The Era of Global Navigation Thla Formosa:A New Name For centuries,Taiwan had little contact or involvement with the countries surrounding it and was in total isolation from the Western world.It appeared in Chinese records from the Sui dynas- ty on,but the mention was not one of territorial claim.Taiwan was seen as one of many islands in the Taiwan Strait and a place for potential exploration.Mainlanders fleeing the takeover of China by the Mongols (Yuan dynasty,1263-1368)could have retreated there;but that is difficult to prove by historical records.Otherwise 油曳解 it had been a home for fisherman,traders,pirates,and aborigines (the original Taiwanese).Its isolation,however,came to an abrupt end in the period of Global Navigation by the European powers in the fifteenth to seventeenth centuries. During that time,the maritime European powers were pushing their sea-going vessels to their limits.They pursued a course of exploration,colonization,trade linkage and religious proselytiza- tion of regions of the world hitherto unvisited.The first to enter Asian waters were the Portuguese.In 1497 Vasco da Gama led an expedition around the Cape of Storms at the southern tip of Africa, and renamed it the Cape of Good Hope.With this name he expressed European expectations of the opening sea routes to