ABSTRACT
Introduction This chapter examines the long historical background to the emergence of a sense of an ‘East Timorese’ identity, assessing evolving conceptions of political community from the pre-colonial era through to the turn of the twentieth century. Though it links these developments with the wider history of the island as a site of competitive colonialism and the repeated patterns of local Timorese resistance, the focus is on the evolution of ideas of political community. It examines indigenous conceptions of political community on the island of Timor, and the way these ideas evolved in contact with Portuguese and Dutch traders, missionaries, and colonial authorities from the early sixteenth century to the end of the nineteenth century. Before the intensification of colonial power in the early twentieth century, the early colonial era was one characterized by forms of indirect rule, in which the traditional governance of Timorese reinos remained largely intact, pledging fealty to the Portuguese or Dutch or in open resistance to their influence. This pattern of shifting alliances and periodic wars was nonetheless transformative to forms of collective identity on the island, as trading relationships, missionary influence, interactions with colonial authority, and the arrival of the mixed-race Topasses impacted upon traditional political communities and their governance over time. In examining these influences, this chapter also surveys the historical evidence for supra-local indigenous affiliations on the island of Timor. It concludes with a general assessment of the impacts of the first three hundred years of Portuguese colonialism on the development of collective identity in East Timor.
