The Republic of Formosa was a short-lived unrecognized state that existed on the island of Taiwan in 1895 during the interregnum between the formal cession of Taiwan by the Qing dynasty of China to the Empire of Japan after the Treaty of Shimonoseki. The Republic lasted for 151 days; it was proclaimed on 23 May 1895 and extinguished on 21 October, when its capital of Tainan was taken over by the Japanese and they established control on the island.