There were few Chinese in Taiwan even in 1590, when the Portuguese navigators found the island and called it Formosa (‘beautiful’), the name by which it became known in the Western world. In 1622, the Dutch established a military base on the Pescadores, just southwest of Taiwan, and in 1624 they built Fort Zeelandia on the island itself, just outside today’s Tainan city. After routing the Spanish settlements from the northern part of the island, the Dutch expanded their garrison and used Taiwan as a trading center. 　　The rule of the Dutch ended in 1661, when the forces of Cheng Ch’eng-kung (Koxinga), the famous Ming loyalist, defeated them. The regime established by Cheng lasted until 1683, when troops under the Ch’ing Emperor K’ang-hsi crushed Cheng’s grandson. For the next two hundred years, the Ch’ing state administered the island like any other prefectures, but anti-Ch’ingsentiment united around the memory of Koxinga persisted. 　　By the late seventeenth century, the Mainland was experiencing a population explosion.Emigrants from Fukien and Kwantung provinces sailed illegally to Taiwan, founding villages and market towns in the arable western plains. After the 1720s, emigration accelerated because the Ch’ing court no longer tried to enforce the laws against it. Settlements then spread to the north and east of the island.
71 The best title for this reading passage is _ .
(A) Formosa
(B) History
(C) The Historical Background of Taiwan
(D) The Geography of Taiwan