ABSTRACT
In 1642, Francisco Fernandes led a Portuguese military expedition to weaken the power of the Timor kings. Comprised primarily of Topasses, the ‘black Portuguese’ mestizos from neighboring Flores, his small army of musketeers settled in Timor, extending Portuguese influence into the interior. In 1941, Australia sent a small commando force into Portuguese Timor to counter the Japanese, deliberately breaching the colony’s neutral status. Although the military initiative angered neutral Portugal and dragged Portuguese Timor into the Pacific War, it slowed the Japanese expansion. Australia’s success was largely due to the support it received from the locals, for whom the cost was phenomenal. Indonesia opposed the formation of an independent East Timor, and the leftist Fretilin raised the specter of Communism. The full-scale invasion of the former colony came one day after Henry Kissinger and Gerald Ford departed Jakarta, having tacitly given their assent.
