Abstract
This chapter describes the economic, political and social development of East Timor until the mid-eighteenth century. Immigrants from Melanesia and from Asia populated Timor and formed societies based on kinship and locality. A variety of food crops was introduced into a system of slash-and-burn shifting agriculture, which has persisted up to modern times, an agricultural system which interacted with the political system through the payment of tributes. The arrival of Europeans started a process that did not end until Timor was colonized by the Portuguese. The main attraction for foreign powers was large stands of sandalwood, which was traded globally. However, East Timor remained a peripheral country with a low economic integration with other regions.
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Notes
- 1.
De Sousa (1998, p. 5).
- 2.
For an alternative, see, e.g., Jannisa (1997, pp. 39–40).
- 3.
Government of Timor-Leste (2013).
- 4.
Durand (2006, p. 35).
- 5.
Jannisa (1997, pp. 42–43) and Maps of World (2013).
- 6.
Sowash (1948, pp. 227–28).
- 7.
Jannisa (1997, p. 43).
- 8.
Durand (2006, p. 42).
- 9.
Lawson (1989, p. 1).
- 10.
Dunn (1983, p. 15).
- 11.
Oliveira (1949) deals with the history of Portuguese Timor from the earliest days to 1860 in incredible detail. The book and its two companion volumes (Oliveira 1950, 1952) are, however, difficult to use, because of ‘all their defects of organization and method, blinding prejudice, ultra-nationalism, lacunae, and frequently errors of dates and figures’ (Pélissier 1996, p. 14).
- 12.
Glover (1971, p. 177).
- 13.
Ibid., 159. Cf. Glover (1986).
- 14.
O’Connor et al. (2002).
- 15.
O’Connor (2007) and Marwick et al. (2016).
- 16.
O’Connor et al. (2011).
- 17.
O’Connor (2007, p. 525).
- 18.
Allen and O’Connell (2003) and O’Connell and Allen (2004).
- 19.
O’Connor et al. (2002, pp. 45–46, 49), Allen and O’Connell (2008), and O’Connor and Hiscock (2014, pp. 3–4).
- 20.
O’Connor and Hiscock (2014, p. 4). The suggestion by O’Connell and Allen (2012, p. 7) that the entire northern arc of the Wallacean archipelago (4500 kilometers) should have been traversed in a millennium or less has been criticized as ‘an illusion … due to inadequate sampling’ by O’Connor and Hiscock (2014, p. 5).
- 21.
Bellwood (1998).
- 22.
O’Connor and Hiscock (2014, p. 5). The literature surveyed there ends in 2014.
- 23.
Gomes et al. (2015, p. 1).
- 24.
Ibid., pp. 8–9.
- 25.
Schapper (2014, p. 7).
- 26.
Ibid., p. 5.
- 27.
Ibid., pp. 6–7.
- 28.
Hull (2004a, pp. 27–40).
- 29.
Ibid., pp. 47–67.
- 30.
Ibid., p. 27.
- 31.
McWilliam and Traube (2011, p. 6) and Kingsbury (2009, pp. 27–28). The Austronesian peoples are those that speak or had ancestors that spoke Austronesian languages. They include the Taiwanese aborigines and the majority ethnic groups of Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Brunei, Madagascar and Micronesia, and the Polynesians of Oceania plus the Polynesian peoples of New Zealand and Hawaii and the non-Papuans of Melanesia. The Austronesian language family may be the world’s largest, with around 1200 languages (Tryon 2006, p. 19). For a detailed discussion, see, e.g., Bellwood, Fox and Tryon (2006).
- 32.
Bellwood (1998, 2004, 2006, 2007).
- 33.
Hill et al. (2007).
- 34.
A haplotype is a group of genes in an organism that are inherited together from a single parent, and a haplogroup is a set of similar haplotypes, inherited together.
- 35.
