Republic of Formosa
The Republic of Formosa (), was a short-lived republic that existed on the island of Taiwan in 1895 between the formal cession of Taiwan by the Qing Dynasty of China to the Empire of Japan by the Treaty of Shimonoseki and it being taken over by Japanese troops. The Republic was proclaimed on 23 May 1895 and extinguished on 21 October, when the Republican capital Tainan was taken over by the Japanese. Though sometimes claimed as the first Asian republic to have been proclaimed, it was predated by the Lanfang Republic in Borneo, established in 1777, as well as by the Republic of Ezo in Japan, established in 1869.
Caudillo
With the improvement of transportation, tropical products such as coffee and bananas could be transported to a growing consumer market in the United States. In Guatemala Justo Rufino Barrios ruled as a Liberal autocrat and expanded coffee cultivation. In El Salvador, Santiago González took power in 1871 and established Liberal dominance until 1944. In Nicaragua José Santos Zelaya ousted Conservatives in 1893 and embarked on agricultural exports and infrastructure projects. When he became hostile to the United States, which helped oust him in 1909. With the incorporation of the United Fruit Company in the U.S. in 1899, the company’s presence in Hispanic America expanded especially in Costa Rica, Guatemala, Colombia, and Cuba.
In twentieth-century Nicaragua strong man, Anastasio Somoza García held the presidential office and then was succeeded by his son Anastasio Somoza Debayle. Although a brutal dictatorship, it was supported by the United States as a means to maintain political stability in the region and shore up U.S. business interests. The Somoza dynasty was overthrown in the Sandinista Revolution in 1979, which took a stance that U.S. President Ronald Reagan took to be hostile to the United States. During the 1980s, the Sandinista regime maintained power, but in 1990 elections were held. The Sandinistas were defeated and stepped down from governance, becoming an opposition party. They returned to power in 2006.