Portuguese Timor was the name of
East TimorEast Timor, also known as Timor-Leste is a country in Southeast Asia. It comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor, the nearby islands of Atauro and Jaco, and Oecussi-Ambeno, an exclave on the northwestern side of the island, within Indonesian West Timor...
when it was under
PortuguesePortugal , officially the Portuguese Republic , is a country located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of mainland Europe and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the west and south and by Spain to the north and east...
control. During this period, Portugal shared the island of
TimorTimor is an island at the southern end of Maritime Southeast Asia, north of the Timor Sea. It is divided between the independent state of East Timor, and West Timor, belonging to the Indonesian province of East Nusa Tenggara....
with the Netherlands East Indies, and later with
IndonesiaThe Republic of Indonesia is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia comprises 17,508 islands. With an estimated population of around 237 million people, it is the world's fourth most populous country, with the world's largest population of Muslims.Indonesia is a republic, with an...
.
The first Europeans to arrive in the region were Portuguese in 1515. Dominican friars established a presence on the island in 1556, and the territory was declared a Portuguese colony in 1702. Following a Lisbon-instigated decolonisation process in 1974, Indonesia invaded the territory in 1975 ending Portuguese rule. The invasion was never accepted by other countries, that is why Portuguese Timor existed officially until independence of Timor-Leste in 2002.
Early colonialists
Prior to the arrival of European colonial powers, the island of
TimorTimor is an island at the southern end of Maritime Southeast Asia, north of the Timor Sea. It is divided between the independent state of East Timor, and West Timor, belonging to the Indonesian province of East Nusa Tenggara....
was part of the trading networks that stretched between India and China and incorporating Maritime Southeast Asia. The island's large stands of fragrant
sandalwoodSandalwood is the name of different fragrant woods. These woods are yielded by the tree Santalum and Santalaceae, which are often used for the essential oil it contains. These trees are heavy and yellow in color as well as fine-grained...
were its main commodity. The first European powers to arrive in the area were the
PortuguesePortugal , officially the Portuguese Republic , is a country located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of mainland Europe and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the west and south and by Spain to the north and east...
in the early sixteenth century followed by the Dutch in the late sixteenth century. Both came in search of the fabled Spice Islands of
MalukuThe Maluku Islands are an archipelago in Indonesia, and part of the larger Maritime Southeast Asia region. Tectonically they are located on the Halmahera Plate within the Molucca Sea Collision Zone. Geographically they are located east of Sulawesi , west of New Guinea, and north of Timor...
. Portuguese first landed near modern
Pante MacassarPante Macassar is a city on the north coast of East Timor, 281 km to the west of Dili, the nation's capital. It has a population of 4,730 . It is the capital of the Oecussi-Ambeno exclave....
, and in 1556 a group of
DominicanThe Order of Preachers , after the 15th century more commonly known as the Dominican Order or Dominicans, is a Catholic religious order founded by Saint Dominic in the early 13th century in France...
friars established the village of
LifauLifau is a former town in the East Timor exclave of Oecussi-Ambeno. It was the first European settlement in the region. Dominican brothers carried on missionary work on the north coast of Timor after 1556. In 1641 they arrived to Lifau and baptized the royal family of Ambeno...
.
Over the following three centuries, the Dutch would come to dominate the
Indonesian archipelagoThe Republic of Indonesia is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia comprises 17,508 islands. With an estimated population of around 237 million people, it is the world's fourth most populous country, with the world's largest population of Muslims.Indonesia is a republic, with an...
with the exception of the eastern half of Timor, which would become Portuguese Timor. The Portuguese introduced
maizeMaize , is a herbaceous plant domesticated in Mesoamerica and subsequently spread throughout the American continents...
as a food crop and coffee as an export crop. Timorese systems of tax and labour control were preserved, through which taxes were paid through their labour and a portion of the coffee and sandalwood crop. The Portuguese introduced mercenaries into Timor communities and Timor chiefs hired Portuguese soldiers for wars against neighbouring tribes. With the use of the Portuguese musket, Timorese men became deer hunters and suppliers of deer horn and hide for export.
The Portuguese introduced
Roman CatholicismCatholicism is a broad term for the body of the Catholic faith, its theologies and doctrines, its liturgical, ethical, spiritual, and behavioral characteristics, as well as a religious people as a whole...
to East Timor, the Roman writing system, the
printing pressA printing press is a mechanical device for applying pressure to an inked surface resting upon a medium , thereby transferring an image. The mechanical systems involved were first assembled in Germany by the goldsmith Johannes Gutenberg around 1440, based on existing screw-presses used to press...
, and formal schooling. Two groups of people were introduced to East Timor; Portuguese men, and
TopassesTopasses were a group of people in maritime Asia in the early modern period, who claimed Portuguese ancestry or had taken up Portuguese culture and language. Topasses were found in the various places of South Asia and Southeast Asia which were frequented by the Portuguese, such as Goa, Malacca and...