Sundaland is a biogeographical region which contains the Malayan Peninsula, Kalimantan, Sumatra, Java and Bali, which during the last Ice Age (110,000–12,000 years ago) formed a continuous land area.
- 36.
Wallacea extends across the Indonesian islands from the eastern border of Sundaland to Sahul New Guinea. It includes Timor.
- 37.
Soares et al. (2008, p. 1215).
- 38.
Ibid., p. 1216 and cf. also Pugach and Stoneking (2015).
- 39.
Jinam et al. (2012). Cf. Lipson et al. (2014).
- 40.
Vallée et al. (2016, p. 1504).
- 41.
Ko et al. (2014).
- 42.
Xu et al. (2012).
- 43.
A genome is an organism’s complete set of DNA, including all its genes, i.e., the complete genetic material of the organism.
- 44.
Lipson et al. (2014).
- 45.
Ibid., p. 4.
- 46.
Hull (2004b). Hull (1998) provides an overview of the linguistic situation of the entire island, but only lists thirteen languages in East Timor.
- 47.
For example, Durand (2006, p. 47) and Williams-van Klinken and Williams (2015). Much depends on what is considered dialects and full-fledged languages.
- 48.
Schapper (2014, p. 2). It has been claimed that Adabe, spoken on the island of Ataúro, should also be a Papuan language. However, writes Schapper (ibid., note, p. 2): ‘A visit by myself to Adabe village on Atauro in 2007 yielded no trace of a Papuan language’ (cf. Hull 2004a, p. 25).
- 49.
Durand (2006, p. 48).
- 50.
Fox (2003a, p. 20).
- 51.
Ibid., p. 21.
- 52.
Hägerdal (2012, p. 51).
- 53.
Ibid.
- 54.
Traube (1995, p. 44) and De Matos (1974, p. 106).
- 55.
Cf. Jannisa (1997, p. 74).
- 56.
Leach (2017, pp. 20–21).
- 57.
Ibid., p. 21.
- 58.
De Matos (1974, pp. 106–7).
- 59.
Shepherd (2014, p. 5). The term slave may be a bit strong. ‘The so-called slaves would better be called “dependents.” … they were regarded as members of the family. They could buy their freedom and be freed. When this happened, they assumed the status of their former master. If the latter was a nobleman, the slave would also become a dato ’ (Durand 2016, p. 30).
- 60.
Hägerdal (2012, p. 52).
- 61.
Ibid.
- 62.
Ibid., pp. 21–22.
- 63.
Molnar (2010, p. 26).
- 64.
Traube (1995, pp. 44–45).
- 65.
Molnar (2010, p. 26).
- 66.
Fox (2003a, p. 16).
- 67.
De Sousa (2001, p. 187).
- 68.
Molnar (2010, p. 26). Schulte Nordholt (1971, pp. 227–33) lists borderland disputes (e.g., over sandalwood tree stands or trees with bees’ nests), cattle raids, failure to bring harvest gifts to the ruler, unwillingness to give up tribute-paying territory, crimes and succession disputes as causes of war.
- 69.
Hägerdal (2012, pp. 52–53).
- 70.
Fox (2003a, p. 17).
- 71.
Hägerdal (2012, pp. 54–55).
- 72.
Jannisa (1997, p. 67).
- 73.
Hägerdal (2012, pp. 57–60). It is possible to speak of the existence of an early state organization of these four conditions are met, according to Claessen and Oosten (1996).
- 74.
Schulte Nordholt (1971, p. 159).
- 75.
Ibid.
- 76.
Ibid., p. 233.
- 77.
Gunn (2011, pp. 175–76).
- 78.
Hägerdal (2012, p. 65).
- 79.
Ibid., p. 69.
- 80.
Ibid., p. 78.
- 81.
Ibid., p. 82.
- 82.
Taylor (1999, p. 5).
- 83.
Fox (1977, p. 74).
- 84.
Ibid.
- 85.
