The Dutch East India Company had a trading post on Taiwan in the seventeenth century. The island was acquired by Japan in 1895 as a result of the Sino-Japanese War. It was returned to China in 1945 at the end of World War II. The current division between Taiwan and the mainland originated in 1949, when the [[Chinese Nationalist Party]], or KMT, was defeated by the communists in the Chinese Civil War, fled the mainland, and relocated to Taiwan. | The Dutch East India Company had a trading post on Taiwan in the seventeenth century. The island was acquired by Japan in 1895 as a result of the Sino-Japanese War. It was returned to China in 1945 at the end of World War II. The current division between Taiwan and the mainland originated in 1949, when the [[Chinese Nationalist Party]], or KMT, was defeated by the communists in the Chinese Civil War, fled the mainland, and relocated to Taiwan. |