Taino VtI-no\ Extinct Arawak Indian group of the island of Hispaniola in the Caribbean Sea. They also inhabited Puerto Rico and the eastern tip of Cuba. They grew cassava and corn (maize), hunted birds and small animals, and fished. They were skillful at working stone and wood. Their society consisted of three tiers—nobles, commoners, and slaves—and they were ruled by hereditary chiefs and subchiefs; religious beliefs cen¬ tred on a hierarchy of nature spirits and ancestors. They became extinct within 100 years of the Spanish conquest.
Taipei \'tl-'pa\ City, special (province-level) municipality (pop., 2005 est.: 2,622,472), and seat of government of the Republic of China (Tai¬ wan). Founded in the early 18th century, it became an important centre of overseas trade in the mid-19th century. When Taiwan was proclaimed a province of China in 1886, Taipei was later made the capital, and it retained that designation under Japanese rule (1895-1945). In 1949 it became the administrative centre of the Chinese Nationalist government. It was designated a special municipality in 1967. Taipei is the commer¬ cial, financial, industrial, and transportation centre of Taiwan. Its many educational institutions include the National Taiwan University (1928). The city’s National Palace Museum houses one of the world’s largest col¬ lections of Chinese artifacts. The Taipei 101 building became the world’s tallest building upon completion of its framework in 2003.
Taiping Vtl-'piqX Rebellion (1850-64) Large-scale rebellion against the Qing dynasty in China. The peasants, having suffered floods and fam¬ ines in the late 1840s, were ripe for rebellion, which came under the lead¬ ership of Hong Xiuquan. Hong’s visions convinced him he was the younger brother of Jesus, and he saw it as his duty to free China from Manchu rule. He preached the brotherhood and sisterhood of all people under God; property was to be held in common. His followers’ militant faith unified a fiercely disciplined army that swelled to more than a mil¬ lion men and women (women were treated as equals by Taiping rebels). They captured Nanjing in 1853 and renamed it Tianjing (“Heavenly Capi¬ tal”). Their attempts to capture Beijing failed, but an expedition into the upper Yangtze River (Chang Jiang) valley scored many victories. Hong’s idiosyncratic Christianity alienated both Western missionaries and the Chinese scholar-gentry. Without the gentry, the Taiping forces were unable to govern the countryside or supply their cities effectively. The leadership strayed from its original austerity and descended into power struggles that left Hong without competent help. In 1860 an attempt to take Shanghai was repelled by U.S.- and British-led forces, and by 1862 Chinese forces under Zeng Guofan had surrounded Nanjing. The city fell in 1864, but almost 100,000 of the Taiping followers preferred death to capture. Sporadic resistance continued elsewhere until 1868. The rebel¬
lion ravaged 17 provinces, took some 20 million lives, and left the Qing government unable to regain an effective hold over the country. See also Li Hongzhang; Nian Rebellion.
Taira Kiyomori Vtl-ra-.ke-yo-'mo-reX (b. 1118, Japan—d. March 21, 1181, Kyoto) Leader of the powerful Taira family and the first member of the warrior class (samurai) to rule Japan. The Taira family had made itself useful to the imperial court quelling pirates on Japan’s Inland Sea. In 1156, when the retired emperor Sutoku (see insei) enlisted the aid of the Minamoto warrior family to help in a rebellion against the reigning emperor Go-Shirakawa, Kiyomori supported Go-Shirakawa and defeated the Minamoto. The Minamoto staged a comeback in 1159-60, but Kiy¬ omori defeated them again, executing all the Minamoto males except the children Minamoto Yoritomo and Minamoto Yoshitsune, who would later overthrow him. Temporarily victorious, Kiyomori received the highest court rank and manipulated the throne by marrying his daughters into the imperial family. The Taira forces took on the effete ways of the aristocrats and were no match for the frontier-hardy Minamoto, who defeated them in 1185. See also Gempei War; Kamakura period.
Taisho period (1912-26) Period in Japanese history corresponding to the reign of the Taisho emperor, Yoshihito (1879-1926). It followed the Meiji period and represented a continuation of Japan’s rise on the interna¬ tional scene and liberalism at home. Politically, the country moved toward broader representational government. The tax qualification for voting was reduced, enfranchising more voters, and was eliminated in 1925. Party politics flourished, and legislation favourable to labour was passed. Japan continued to push China for economic and political concessions and entered into treaties with Western nations that acknowledged its interests in Korea, Manchuria, and the rest of China. Rural Japan did not fare as well as urban Japan, and an economic depression at the end of the Taisho period caused much suffering. See also Showa period.
Tait, Archibald C(ampbell) (b. Dec. 21, 1811, Edinburgh, Scot.—d. Dec. 3, 1882, Addington, Surrey, Eng.) English cleric. The son of Pres¬ byterian parents, he became an Anglican while studying at the University of Oxford. In 1836 he became a deacon and for five years he was also a curate at two villages near Oxford. In 1842 he succeeded Thomas Arnold as headmaster of Rugby School, and in 1849 he became dean of Carlisle Cathedral. He became bishop of London in 1856; in that position he stressed reconciliation between evangelical churchmen and those who supported the Oxford movement. As archbishop of Canterbury (from 1868), he oversaw the disestablishment of the Anglican Church of Ireland and the passage of the Burials Act (1880), which allowed non-Anglican burial services in Anglican churchyards.
Taiwan formerly Formosa Island, western Pacific Ocean, off south¬ eastern China, and since 1949 the principal component of the Republic of China (which also includes Matsu and Quemoy islands and the Pesca¬ dores). Area: 13,972 sq mi (36,188 sq km), including its outlying islands. Population (2005 est.): 22,725,947. Administrative centre: Taipei. Han Chi¬ nese constitute virtually the entire population. Languages: Mandarin Chi¬ nese (official); Taiwanese, Fukien, and Hakka dialects also spoken. Religions: Buddhism, Daoism, Confucianism, Christianity. Currency: new Taiwan dollar. Lying 100 mi (160 km) off the Chinese mainland, Tai¬ wan is composed mainly of mountains and hills, with densely populated coastal plains in the west. It has one of the highest population densities in the world and is a leading industrial power of the Pacific Rim, with an economy based on manufacturing industries, international trade, and ser¬ vices. Leading exports include nonelectrical and electrical machinery, electronics, textile products, plastic articles, and transportation equipment. Taiwan is a major producer of Chinese-language motion pictures. It is a republic with one legislative branch; its chief of state is the president, and the head of government is the premier. Known to the Chinese as early as the 7th century, the island of Taiwan was widely settled by them early in the 17th century. In 1646 the Dutch seized control of the island, only to be ousted in 1661 by a large influx of Chinese refugees, supporters of the Ming dynasty. Taiwan fell to the Manchu in 1683 and was not open to Europeans again until 1858. In 1895 it was ceded to Japan following the first Sino-Japanese War. A Japanese military centre in World War II, it was frequently bombed by U.S. planes. After Japan’s defeat it was returned to China, which was then governed by the Nationalists. When the com¬ munists took over mainland China in 1949, the Nationalist Party govern¬ ment fled to Taiwan and made it their seat of government, with Gen. Chiang Kai-shek as president. Since then, both the Nationalist government and the People’s Republic of China (mainland China) have considered