Ibid., pp. 74–77; more detailed in Fox (2003b, pp. 106–7).
- 86.
Oliveira (2008, p. 246).
- 87.
Eccles (2004, pp. 181, 180, 182, 185). The Chinese quotations are in italic in the original.
- 88.
Bellwood (2007, pp. 244–45). Cf. Spencer (1966, note, p. 60, 111–14, 117, 152).
- 89.
Oliveira (2008, p. 246).
- 90.
Latinis (2000).
- 91.
Oliveira (2008, p. 248).
- 92.
Fox (1977, p. 76).
- 93.
Hägerdal (2012, note, p. 125).
- 94.
Fox (2003b, p. 108).
- 95.
Oliveira (2008, p. 246).
- 96.
Jannisa (1997, p. 78). Cf. Ormeling (1956, pp. 104–6).
- 97.
Taylor (1999, pp. 5–6), Traube (1995, p. 43), and Shepherd (2014, p. 5).
- 98.
Taylor (1999, p. 6).
- 99.
Ibid., pp. 6, 7.
- 100.
Ibid.
- 101.
Ibid., p. 8.
- 102.
Ibid., p. 7.
- 103.
Wolters (1967, pp. 65–66). Cf. Glover (1971, p. 163).
- 104.
Leach (2017, p. 25). As stated by Jannisa (1997, p. 281), no myths relating the creation of Timor ‘mention islands of Inner Indonesia as the place or origin and no myths depict any affiliations with mighty kingdoms further west in the archipelago, such as Srivijaya or Majapahit …’ For the latter two realms, see ibid., pp. 57–63.
- 105.
Ormeling (1956, pp. 94–95).
- 106.
Ibid., p. 95, Eccles (2004, p. 181), and De Roever (2002, pp. 50–53). The Chinese probably had not visited Timor at this time.
- 107.
This claim was widely exaggerated. As it seems, no more than 0.02% of the surface of Timor (around 100,000 trees) was ever covered with sandalwood (De Roever 2002, p. 287).
- 108.
Quoted by Eccles (2004, pp. 179–80, Italics in the original). Cf. Ptak (1987, p. 37). Wang also makes some remarks about the moral state of Timor: ‘The customs are indecent. Men and women cut their hair short, and they wear short skirts of bark cloth, and tie on clot from Cham [in present-day Cambodia] … The women have no sense of shame. They eat without restraint and indulge in sex, and when they have had too much to drink they lie down without covering themselves’ (quoted by Eccles 2004, p. 180, italics in the original). As Lance Eccles (2004, p. 179) remarks, however, the fact that Wang was ‘particularly censorious with respect to the women … may in fact be sexual curiosity masquerading as moral righteousness.’
- 109.
Ptak (1987, pp. 37–38), Ormeling (1956, p. 95), and Durand (2016, p. 24).
- 110.
Ma Huan (1970), Mills (1970), and Levathes (1994).
- 111.
Ptak (1987, p. 37).
- 112.
Abu-Lughod (1989, pp. 321–22, 343–47).
- 113.
De Roever (2002, p. 351).
- 114.
Marques (1972a, p. 232).
- 115.
Boxer (1969, pp. 39–40).
- 116.
Newitt (2005, p. 75).
- 117.
Marques (1972a, p. 233).
- 118.
Hall (1981, p. 264).
- 119.
McIntyre (1977, p. 54).
- 120.
Marques (1972a, pp. 233–35).
- 121.
Boxer (1969, p. 41).
- 122.
Ibid., p. 49.
- 123.
Schwartz (2007, p. 20).
- 124.
Ricklefs (1993, p. 23).
- 125.
Ibid., p. 19.
- 126.
Subrahmanyam (1993, p. 13).
- 127.
McIntyre (1977, p. 55).
- 128.
Leitão (1948, pp. 27–28) and McIntyre (1977, pp. 55–56).
- 129.
Marques (1972a, p. 229).
