The
Republic of Formosa (literally
Democratic State of Taiwan, also known informally in English as the
Republic of Taiwan) was a short-lived republic that existed on the
island of Taiwan in 1895 between the formal cession of Taiwan by the
Qing Dynasty of China to the
Empire of Japan by the
Treaty of Shimonoseki and its invasion and occupation by Japanese troops. The Republic was proclaimed on 23 May 1895 and extinguished on 21 October, when the Republican capital
Tainan was occupied by the Japanese. Though sometimes claimed as the first Asian republic to have been proclaimed, it was predated by the
Lanfang Republic, established in 1777, as well as by the
Republic of Ezo established in 1869.