Pre-colonial period report The population of Timor came to the island as part of the general settlement of the region. Anthropologists assume that the descendants of three waves of immigration live here, which also explains Timor's ethnic-cultural diversity.
Australo-
Papuans are thought to have reached
Timor from the north and west around 40,000 to 20,000 BC, during the last Ice Age. The
Atoin Meto, who dominate West Timor, are considered the descendants of this first wave of settlers, although their language is one of the
Austronesian languages. The same applies to the
Helong, who originally inhabited the region around
Kupang and were displaced by the Atoin Meto to the far western tip of the island. Around 3000 BC,
Melanesians came from the west with a second wave of immigration and brought the
oval axe culture to Timor. The
Bunak people in the borderland to Timor-Leste are among their descendants. The last peoples to migrate to Timor in prehistoric times were the
Malay peoples. There are different indications as to whether the Malays reached Timor in one or two waves. The
proto-Malays from
southern China and
northern Indochina, probably reached Timor in 2500 BC. They spread throughout the archipelago under pressure from the expansion of the
East Asian peoples. Probably around 500 AD,
Deutero-Malays (who emerged from
Iron Age Austronesian peoples who came equipped with more advanced farming techniques and new knowledge of metals) became the dominant population throughout the archipelago and also reached Timor. The
Tetum in eastern West Timor form the largest ethnic group in East Timor and are descendants of the Malay immigrants, as are the
Kemak people living on the border. Recent cultural contacts of West Timor's dominant population, the Atoin Meto, are due to the interest of various Asian (India and China) and European (Portugal and the Netherlands) traders in the island's formerly very rich
sandalwood resources. This sandalwood trade with Southeast Asia, which took place over centuries, did not leave Timorese cultures unscathed. All buyers of Timorese sandalwood have left their mark from a cultural point of view.
Portuguese The first European colonization of Timor was in the 16th century. In 1512 (other sources mention 1509 or 1511), the Portuguese navigator
António de Abreu was the first European to discover the island of Timor in search of the
Spice Islands. When the first Portuguese reached Timor, they found the population divided into many small kingdoms (
Indonesian: kerajaan) that were relatively independent of each other. The centre of the island was dominated by the
Wehale (Wehali) kingdom with its allies among the tribes of the Tetum, Bunak and Kemak ethnic groups. The Tetum formed the core of the kingdom. The capital
Laran village on the territory of today's West Timor formed the spiritual centre of the entire island at that time. Following the Wehale model, a second kingdom arose in West Timor, that of the
Sonba'i kingdom. In 1556, the
Dominican Order founded the village of
Lifau, six kilometres west of today's
Pante Macassar, to secure the sandalwood trade. Portugal initially established few garrisons and trading posts on Timor. Only when the threat from the Dutch increased did the Portuguese begin to expand their positions. Dutch traders first reached Timor in 1568. To extend their control to the interior of the island, the Portuguese began a large-scale invasion in 1642 under
Francisco Fernandes. However, this action was justified by the protection of the
Christianised rulers of the coastal region. The previous Christianisation supported the Portuguese in their quick and brutal victory, as their influence on the Timorese had already weakened the resistance. Fernandes first moved through the Sonba'i area and then quickly conquered the kingdom of Wehale, which was considered the religious and political centre of the island. After the victory, the immigration of the
Topasses continued to increase. They were
mestizos whose ancestors were inhabitants of the islands of
Solor and
Flores and Portuguese. The centre of the Topasses became Lifau, the main Portuguese base on Timor. Later, the Topasses also settled inland at the present-day villages of
Kefamenanu and
Niki-Niki. They were given land by the local rulers and soon formed their own local kingdoms, such as
Noimuti, and became a power on the island. Two clans, the
Hornay and the
Costa, at times controlled large parts of Timor, which was not without conflict between them.
Netherlands , 1699 In 1640, the Dutch built their first fortress on Timor near
Kupang and the political division of the island began.
