臺灣民主國是清治與日治之間的小插曲，為期僅短短的一百五十日。在日本現代武力強力推進下，進行了一場以國家為名的乙未戰爭；臺灣民主國其內涵雖不見得滿足現代國家的意涵，但卻是第一個以臺灣為名宣告為國家者，因此其國家意識及定位課題值得探討。本文擬就臺灣內部各方人士及外在環境——包括清朝與列強，透過內外在條件的梳理了解其對於國家的建立及意識問題。就臺灣各方人士，在臺官員本身忠於清朝，對臺灣認同感較低，以致無法成為維繫臺灣政權與北京的堅固繩結；而就在地人士而言，保鄉衛土的心情遠高於愛國抗倭，地方意識高於國家意識。就清朝而言，臺灣民主國本身存在著多視角的利益問題，以致做為一個國家出現時，清朝本身對其存在著矛盾的態度及作為；就外交上，由於臺灣地理位置的問題，臺灣民主國成為強國計較利害得失的籌碼，其國家地位的存廢與其利害相關連。三者的相互牽絆，凸顯出臺灣地位及國家定位在諸多立場下的矛盾與虛弱，也使此時不應出現而出現的“國家”——臺灣民主國，甫誕生即注定了早夭的命運；而這三個要素也埋下了日後國家定位多元詮釋的奇特現象。

The birth of The Taiwan Democratic Republic was an incident between Ching Dynasty and Japanese occupation. It survived for only 150 days. Under the threat of Japanese modern force,Taiwan, in the name of a country, started a resistant war with Japan in 1985. Though the Taiwan Democratic Republic was not really a country at that time in terms of the elements required for a modern nation, it was first declared as a Nation in the name of Taiwan. Therefore, the topic of Taiwan’s national awareness and its national status problems are worthy of deeper discussion.This paper attempted to discuss and understand the problems of nationalestablishment and national awareness through the perspectives of Taiwan’s interior and exterior environment --including Ching dynasty and foreign powers. In terms of Taiwan’s environment, since officials were more loyal to Ching dynasty than to Taiwan’s sense of identity, the relations between Taiwan
authority and Ching dynasty was not strong enough. In terms of locals, the emotion of protecting the hometown was higher than fighting against Japanese; local awareness was higher than national awareness. In terms of Ching dynasty, there existed the questions of multiform interests for the
Taiwan Democratic Republic. Therefore, when Taiwan appeared in the name of a country, the attitudes and behaviors of Ching dynasty were conflicting. Diplomatically, due to its geographic location, Taiwan became the chip for political interests among the foreign powers countries that the existence and abrogation of national status was closely related to national interests.The close triangle relationship among Ching dynasty, Taiwan’s locals, and diplomatic environment make Taiwan’s special national status much more outstanding. Due to the said
situation, the appearance of the Taiwan Democratic Republic was destined to die soon. This special phenomenon can just explain the later-on diversity of national identity of Taiwan.