The Japanese Colonial State and the Dissolution of the Late Imperial Frontier Economy in Taiwan, 1886–1909

Abstract

In the first few days of July 1902, camphor workers in the mountains around the town of Nanzhuang (Nansh?) abandoned their stills and joined a growing exodus of settlers and townspeople who, fearing rumors of an impending indigene attack, had packed up their belongings and were fleeing the town. Japanese colonial officials on the spot requested a dispatch of troops from the Xinzhu garrison to restore order and project the state's authority in this thriving center of camphor production on the edge of Japan's colonial empire (1895-1945). The company arrived on July 6, just in time to thwart a direct strike on the town. The so-called savage insurgents?in reality a motley crew of over eight hundred disgruntled frontiersmen, displaced camphor workers, and indigenes led by the Hakka settler-cum-indigene chief Ri Aguai? nevertheless surrounded and destroyed several frontier guard stations and camphor stills in the mountains. Faced with a disturbance reaching critical proportions and threatening to spill into neighboring mountain districts and paralyze the thriving camphor industry, colonial officials called for more reinforcements. Three days later, the army deployed Xinzhu's second infantry company and first artillery platoon to the scene for action.