Sino-French War in Taiwan

Taiwan became a secondary theater of the Sino-French War of 1884–1885, fought between France and the Qing empire over control of northern Vietnam. A French squadron under Admiral Amédée Courbet bombarded Keelung in August 1884 and took the port that October, but Qing forces under the imperial commissioner Liu Mingchuan (劉銘傳) repulsed a landing at Tamsui and pinned the French inside their bridgehead until the armistice of April 1885. A separate expedition seized Penghu in March 1885 and held it until July. The stalemate convinced the Qing court to elevate Taiwan to a province under Liu, whose administration invested in rebuilding the island’s coastal defenses.