When did the Portuguese arrive in Timor?

The Portuguese did not sail directly from Portugal to the island of Timor but through the Indian subcontinent. After Columbus discovered America in 1492, the Portuguese followed suit and sent their explorers in search of new worlds. The Portuguese dispatched Vasco da Gama and his crews to find India, which was confused by Columbus. They found India, and they got there in 1498. After eleven years in India, the Portuguese began expanding their exploration to Southeast Asia in search of more spices and sandalwood. To get to Southeast Asia, they must pass through the Malay Peninsula (the Strait of Malacca). It was not an easy exploration because you had to risk the lives of so many of your men to get what you wanted, but because of greed, power, and the insatiable desire to explore and conquer the world, they used whatever they had to fight the natives of every land they discovered.

The Portuguese advancement in Malacca occurred in 1509. They landed in Malacca and met the Sultan of Malacca, and of course, the Sultan and his people defended themselves against the new foreigner. The Portuguese probably negotiated with the sultan, but the negotiation was unsuccessful, and the battle broke out. Both parties fought for days, weeks, or even months. The Sultan of Malacca defeated the Portuguese army with traditional weaponry such as spears, arrows, and bows; many Portuguese soldiers were captured and imprisoned by the sultan. After losing the battle, the Portuguese returned to their primary base in India.

Two years after the Battle of Malacca in 1509, Portugal resumed its offensive in Malacca in 1511. The commander in India sent Afonso de Albuquerque with 200 troops and 14 vessels to Malacca. When they arrived, they started bombing the city of Malacca. The Sultan and his warriors had no choice but to surrender. The Portuguese defeated the sultan and eventually took control of Malacca and the Strait of Malacca.

After taking over Malacca in 1511, the Portuguese began to expand their exploration into Indonesia's spice islands in 1512. They set up their base in Makasar (Celebes) and later moved to Solor, Flores, to be closer to the island of Timor. As soon as they settled in Makasar, one of the officers, who was working as a cartographer, Francisco Rodrigues, drew a map of the region, on which Timor appeared with the words "the island of Timor, where the sandalwood originates". Then, on January 6, 1514, Captain Rui de Brito Patalim wrote to King Manuel I from Malacca, saying that Timor was an island beyond Java that produced a great deal of sandalwood, honey, and beeswax. (Durrand, 2016). It seems that sandalwood was the main reason for the Portuguese to colonise the island of Timor. If it was not sandalwood, they probably would have abandoned it because the island is not as big as Brazil.

There is no precise time for the arrival of the Portuguese in Timor. Some sources believe the Portuguese likely began trading sandalwood with Timor around 1515. The missionaries made contact with the Timorese kings in the hope that conversion would spread the influence of the Portuguese on the island. Their vessels went to Timor regularly to buy sandalwood, honey, and beeswax. They did not intend to stay and settle on the island, but for some reason, they decided to stay until 1975. From their base in Flores, the missionaries contacted Liurai or realms in the western and southern parts of the island: Kupang, Lifau (Oecussi), Mena, Matome, and Camenasse (Kamanasa). In 1589, they built their first church in Mena, east of Oecussi, which they abandoned months later. (Durand, 2016). It was not easy to convert the Timorese to Christianity, for they had already believed in the supernatural through their traditional belief systems.

The Portuguese formally established its presence in Timor at the start of the seventeenth century. Following the arrival of the Dutch VOC, wars broke out between the Dutch and the Portuguese during the 16th and 17th centuries, as well as between the Topasses (Mestisos) and the Portuguese.

After the Portuguese defeated Liurai Wewiku-Wehali in 1642, the Dominicans started building a fort in Kupang, and in 1946, they sent a general to Timor. Additionally, in 1658, the Jesuits established a presence in Motael, Dili. However, the Portuguese did not fully control the island because of the Topasses—the Hornay and da Costa families. Between 1673 and 1693, António de Hornay was considered a virtual king of Timor and took over most of the islands of Lesser Sunda, including Flores, Solor, and Timor (Durand, 2016.

Despite ongoing Topasses attacks, the Portuguese officially sent António Coelho Guerreiro as their first governor to Timor in 1702. He stayed in Lifau for three years before being compelled to relocate to Dili in 1769 (Durand, 2016). So this was Portugal's official settlement in Timor, which lasted until 1975. That is how politics and power have evolved on Earth. Everything on earth is continually changing, from hunter-gatherers to kings and queens to today's democratic government.

To sum up, because of the sandalwood, the Portuguese travelled from India to Malacca in search of sandalwood before slowly making their way to Makasar and Solor and then arriving on Timor Island. Although it is generally acknowledged that the Portuguese arrived in Timor around 1515, the island was not fully under Portuguese control until 1702, the year they established their official presence in Timor-Leste. So the Portuguese colonised Timor-Leste for 273 years.

References:

Durand, Frederic, B., History of Timor-Leste, Silkworm Books, Thailand, 2016.