.
Portuguese languagePortuguese is a Romance language that originated in what is now Galicia and northern Portugal. It is derived from the Latin spoken by the romanized Pre-Roman peoples of the Iberian Peninsula around 2000 years ago...
was introduced into church and state business, and Portuguese Asians used
MalayMalay is a group of languages closely related to each other to the point of mutual intelligibility but that linguists consider to be separate languages. They are grouped into a group called "Local Malay", part of a larger group called "Malayan" within the Malayo-Polynesian branch of the...
in addition to Portuguese. Under colonial policy, Portuguese citizenship was available to men who assimilated Portuguese language, literacy, and religion; by 1970, 1,200 East Timorese, largely drawn from the aristocracy, Dili residents, or larger towns, had obtained Portuguese citizenship. By the end of the colonial administration in 1974, 30 percent of Timorese were practicing Roman Catholics while the majority continued to worship spirits of the land and sky.
Establishment of the colonial state
In 1702,
LisbonLisbon is the capital and largest city of Portugal. It is also the seat of the district of Lisbon and the main city of the Lisbon region...
sent its first governor successfully, António Coelho Guerreiro, to
LifauLifau is a former town in the East Timor exclave of Oecussi-Ambeno. It was the first European settlement in the region. Dominican brothers carried on missionary work on the north coast of Timor after 1556. In 1641 they arrived to Lifau and baptized the royal family of Ambeno...
, which became capital of all Portuguese dependencies on Lesser Sunda Islands. Former capitals were
SolorSolor is a volcanic island located off the eastern tip of Flores island in the Lesser Sunda Islands of Indonesia, in the Solor Archipelago. The island supports a small population that has been whaling for hundreds of years. They speak the languages of Adonara and Lamaholot. There are at least five...
and
LarantukaLarantuka is a subdistrict of East Flores Regency, on the eastern end of Flores Island, East Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia. Like much of the region, Larantuka has a strong a colonial Portuguese influence...
. Portuguese control over the territory was tenuous particularly in the mountainous interior.
DominicanThe Order of Preachers , after the 15th century more commonly known as the Dominican Order or Dominicans, is a Catholic religious order founded by Saint Dominic in the early 13th century in France...
friars, the occasional Dutch raid, and the Timorese themselves competed with Portuguese merchants. The control of colonial administrators was largely restricted to the
DiliDili , spelled Díli in Portuguese, is the capital and largest city of East Timor. It lies on the northern coast of Timor island, the easternmost of the Lesser Sunda Islands. Dili is the chief port and commercial centre for East Timor, and has approximately 150,000 inhabitants...
area, and they had to rely on traditional tribal chieftains for control and influence.
The capital was moved to
DiliDili , spelled Díli in Portuguese, is the capital and largest city of East Timor. It lies on the northern coast of Timor island, the easternmost of the Lesser Sunda Islands. Dili is the chief port and commercial centre for East Timor, and has approximately 150,000 inhabitants...
in 1769, due to attacks from the Topasses, which became rulers of several locol kingdoms (
LiuraiLiurai is a ruler's title on Timor. The word is Tetun and literaly means "surpassing the earth". It is originally associated with Wehali, a ritually central kingdom situated at the south coast of Central Timor . The sacral lord of Wehali, the Maromak Oan enjoyed a ritually passive role, and he...
). In the same time, the Dutch were colonising the west of the island and the surrounding archipelago that is now
IndonesiaThe Republic of Indonesia is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia comprises 17,508 islands. With an estimated population of around 237 million people, it is the world's fourth most populous country, with the world's largest population of Muslims.Indonesia is a republic, with an...
. The border between Portuguese Timor and the Dutch East Indies was formally decided in 1859 with the Treaty of Lisbon. In 1913, the Portuguese and Dutch formally agreed to split the island between them. The definitive border was drawn by
the HagueThe Hague is the third largest city in the Netherlands after Amsterdam and Rotterdam, with a population of 485,818 and an area of approximately 100 km²...
in 1916, and it remains the international boundary between the modern states of East Timor and Indonesia.
For the Portuguese, East Timor remained little more than a neglected trading post until the late nineteenth century. Investment in infrastructure, health, and education was minimal. Sandalwood remained the main export crop with coffee exports becoming significant in the mid-nineteenth century. In places where Portuguese rule was asserted, it tended to be brutal and exploitative.
Twentieth century
At the beginning of the twentieth century, a faltering home economy prompted the Portuguese to extract greater wealth from its colonies, resulting in increased resistance to Portuguese rule in East Timor. In 1910-12, a Timorese rebellion was quashed after Portugal brought in troops from its colonies in Mozambique and Macau, resulting in the deaths of 3,000 East Timorese.
