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.
Frederick Chatfield
In 1842 Chatfield was promoted to "Consul-General in the Republic of Central America" although the Federal Republic had in fact disintegrated the year before. Of the five republics in the former federation, Guatemala and Costa Rica were in the sphere of influence of the United Kingdom while Honduras, El Salvador and Nicaragua were in the sphere of influence of the United States. General Juan José Flores, ex-President of Ecuador, arrived in Costa Rica in mid-1848; he had visited London in 1845–46 and met prominent people including Lord Aberdeen, Palmerston's predecessor as Foreign Secretary. Now he wrote to Palmerston proposing a British protectorate over Costa Rica, and he persuaded President José María Castro to make the same request via his envoy in London. Flores also cultivated Chatfield, who was not convinced: he wrote to Palmerston:
The Foreign Office politely declined the protectorate scheme.