- 130.
Gunn (1999, pp. 54–55).
- 131.
Pires (1944, note, p. 203). The map is reproduced in ibid., Plate XXVII, following p. 208. Timor is at the very bottom of the map.
- 132.
McIntyre (1977, p. 57).
- 133.
De Matos (1974, p. 37).
- 134.
Leitão (1948, p. 54).
- 135.
Ibid. Or in 1514 (Loureiro 2001, p. 146).
- 136.
De Matos (1974, p. 37).
- 137.
Pires (1944, p. 204). His biography is found in the introduction to the book.
- 138.
Ibid., p. 283.
- 139.
Barbosa (1921, p. 196).
- 140.
Ibid.
- 141.
Molnar (2010, p. 26).
- 142.
Loureiro (2001, p. 146).
- 143.
Ptak (1987, p. 38).
- 144.
Cinatti (1950, p. 3).
- 145.
Cácegas (1866, pp. 339, 340).
- 146.
Ptak (1987, p. 38).
- 147.
McIntyre (1977, p. 61).
- 148.
Gunn (1999, p. 57).
- 149.
Sowash (1948, p. 229).
- 150.
Pigafetta (1963, p. 136).
- 151.
Ibid.
- 152.
Ibid.
- 153.
Mitchell (1958, p. 74).
- 154.
Meilink-Roelofsz (1962, p. 153), however, maintains that the Chinese managed to hold their own in the trade with Timor, since they could supply goods which the Portuguese and the Javanese failed to obtain.
- 155.
Ptak (1987, pp. 38–39).
- 156.
Loureiro (2001, p. 147).
- 157.
De Matos (1974, p. 38).
- 158.
Boxer (1969, p. 63) and Marques (1972a, p. 234).
- 159.
Jannisa (1997, p. 100).
- 160.
Gunn (1999, pp. 57–58).
- 161.
Leitão (1948, p. 67) and Durand (2004, p. 37).
- 162.
Gunn (1999, p. 62).
- 163.
Ptak (1987, p. 39).
- 164.
Ormeling (1956, p. 97).
- 165.
Lains e Silva (1956, p. 14).
- 166.
Orta (1913, p. 395).
- 167.
Camões (2015, p. 344; 2008, p. 223) (Canto ten, verse 134).
- 168.
Boxer (1960, p. 351).
- 169.
Loureiro (2001, pp. 148–49).
- 170.
Ibid., p. 149.
- 171.
Durand (2016, pp. 40–42).
- 172.
Hägerdal (2012, p. 32).
- 173.
Ptak (1987, pp. 39–40).
- 174.
Ormeling (1956, pp. 97–98).
- 175.
Leitão (1948, pp. 107–8).
- 176.
Ibid., p. 108 and Sowash (1948, p. 230).
- 177.
Leitão (1948, p. 112) and Loureiro (2001, p. 150).
- 178.
Boxer (1973, p. 333).
- 179.
Ibid., p. 26.
- 180.
Newitt (2005, p. 204).
- 181.
Subrahmanyam (1993, pp. 213–14).
- 182.
Hägerdal (2012, pp. 34–35).
- 183.
Jannisa (1997, p. 107).
- 184.
Boxer (1973, p. 211).
- 185.
Loureiro (2001, p. 150).
- 186.
Pinto (1989, p. 46).
- 187.
Boxer (1969, p. 110).
- 188.
Newitt (2005, p. 235).
- 189.
Hägerdal (2012, p. 83).
- 190.
Newitt (2005, p. 191).
- 191.
Ptak (1987, p. 40) and Newitt (2005, p. 246).
- 192.
Boxer (1948, p. 176).
- 193.
De Roever (2002, p. 352).
- 194.
Leitão (1948, pp. 128–130, 297).
- 195.
Ibid., pp. 133–39.
- 196.
Ibid., pp. 207–15 and Gunn (1999, pp. 60–61).
