Wednesday, April 02, 2008

When Taiwan almost became French!

Michael Turton has a very interesting post about France's blockade of Keelung in 1884-1885. At that time, Keelung was Taiwan's main port and France even landed in Taiwan and controlled this major port.

What makes his entry interesting for us, is that he quotes John Dodd's 'Journal of a Blockaded resident in North Formosa During the Franco-Chinese War'. John Dodd is no other than the famous tea trader. A funny line appears when John Dodd writes that all foreign drinks are finished and there is nothing to drink... but tea! And, as tea couldn't be exported or packaged (due to lack of imported lead), drinking tea was the smart thing to do! Cheers!

1 comment:

Soïwatter said...

Très belle leçon d'Histoire autour d'un tasse de thé.
Qui sait, s'ils avaient aussi eu tellement de thé à Alésia, peut-être que tout serait aussi revenu à la normale au bout de deux ans et que nous n'aurions jamais parlé Français?