17 Facts About Portuguese Timor

Portuguese Timor was a colonial possession of Portugal that existed between 1702 and 1975.

The independence of East Portuguese Timor was finally achieved in 2002 following a UN-administered transition period.

Portuguese Timor merchants exported sandalwood from the island until the tree nearly became extinct.

Only then did the Portuguese move to Lifau in what is East Timor's Oecusse exclave.

Portuguese Timor introduced maize as a food crop and coffee as an export crop.

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The Portuguese introduced mercenaries into Timor communities and Timor chiefs hired Portuguese soldiers for wars against neighbouring tribes.

Under colonial policy, Portuguese citizenship was available to men who assimilated the 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.

Portuguese Timor was sent to Lifau, which became the capital of all Portuguese dependencies in the Lesser Sunda Islands.

Portuguese, their colony of Portuguese Timor remained little more than a neglected trading post until the late nineteenth century.

In places where Portuguese Timor rule was asserted, it tended to be brutal and exploitative.

In 1866 Portuguese Timor was placed under the control of Macau, and officially divided into 11 districts.

Portuguese Timor initiated a series of military campaigns running west to east, assisted by local allies.

Under Japanese occupation, the borders of the Dutch and Portuguese were overlooked with Timor island being made a single Imperial Japanese Army administration zone.

Timorese and the Portuguese helped the guerillas but following the Allies' eventual evacuation, Japanese retribution from their soldiers and Timorese militia raised in Dutch Timor was severe.

The role of the Catholic Church in Portuguese Timor grew following the Portuguese government handing over the education of the Timorese to the Church in 1941.

On 17 July 1976, Indonesia formally annexed East Portuguese Timor, declaring it as its 27th province and renaming it Portuguese Timor Timur.

In 1975, the currency ceased to exist as East Portuguese Timor was annexed by Indonesia and began using the Indonesian rupiah.