Latest / The History of Portugal: The Small Nation That Built a Global Empire — Fexingo History / The Portuguese and Timor: Sandalwood, Resistance, and a Forgotten Colony
Transcript
- Lucas: So we've covered a lot of ground in this series — Goa, Malacca, Macau, even Japan. But there's one corner of the Portuguese Empire in Asia that barely gets mentioned, and it happens to be the one that lasted the longest. Luna: Longer than Macau? Lucas: Longer than anywhere, actually. Portuguese Timor — the eastern half of the island of Timor — was under Lisbon's control from around 1515 until 1975. That's over four and a half centuries. And it all started because of a tree. Luna: A tree? Lucas: Sandalwood. Specifically, the aromatic wood that grows on Timor was prized across Asia for incense, carvings, and medicine. When the Portuguese reached the island in the early 1500s, they realised that sandalwood was more valuable than pepper — weight for weight, it fetched a higher price in China. Lucas: The first European to sight Timor was probably António de Abreu in 1512, part of the same expedition that reached the Banda Islands. But it wasn't until 1515 that the Portuguese actually landed and began trading. And here's the thing — they didn't conquer. They negotiated. Luna: So they worked with local chiefs? Lucas: Exactly. The island was divided into dozens of small kingdoms, each ruled by a liurai. The Portuguese made alliances, offered protection, and set up trading posts. The sandalwood would be gathered by Timorese labour and shipped to Malacca and Macau. In return, the liurai got prestige goods and firearms — which, of course, shifted the balance of power between rival kingdoms. Lucas: This is a good moment to mention that this show is entirely listener-supported. There are no ads, no sponsors — just a small group of people who chip in monthly at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. That's what makes it possible to keep digging into these lesser-known stories. Luna: And we're glad they do, because this is fascinating. Lucas: Anyway — back to Timor. The Portuguese presence was never a full colonial administration at first. It was more like a loose network of traders and Dominican friars. The Dominicans arrived in the 1560s and became crucial intermediaries. They learned local languages, baptised many liurai, and sometimes even led militias. By the early 1600s, they were the de facto Portuguese representatives on the ground. Luna: What about the Dutch? They were everywhere in the East Indies. Lucas: The Dutch East India Company, the VOC, reached Timor around the same time, and they saw the sandalwood trade as theirs for the taking. They tried to push the Portuguese out — first through blockades, then through direct attacks. In 1613, the Dutch captured the main Portuguese settlement at Lifau, on the north coast. The Portuguese retreated inland, but they didn't leave. Lucas: For the next 150 years, the island was a battleground. The Portuguese and Dutch fought through proxies — backing different liurai, arming rival factions. It was a classic colonial proxy war, but with sandalwood as the prize. And the Timorese weren't passive victims — some kingdoms switched sides strategically, playing both powers off each other. Lucas: One group that emerged out of this chaos were the Topasses — a mixed-race population of Portuguese, Timorese, and other Asian descent, often led by Dominican-trained leaders. They became powerful warlords, controlling large parts of the island independently of Lisbon or Batavia. Luna: So they were like local power brokers? Lucas: Exactly. The most famous Topasse leader was Mateus da Costa, who in the late 1600s essentially ruled a domain of his own. He even sent his own ambassadors to Lisbon. The Portuguese Crown had little control over him — they were happy as long as the sandalwood kept flowing. Lucas: But by the 1700s, the sandalwood was running out. Overharvesting had depleted the forests. The economic value of Timor dropped sharply. Meanwhile, the Dutch were consolidating their hold on the western half of the island. In 1749, a major battle at Coupang saw the Portuguese and their Timorese allies decisively defeated by the Dutch and their allies. Luna: That sounds like it could have ended Portuguese Timor right there. Lucas: It nearly did. But the Portuguese held on to the eastern half, partly because the Dutch were more interested in Java and the Spice Islands than in a depleted sandalwood island. And partly because the Dominicans and Topasses kept up resistance. In 1769, the Portuguese moved their capital from Lifau to a more defensible eastern site — Dili, which is still the capital of East Timor today. Lucas: From that point on, Portuguese Timor became a sleepy backwater of the empire. It was ruled by a governor appointed from Goa, but the real power remained with the liurai and the church. The colony barely paid for itself — it survived on subsidies from Macau and later from Lisbon. Luna: And the border with Dutch West Timor — when did that get fixed? Lucas: Not until 1914, surprisingly. The final treaty was signed in The Hague, after centuries of skirmishes and negotiations. It drew a line down the middle of the island that remains the border between independent East Timor and Indonesian West Timor today. So in a way, the Portuguese era literally carved the map of modern Timor. Lucas: One last thing — the longest-lasting colony in Asia ended not with a war of independence, but with a sudden invasion. In 1975, after the Carnation Revolution in Lisbon, Portugal pulled out of Timor abruptly. Nine days later, Indonesia invaded. East Timor's struggle for independence would take another 24 years. But that's a story for another episode. Luna: It's amazing how a single island — and a single tree — could shape so much history. Lucas: Sandalwood brought the Portuguese, but it was the Timorese who kept them there, through alliance and resistance. It's a reminder that even the most forgotten corners of empire have their own complex, human stories.