinese that the Dutch were encouraging the native Taiwan aboriginals to kill Chinese, so Koxinga ordered the mass execution of Dutch male prisoners in retaliation, in addition to a few women and children also being killed. The surviving Dutch women and children were then turned into slaves. Koxinga took Hambroek's teenage daughter as a concubine, and Dutch women were sold to Chinese soldiers to become their wives. The daily journal of the Dutch fort recorded that "the best were preserved for the use of the commanders, and then sold to the common soldiers. Happy was she that fell to the lot of an unmarried man, being thereby freed from vexations by the Chinese women, who are very jealous of their husbands." In 1684 some of these Dutch wives were still captives of the Chinese.

The women of the Dutch became slaves and their men were slaughtered as the area in the vicinity of Fort Zeelandia was seized by the Chinese forces of Koxinga. Crucifixion, decapitation and torment were inflicted by Koxinga on Dutch men.

Some Dutch physical looks like auburn and red hair among people in regions of south Taiwan are a consequence of this episode of Dutch women becoming concubines to the Chinese commanders. The Chinese took Dutch women as slave concubines and wives and they were never freed: in 1684 some were reported to be living. In Quemoy a Dutch merchant was contacted with an arrangement to release the prisoners which was proposed by a son of Koxinga's but it came to nothing. The Chinese officers used the Dutch women they received as concubines. The Dutch women were used for sexual pleasure by Koxinga's commanders. This event of Dutch women being distributed to the Chinese soldiers and commanders was recorded in the daily journal of the fort.

A teenage daughter of the Dutch missionary Antonius Hambroek became a concubine to Koxinga, she was described by the Dutch commander Caeuw as "a very sweet and pleasing maiden".

Dutch language accounts record this incident of Chinese taking Dutch women as concubines and the date of Hambroek's daughter

The topic of the Chinese taking the Dutch women and the daughter of Antonius Hambroek as concubines was featured in Joannes Nomsz's play which became famous and well known in Europe which revealed European anxiety at the fate of the Dutch women and being subjected to defeat by non-Europeans. The title of the play was "Antonius Hambroek, of de Belegering van Formoza" rendered in English as "Antonius Hambroek, or the Siege of Formosa".

Cultural influences

The battle was depicted in the movie The Sino-Dutch War 1661 (Chinese: 鄭成功1661), which ended in Koxinga's victory over the Dutch.