- 197.
Boxer (1960, p. 351).
- 198.
Loureiro (2001, pp. 150–52).
- 199.
Ormeling (1956, p. 98).
- 200.
Ibid., pp. 98–99.
- 201.
De Roever (2002, p. 21).
- 202.
Ormeling (1956, p. 99).
- 203.
Hägerdal (2012, p. 36).
- 204.
Kammen (2015, p. 30).
- 205.
Subrahmanyam (1993, p. 209) and de Matos (1974, pp. 183–84).
- 206.
Hägerdal (2012, p. 92).
- 207.
Boxer (1973, p. 219).
- 208.
Newitt (2005, p. 235).
- 209.
Hägerdal (2012, p. 50).
- 210.
Schulte Nordholt (1971, pp. 163–64).
- 211.
Gunn (1999, p. 75).
- 212.
Schulte Nordholt (1971, pp. 163–64).
- 213.
Ibid., p. 164.
- 214.
Ibid., p. 165. Le’u means ‘sacred, holy, awe-inspiring, sacred object’ and le’u musu ‘le’u used against enemy, enmity le’u’ (ibid., p. 502).
- 215.
Hägerdal (2012, p. 89).
- 216.
Ibid., pp. 90–91.
- 217.
Gunn (2011, p. 176).
- 218.
Dunn (1983, p. 16).
- 219.
Boxer (1960, p. 351).
- 220.
Subrahmanyam (1993, p. 209).
- 221.
Boxer (1960, p. 351). The term is derived from the Dravidian word tupassi, interpreter.
- 222.
Ibid., pp. 351–52.
- 223.
Schulte Nordholt (1971, pp. 168–70).
- 224.
Ibid., p. 170.
- 225.
De Roever (2002, pp. 265–67). De Roever dates the battle to 1658. However, Hägerdal (2012, p. 122) has 1657. Both use the same source, a VOC report from 1658. ‘Arend De Roever has misdated the battle. This has to do with how the VOC reports are written. These normally relate things that have taken place during the period since the latest report was sent. A close reading of the material indicates that the report from 1658 speaks of an event that took place in 1657’ (e-mail from Hans Hägerdal to Mats Lundahl, 28 March 2018).
- 226.
Quoted by Schulte Nordholt (1971, p. 172).
- 227.
Hall (1981, p. 345).
- 228.
Boxer (1969, p. 111; 1973, p. 221).
- 229.
Gunn (1999, p. 78).
- 230.
De Matos (1974, p. 82).
- 231.
Hägerdal (2012, p. 126).
- 232.
Ormeling (1956, p. 100), Reid (1993, pp. 278–80), and Boxer (1973, p. 161).
- 233.
Reid (1993, p. 280).
- 234.
Ormeling (1956, p. 100).
- 235.
Hall (1981, pp. 348–49) and Boxer (1973, pp. 221–22).
- 236.
Leach (2017, p. 26).
- 237.
Ormeling (1956, pp. 99–100).
- 238.
Ibid., p. 101.
- 239.
Ibid., pp. 101–2.
- 240.
Ormeling (1956, p. 100).
- 241.
Cinatti (1950, p. 9).
- 242.
Ibid., p. 10.
- 243.
De Roever (2002, p. 352).
- 244.
Boxer (1948, p. 189).
- 245.
Ibid., pp. 189–90.
- 246.
De Matos (1974, p. 70).
- 247.
Hägerdal (2012, pp. 27, 30–31).
- 248.
Ibid., p. 48.
- 249.
De Matos (1974, p. 48).
- 250.
Ibid., pp. 57–58.
- 251.
Boxer (1948, p. 179) and de Matos (1974, pp. 51–54).
- 252.
Hägerdal (2012, p. 49).
- 253.
De Matos (1974, p. 70).
- 254.
Boxer (1948, p. 190).
- 255.
Durand (2004, p. 40).
