British Formosa

What PODs would result to Britain getting Formosa as a colony?

And what are the possible alternate names for Formosa, should the British decided to rename it?
 
Had they demanded it, yes. The Secon Opium war was a total disaster for China, and the AngloFrench could have demanded, and gotten just about anything.

This is correct. But by this time, the British already made up their minds about Taiwan. There is a reason why the British chose Hong Kong over Taiwan in the First Opium war even though Hong Kong was a desert and Taiwan had more natural resources to offer.

Unless you make a PoD earlier before where Canton aint the main trading port for foreigners I dont see the British choosing Taiwan over Hong Kong.

There is no reason for the British to get Taiwan by the second opium war. The cost is greater than the benefit of retaining Taiwan.
 
A possible POD could be an earlier discovery of gold in Jiufen (maybe in the 1840s), with British commercial entities going there on invitation by local authorities or even just local merchants. Then over time that could develop into some concrete British interests in the region, just in time for the Second Opium war to break out.

There wasn't a gigantic number of Chinese on Taiwan at this point so it wouldn't have been ungovernable (and if the occupation of Zhoushan during the 1st Opium War is any indication, malaria killed more Brits than Chinese resistance).

Well technically for a while Hong Kong was the colony of Victoria, so the British will want a Western name for 'Taiwan'. Formosa works, though, though you might have to give a different name for the then-primary city, Keelung (maybe Palmerston or something).
 
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