Although Portugal was neutral during
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, in December 1941, Portuguese Timor was occupied by
AustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the continental mainland , the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans...
n and Dutch forces, which were expecting a
JapaneseThe Empire of Japan was a Japanese political entity that existed during the period from the...
invasion. Thousands of Japanese occupied Timor, in February 1942, and the borders of the Dutch and Portuguese were overlooked with Timor island being made a single Japanese army administration zone. 400 Australian and Dutch commandos trapped on the island by the Japanese invasion waged a
guerrillaGuerrilla warfare is the irregular warfare warfare and combat in which a small group of combatants use mobile military tactics in the form of ambushes and raids to combat a larger and less mobile formal army....
campaign, which tied up Japanese troops and inflicted over 1,000 casualties. Timorese helped the guerillas but following the allies eventual evacuation, Japanese retribution from their soldiers and Timorese militia raised in West Timor was severe. By the end of the War, an estimated 40-60,000 Timorese had died, the economy was in ruins, and famine widespread. (see Battle of Timor).
Following World War II, the Portuguese promptly returned to reclaim their colony, while West Timor became part of Indonesia which
secured its independenceThe Indonesian National Revolution or Indonesian War of Independence was an armed conflict and diplomatic struggle between Indonesia and the Netherlands, and an internal social revolution...
in 1949. To rebuild the economy, colonial administrators forced local chiefs to supply labourers which further damaged the agricultural sector. The role of the Catholic Church in East Timor grew following the Portuguese government handing over the education of the Timorese to the Church in 1941. In post war Portuguese Timor, primary and secondary school education levels significantly increased albeit on a very low base. Although illiteracy in 1973 was estimated at 93 per cent of the population, the small educated elite of East Timorese produced by the Church in the 1960s and 70s, became the independence leaders during the
Indonesian occupationIndonesia occupied East Timor from December 1975 to October 1999.After centuries of Portuguese colonial rule in East Timor, a 1974 coup in Portugal led to decolonization among its former colonies, creating instability in East Timor and leaving its future uncertain...
.
End of Portuguese rule
Following a 1974 coup (the "
Carnation RevolutionThe Carnation Revolution , also referred to as the 25 de Abril, was a left-leaning military coup started on 25 April 1974, in Lisbon, Portugal, that effectively changed the Portuguese regime from an authoritarian dictatorship to a democracy after two years of a transitional period known as PREC ,...
"), the new government favoured a gradual decolonisation process for Portuguese territories in Asia and Africa. When East Timorese political parties were first legalised in April 1974, three major players emerged. The
Timorese Democratic UnionThe Timorese Democratic Union is a conservative political party in East Timor. It was the first party to be established in the country in 1974, following the Carnation Revolution in Portugal....
(UDT), was dedicated to preserving East Timor as a protectorate of Portugal and in September announced its support for independence. Fretilin endorsed "the universal doctrines of
socialismSocialism refers to various theories of economic organization advocating public or direct worker ownership and administration of the means of production and allocation of resources, and a society characterized by equal access to resources for all individuals with a method of compensation based on...
", as well as "the right to independence", and later declared itself "the only legitimate representative of the people". A third party, Apodeti emerged advocating East Timor's integration with Indonesia expressing concerns that an independent East Timor would be economically weak and vulnerable.
28 November 1975, East Timorese declared the territory’s independence.
Nine days later, Indonesia invaded the territory declaring it
Indonesia's 27th provinceIndonesia occupied East Timor from December 1975 to October 1999.After centuries of Portuguese colonial rule in East Timor, a 1974 coup in Portugal led to decolonization among its former colonies, creating instability in East Timor and leaving its future uncertain...
Timor Timur in 1976. The United Nations, however, did not recognise the annexation. The last governor of Portuguese Timor was Mário Lemos Pires from 1974-75. Following the end of Indonesian occupation in 1999, and
a United Nations administered transition periodThe United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor provided an interim civil administration and a peacekeeping mission in the territory of East Timor, from its establishment on October 25, 1999 until its independence on May 20, 2002 following the outcome of the East Timor Special...
, East Timor became independent in 2002.
The first own currency was the Portuguese Timor pataca (introduced 1894), after 1959 the Portuguese Timor escudo, linked to the
Portuguese escudoThe escudo was the currency of Portugal prior to the introduction of the Euro on 1 January 1999 and was removed from circulation on 28 February 2002. The ISO 4217 code of the escudo was PTE. The escudo was subdivided into 100 centavos. Its symbol was the cifrão , similar to the dollar sign, but...
till 1975 when the currency ceased to exist as East Timor was annexed by Indonesia and began using the
Indonesian rupiahThe rupiah is the official currency of Indonesia. Issued and controlled by the Bank of Indonesia, the ISO 4217 currency code for the Indonesian rupiah is IDR. The symbol used on all banknotes and coins are Rp. The name derives from the Indian monetary unit rupee which is called as rupiya in Indian...
.
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