17世纪初荷兰人的东亚认识与入据台湾

The Dutch’s Understanding of East Asia and Occupation in Taiwan in Early 17th Century

荷兰崛起于对抗西班牙的八十年战争(1568—1648)。在这场战争中,荷兰在全球范围内展开了对西班牙、葡萄牙的直接战斗和商业竞争。16世纪末17世纪初,荷兰人进入亚洲后,其对东亚的基本认识仍然基于欧洲经验,将西班牙人和葡萄牙人视为自己最重要的对手。因此,荷兰人意图占领澳门、澎湖,在商业上击败西班牙人和葡萄牙人,获得与中国贸易的垄断权。遇到挫折后,荷兰人选择了台湾大员作为贸易基地,这是退而求其次的无奈选择。这一时期,荷兰人并不了解中国,对东亚的认识也仅仅依赖自身经验,并将之纳入到欧洲各国之间的竞争视野中。

The Kingdom of the Netherlands rose from the Eighty Years’War against Spain.In this war,it launched direct military campaigns and commercial competitions against Spain and Portugal globally.After entering Asia in the late 16th and early 17th centuries,the Dutch’s understanding of the situation in East Asia was still based on their previous experience in Europe towards the Spanish and Portuguese,regarding both countries as their biggest rivals.Therefore,they intended to occupy Macao and Penghu in order to defeat the Spanish and Portuguese commercially so as to monopolize the trade with China.Several setbacks later on left them with no choice but to choose Dayuan in Taiwan as their trading base.During this period,the Dutch had little knowledge about China,and their understanding of East Asia merely depended on their own experience with other countries before in Europe and their competition continued in East Asia.