In 1875, the Taipei Prefecture became the political center of Taiwan and in 1894 Taipei officially became the capital. As settlement for losing the First Sino-Japanese War, China ceded Taiwan to Japan in 1895. Taipei became the political center of the Japanese Colonial Government. Upon the Japanese defeat in the Pacific War and its consequent surrender in August 1945, Taiwan was taken over by Chinese Nationalist troops.

In 1949, the Kuomintang (KMT) government established Taipei as the provisional capital of the Republic of China after the Communists forced them to flee mainland China at the end of the Civil War.