<P> In the Mudan Incident of 1871, an Okinawan ship was wrecked on the southern tip of Taiwan and 54 crewmen were beheaded by Paiwan aborigines . After the Qing government refused to make compensation, stating that the aboriginals were not under its control, Japan launched a punitive expedition to the area in 1874, withdrawing after the Qing promised to pay an indemnity . </P> <P> It was not until the defeat of the Chinese navy during the First Sino - Japanese War in 1894--95 that Japan was finally able to gain possession of Taiwan, and with it saw the shifting of Asian dominance from China to Japan . The Treaty of Shimonoseki was signed on 17 April 1895, ceding Taiwan and the Penghu islands to Japan, which would rule the island for 50 years until its defeat in World War II . </P> <P> After receiving sovereignty of Taiwan, the Japanese feared military resistance from both Taiwanese and Aborigines who followed the establishment by the local elite of the short - lived Republic of Formosa . Taiwan's elite hoped that by declaring themselves a republic the world would not stand by and allow a sovereign state to be invaded by the Japanese, thereby allying with the Qing . The plan quickly turned to chaos as standard Green troops and ethnic Yue soldiers took to looting and pillage . Given the choice between chaos at the hands of Chinese or submission to the Japanese, the Taipei elite sent Koo Hsien - jung to Keelung to invite the advancing Japanese forces to proceed to Taipei and restore order . </P> <P> Armed resistance was sporadic, yet at times fierce, but was largely crushed by 1902, although relatively minor rebellions occurred in subsequent years, including the Ta - pa - ni incident of 1915 in Tainan county . Nonviolent means of resistance began to take place of armed rebellions and the most prominent organization was the Taiwanese Cultural Association, founded in 1921 . Taiwanese resistance was caused by several different factors (e.g., the Taishō Democracy). Some were goaded by Chinese nationalism, while others contained nascent Taiwanese self - determination . Rebellions were often caused by a combination of the effects of unequal colonial policies on local elites and extant millenarian beliefs of the local Taiwanese and plains Aborigines . Aboriginal resistance to the heavy - handed Japanese policies of acculturation and pacification lasted up until the early 1930s . The last major Aboriginal rebellion, the Musha Uprising (Wushe Uprising) in late 1930 by the Atayal people angry over their treatment while laboring in the burdensome job of camphor extraction, launched the last headhunting party in which over 150 Japanese officials were killed and beheaded during the opening ceremonies of a school . The uprising, led by Mona Rudao, was crushed by 2,000 - 3,000 Japanese troops and Aboriginal auxiliaries with the help of poison gas . </P>

Who took over the island of taiwan in 1949