Taiwanese textbooks play a central role in Taiwanese education. Teachers rely on the textbooks to develop lessons as well as the majority of the content of their classes. The purpose of this article is to explore the historical development of the political and ideological complexities in Taiwan's social studies curriculum. The article begins with an overview of Taiwan's history and population, followed by a discussion of the political and social impacts on Taiwan's social studies curriculum and textbooks from 1949 to the present. The theoretical interrelation between legitimised knowledge and school curriculum is discussed in relation to these issues.