Kupang Bay was considered the best
natural harbour on the entire island. From 1642, a simple fort again protected the Portuguese post. Two Dutch attacks on it failed in 1644. For better defence, the Dominicans under
Antonio de São Jacointo built a new fortress in 1647, but in 1653 the Dutch destroyed the Portuguese post and finally conquered it on 27 January 1656 with a strong force under General
Arnold de Vlamigh van Outshoorn. However, the Dutch had to withdraw from the fortress immediately due to heavy losses after following the Topasse outside Kupang. For the time being, however, the Dutch sphere of influence remained limited to this region of Timor, with the exception of
Maubara, which fell to the Dutch in 1667. Until the final conquest of the Portuguese fortress in Kupang Bay in 1688, the
Dutch East India Company (VOC) concluded treaties with the five small rulers in this area, the "five loyal allies" (
Sonbai Kecil, Helong,
Amabi in 1665,
Amfo'an in 1683 and
Taebenu in 1688). In the middle of the 18th century, Timor was divided into two halves from a Portuguese perspective. The smaller western part consisted of the province of with 16 local kingdoms and was controlled by the Topasses. The eastern half was the
province of Belu (Bellum) and consisted of 46 kingdoms. In 1752, the Dutch attacked the
Amarasi Kingdom and the Topasse Kingdom of
Noimuti. This attack was led by the German
Hans Albrecht von Plüskow, who was the Dutch commander of Kupang. He was to be killed by a Topasse assassination plot in Lifau in 1761. The Dutch also used this campaign to hunt slaves to serve the needs of the plantations in the Moluccas. In 1752, the
Bishop of Malacca branded the Dutch trade in slaves, which were also sold to Chinese and Arabs, as a crime that would lead to excommunication for Catholics. In 1755, the Dutch East India Company (VOC) sent
John Andrew Paravicini to negotiate treaties with rulers in several of the
Lesser Sunda Islands. In 1756, 48 Lesser Kings of
Solor,
Roti,
Sawu,
Sumba and much of West Timor made alliances with the VOC. This was the beginning of Dutch rule in what is now Indonesian West Timor. Among them was a certain Jacinto Correa (Hiacijinto Corea), King of
Wewiku-Wehale and Grand Prince of Belu, who also signed the dubious
Treaty of Paravicini on behalf of 27 territories dependent on him in central Timor. Fortunately for the Portuguese, Wehale was no longer powerful enough to pull all the local rulers over to the side of the Dutch. Thus, the eastern former vassals of Wehale remained under the flag of Portugal, while Wehale itself fell under Dutch rule. On 11 August 1769, the Portuguese governor
António José Teles de Meneses was forced to leave Lifau by the Topasses. The new capital of the Portuguese on Timor became Dili in the east of the island. The Topaz Francisco da Hornay offered Lifau to the Dutch, but after careful consideration they refused. The Dutch also recruited soldiers for their army there and built schools after the local ruler converted to Christianity in 1729. The
Rotinese people became a well-educated elite. To use them as a counterweight to the Timorese, the Dutch encouraged their immigration to West Timor, so that they are still present here today. The reason for the rebellions was probably the deficiencies in the administration of the VOC, which now became openly apparent with the expansion of the domain. After 1733, the VOC had an acute shortage of personnel due to
malaria epidemics in
Batavia. The situation was even worse in Kupang, where mortality among Europeans was particularly high due to malaria. Paravicini, of all people, who had praised the VOC so much in his treaty, described their personnel as bad, dishonest, greedy, cruel and disobedience would run rampant with him. They forced local rulers to buy goods at outrageous prices and Opperhoofd (settlers) preyed on the impoverished rajas. The Timorese kingdoms were forced to send troops and 200 men annually to pan for gold in the mountains. Neither the military expeditions nor the gold prospecting brought the desired success. Instead, discontent among the Timorese grew. This was also because accidents during the search for gold could also be dangerous for the regents. A Dutchman reported in 1777, when five gold mines had collapsed, that relatives of the victims could take revenge on the rulers who had sent them to search for gold. There were also problems with corruption and also with the
Mardijkers, the Dutch equivalent of the Topasse, but most of whom had not adopted the Christian faith. They were seen as an arrogant group that sought to expand their influence in the region. on the south coast of West Timor. Photo of the
Siboga expedition by
Max Wilhelm Carl Weber (1899/1900).
