Prehistory Penghu 1, a fossil jaw (mandible) dating to the Middle or Late
Pleistocene that belonged to a member of an extinct
hominin species, possibly a
Denisovan, was discovered in the
Penghu Channel . Finds of fine red
cord-marked pottery at Guoye,
Huxi, indicate that Penghu was visited by
Austronesians from southwestern Taiwan around 5,000 years ago, though not settled permanently.
Song dynasty Han Chinese from southern
Fujian began to establish fishing communities on the islands in the 9th and 10th centuries,
Wang Dayuan gave a detailed first-hand account of the islands in his
Daoyi Zhilüe (1349).
Ming dynasty In the 15th century, the
Ming ordered the evacuation of the islands as part of their
maritime ban. When these restrictions were removed in the late 16th century, legal fishing communities, most of which hailed from
Tong'an County, The Penghu archipelago was captured by the French in March 1885, in the closing weeks of the
Sino-French War, and evacuated four months later. The
Pescadores Campaign was the last campaign of Admiral
Amédée Courbet, whose naval victories in the war had made him a national hero in France. Courbet was among several French soldiers and sailors who died of
cholera during the French occupation of Penghu. He died aboard his flagship in
Makung harbour on 11 June 1885.
Empire of Japan Government building Towards the end of the
First Sino-Japanese War, having defeated the Qing in northern China, Japan sought to ensure that it obtained Penghu and Taiwan in the final settlement. In March 1895, the
Japanese defeated the Chinese garrison on the islands and occupied
Makung. The Japanese occupation of Penghu, with its fine harbor, gave the
Imperial Japanese Navy an advanced base from which their short-range coal-burning ships could control the Taiwan Straits and thus prevent more Chinese troops from being sent to Taiwan. This action persuaded the Chinese negotiators at Shimonoseki that Japan was determined to annex Taiwan, and, after Penghu, Taiwan and the
Liaodong Peninsula had been ceded to Japan in the Sino-Japanese
Treaty of Shimonoseki in April, helped to ensure the success of the
Japanese invasion of Taiwan in May. Penghu County was then called the
Hōko Prefecture by the
Japanese government of Taiwan. In
World War II,
Makō (Makung) was a major base for the Imperial Japanese Navy and the embarkation point for the
invasion of the Philippines. In 1944, Penghu was extensively bombed in the
Penghu air raids.
Republic of China In the
Cairo Declaration of 1943, the United States, the United Kingdom and China stated it to be their purpose that "all the territories that Japan has stolen from the Chinese, such as Formosa and The Pescadores, shall be restored to the Republic of China". On 26 July 1945, the three governments issued the
Potsdam Declaration, declaring that "the terms of the Cairo Declaration shall be carried out". However, the United States and the United Kingdom have regarded the aforementioned documents as merely wartime statements of intention with no binding force in law. Following the
surrender of Japan on 2 September 1945,
Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers Douglas MacArthur issued
General Order No. 1, which directed Japanese forces to surrender to the
Allied Powers and facilitate the
occupation of Japanese territories by the Allied Powers. The Office of the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers ordered Japanese forces in China and Taiwan to surrender to
Chiang Kai-shek, who the Allied Powers delegated to accept the surrender. On 25 October 1945, Governor-General
Rikichi Andō handed over the administration of Taiwan and the Penghu islands to the head of the Taiwan Investigation Commission,
Chen Yi. However, in 1954, the United States denied that the sovereignty over Taiwan and the Penghu islands had been settled by the Treaty of Taipei. In the following year, the United States also stated its position that Taiwan and Penghu were handed over to the Allied Powers, and that the Republic of China was merely asked to administer these territories for the Allied Powers pending a final decision as to their ownership. In the 1960
Sheng v. Rogers case, it was stated that, in the view of the
U.S. State Department, no agreement has purported to transfer the sovereignty of Taiwan to the ROC, though it accepted the exercise of Chinese authority over Taiwan and recognized the Government of the Republic of China as the legal government of China at the time.
Boat people fleeing Vietnam in the 1970s and 1980s who were rescued by Taiwan's ships in the South China Sea were sent to Penghu. On 20 November 1971
China Airlines Flight 825, a
Sud Aviation Caravelle aircraft flying from
Songshan Airport to
Kai Tak, disintegrated in mid-air due to a bomb explosion and the plane crashed in the South China Sea. The bombing was never determined by legal inquiry and all 25 passengers and crew on board were killed. On 25 May 2002,
China Airlines Flight 611, a
Boeing 747-200 aircraft flying from
Taipei to
Hong Kong, disintegrated and exploded over the Islands. The wreckage slammed into the Taiwan Strait, a couple of miles off the coast. All 225 passengers and crew on board were killed. On 21 December 2002,
TransAsia Airways Flight 791, an
ATR 72 aircraft flying from Taipei Taoyuan International Airport to
Macau International Airport crashed into the sea 17 kilometers southwest of Magong due to Icing in the Airplane, killing the two crew members. On 23 July 2014,
TransAsia Airways Flight 222, an ATR 72 aircraft flying from
Kaohsiung International Airport to
Penghu Airport crashed in bad weather killing 48 out of 58 on board and injuring 5 people on ground. ==Climate==