why was Formosa renamed into Taiwan?

Formosa was a European term for the island while Taiwan is a Chinese/Japanese/Asian term for the island.

i almways like the name formosa more... but taiwan is what it is in chinese...so i guess it's better that way.

yea formosa sounds like a paradise island or something

but if people were to say
hi im formosanese
that would sound really wierd
taiwanese sounds cool

no

an inhabitant of "formosa" would be called "formosan".

NOT formosanese.

lol ^^ did i say formosanese

Formosa means Land of Flowers, right?

Formosa does sound better, but can the Chinese pronounce it correctly is the real question. Also, it needs to have a meaning also; what does Taiwan and Formosa mean in Chinese?

Formosa means beautiful in Portuguese while Taiwan in Chinese/Japanese means something else.

If Formosa doesn't mean anything in Chinese, you know the name Formosa's not going to be kept.

You could translate Formosa...into...Fu Muo Sa...prosperous sand place. but that doesn't make sense...

I knew I had to wiki this up..

The main island of Taiwan, also known as Formosa (Portuguese sailors called it Ilha Formosa, which means "beautiful island"),

Formosa=Beautiful, and Ilha=island. As simple as that.

Formosa is a Portuges word meaning beautiful (related to the Spanish word "hermosa"). It's said that the Portugese were taken aback by the beautiful scenery of the island and named it that.

The proper word would be "Formosano" for an inhabitant.

Formosa is a term aplied to people.... at least nowadays.
Anyway, we (portuguese) don't even use it to people over there, we just call them "taiuanes" or "taiuanesa". The real term would still be "formoso" or "formosa", as we don't need to change the adjective.... but it would be bad.
I also think that they should change americans name, as mei guo ren isn't very valuable for US..... 2