Prehistory of Taiwan

The prehistory of Taiwan, ending with the arrival of the Dutch East India Company in 1624, is known from archaeological finds throughout the island. The earliest evidence of human habitation dates back 20,000 to 30,000 years, when the Taiwan Strait was exposed by lower sea levels as a land bridge. Around 5,000 years ago farmers from the southeast Chinese coast settled on the island. These people are believed to have been speakers of Austronesian languages, which dispersed from Taiwan across the islands of the Pacific and Indian Oceans. The current Taiwanese aborigines are believed to be their descendants.

The island of Taiwan was formed approximately 4 to 5 million years ago on a complex convergent boundary between the continental Eurasian Plate and the oceanic Philippine Sea Plate. The boundary continues southwards in the Luzon Volcanic Arc, a chain of islands between Taiwan and the Philippine island of Luzon including Green Island and Orchid Island. From the northern part of the island the eastward continuation of the boundary is marked by the Ryukyu chain of volcanic islands.

The island is separated from the coast of Fujian to the west by the Taiwan Strait, which is 130 km wide at its narrowest point. The most significant islands in the Strait are the Penghu islands 45 km from the southwest coast of Taiwan and 140 km from the mainland. Part of the continental shelf, the Strait is no more than 100 m deep, and has become a land bridge during glacial periods.

Taiwan is a tilted fault block, with rugged longitudinal mountain ranges making up most of the eastern two-thirds of the island. They include more than two hundred peaks with elevations of over 3,000 m (9,843 ft). The western side of the island slopes down to fertile coastal plains. The island straddles the Tropic of Cancer, and has a humid subtropical climate. The original vegetation ranged from tropical rainforest in the lowlands through temperate forests, boreal forest and alpine plants with increasing altitude.

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