William Bligh reached Kupang with his faithful in 1789 after being marooned at sea during the
mutiny on the Bounty. In 1790, a rebellion in Sonba'i and Maubara was put down by the Dutch, but the colony continued to be troubled into the 19th century and the Dutch failed to bring the interior of the island under their control. In 1799, the Dutch East India Company went bankrupt and the Dutch government took over rule of West Timor, though without showing much interest in the economically uninteresting and distant Kupang. Trade was primarily conducted by the Chinese. In 1797, the British attempted to occupy Kupang, fearing that France might establish itself here after the
occupation of the Netherlands. However, the British were driven out by the Dutch commander with the help of local people and slaves. The subsequent collapse of the company meant that in 1799, the area returned to official Dutch rule. During the
Napoleonic Wars, the British succeeded in occupying Kupang in 1811. In 1812, British control was extended to all of Dutch West Timor. Only after the return of the
House of Orange-Nassau to the Dutch throne did the Dutch officially regain their Timorese possessions on 7 October 1816. Needless to say, the governor fell from grace and was deposed when Lisbon learned of the treaty. But the agreements could not be undone, even though the treaty on boundaries was renegotiated in 1854 and not ratified until 1859 as the
Treaty of Lisbon. The various small kingdoms of Timor were divided under Dutch and Portuguese authority. The treaty had some weaknesses, however. One enclave without access to the sea remained in the territory of the other side. In addition, the imprecise borders of the Timorese kingdoms and their traditional claims were the basis for the colonial demarcation. From 1872 onwards, the Dutch left "internal affairs" to the native rulers, who were thus able to continue unhindered with slave trading and piracy and to carry out raids on other places. In 1885, however, one of the larger kingdoms of West Timor, Sonba'i, fell into anarchy after the death of the Raja. When the Dutch governor and his garrison were not in Kupang, the colonial capital was even occupied by the rebels. The Dutch then abandoned their policy of non-interference in the internal affairs of the rulers they controlled. Then
Governor-General,
Jan Jacob Rochussen, sent troops and placed the interior of the island under military administration. The rulers were again forced to sign a treaty (
Korte Verklaring) in which they recognised the sovereignty of the Netherlands and were forbidden contact with foreign powers. Only after three more negotiations (1893, 1904 and 1913) between the two colonial powers was the problem of the
final borders resolved. On 17 August 1916, the treaty was signed in The Hague that defined the border between East and West Timor that still exists today. The wrangling over this border between Portugal and the Netherlands and the views of the indigenous population as to whether they belonged to the West or the East has had consequences that extend to the present day. Various ethnic groups that were part of the Wehale Kingdom or its close allies were divided by the border. Today, Tetum, Bunak and Kemak live both in Indonesian West Timor and in independent East Timor. Traditionally, there are still thoughts among these peoples about a
united Timor. There were conflicts between the different Timorese kingdoms, which already had their roots in pre-colonial times. Various reasons could then lead to the outbreak of armed conflicts between the Timorese. For example, the
Mold and the
Miomafo in south-central West Timor fought over gold mines between 1760 and 1782. From 1864 to 1870, ''Sonba'i
and the Sorbian of Amfo'an'' fought over the rights to use some
betel palms in the Kupang kingdom.
20th century in Kupang (c. 1900).By the 20th century, West Timor had the status of
resident within the Dutch East Indies to easen administration. The lack of power of the Dutch in West Timor can be seen in the fact that in 1904 they could only force an official audience with the ruler of Wehale in his capital Laran by military force. It was the first ever direct meeting of Dutch representatives with the "Emperor" (Keizer). the Timor Evolutie in 1924, and the Pesekutan Timor in 1926. This development ran counter to that in Portuguese East Timor, where the dictatorship suppressed political work. The
Perserikatan Nasional Indonesia (PNI) also began to gain influence in West Timor and the
Communist Party of Indonesia (PKI) opened a branch in Kupang in 1925. There it demanded a reduction in taxes and an end to forced labour, which led to the imprisonment and exile of its leader
Christian Pandie. Local administration remained in the hands of the Liurai until 1958. Despite their later removal from power, their families still have great influence in West Timorese society. Since 1988, there have been increased efforts to develop the region. West Timor was a refugee shelter from 1998 to 2002, due to the prolonged
East Timor conflict. On 6 September 2000, Pero Simundza from Croatia, Carlos Caceres-Collazio from Puerto Rico and Samson Aregahegn from Ethiopia – all UNHCR staff members – were killed in an attack by 5,000 members of a pro-Indonesian militia, armed with machetes, on the office of UNHCR in the town of Atambua, which is in the vicinity of the border with Timor-Leste and where the main refugee camp was located ==Geography==