- 256.
De Matos (1974, p. 70).
- 257.
Ibid., p. 76.
- 258.
Boxer (1948, pp. 190–92), quotation from p. 191.
- 259.
De Matos (1974, p. 84), Gunn (1999, p. 79), and Hägerdal (2012, pp. 312–13).
- 260.
Boxer (1960, p. 352).
- 261.
Loureiro (2001, p. 153).
- 262.
Schulte Nordholt (1971, p. 175).
- 263.
Quoted by Lains e Silva (1956, p. 22).
- 264.
De Matos (1974, p. 85).
- 265.
Leitão (1952, Chapter 2), provides a detailed treatment of Coelho Guerreiro’s period as governor (1702–1705).
- 266.
Dunn (1983, p. 17).
- 267.
Shepherd (2014, p. 6).
- 268.
Boxer (1960, p. 353).
- 269.
De Matos (1974, pp. 182–83), Gunn (1999, pp. 83–84), and Boxer (1948, pp. 195–96).
- 270.
Subrahmanyam (1993, p. 209).
- 271.
Dampier (1939, pp. 171–72).
- 272.
Hamilton (1727, p. 140).
- 273.
1500–2000 quintals. See S.ta Catharina (1867, p. 661) and Lains e Silva (1956, p. 22), for the conversion of quintals to tons.
- 274.
S.ta Catharina (1867, p. 662).
- 275.
Hägerdal (2012, pp. 316–44), provides the details.
- 276.
Boxer (1948, p. 192).
- 277.
Leitão (1952, p. 293). See ibid., Chapter 12, for details.
- 278.
Boxer (1960, p. 354).
- 279.
Boxer (1948, pp. 192–95) and Gunn (1999, pp. 95–99).
- 280.
Boxer (1948, p. 195).
- 281.
Gunn (1999, p. 100).
- 282.
Ibid., p. 104.
- 283.
Boxer (1960, pp. 353–54).
- 284.
Boxer (1948, p. 193).
- 285.
Boxer (1960, p. 354) and Hägerdal (2012, pp. 361–67).
- 286.
Hägerdal (2012, p. 366).
- 287.
Ibid., p. 367.
- 288.
Kammen (2015, pp. 43–44).
- 289.
Hägerdal (2006, p. 16).
- 290.
Boxer (1960, p. 354).
- 291.
Durand (2004, p. 46).
- 292.
Ibid., pp. 47–48.
- 293.
Boxer (1948, p. 197).
- 294.
Durand (2004, p. 48).
- 295.
Boxer (1948, pp. 197–98).
- 296.
De Matos (1993, p. 441).
- 297.
De Matos (1974, p. 180).
- 298.
Boxer (1960, p. 354).
- 299.
Ormeling (1956, p. 103).
- 300.
Ibid., p. 130.
- 301.
Ibid.
- 302.
Gunn (1999, p. 112). Cf. Ormeling (1956, p. 130).
- 303.
Boxer (1960, p. 354).
- 304.
De Matos (1974, p. 97).
- 305.
Gunn (1999, pp. 99–103).
- 306.
Kingsbury (2009, p. 33).
- 307.
De Matos (1974, p. 163).
- 308.
Caves and Holton (1959, p. 31).
- 309.
Hirschman (1958, Chapter 6; 1977).
- 310.
Ormeling (1956, p. 103).
- 311.
Findlay and Lundahl (2001) provides examples.
- 312.
De Matos (1974, pp. 165–68).
- 313.
Ibid., p. 173.
- 314.
Ibid., pp. 173–74.
- 315.
Ibid., p. 189.
- 316.
De Matos (1993, p. 443).
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Lundahl, M., Sjöholm, F. (2019). ‘Where the Sandalwood Is Born’: East Timor Until the Mid-Eighteenth Century. In: The Creation of the East Timorese Economy. Palgrave Studies in Economic History. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-19466-6_1
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