East Timor is one of the youngest nations of the World: it was admitted at the UN in 2002 under the name Timor-Leste. It shares the island of Timor, in the Lesser Sunda Islands, with Indonesia.
Timor's initial populations arrived from southeastern Asia. They comprised waves of Australoid, Melanesian, and Malay populations. The first Europeans to reach the region were the Portuguese, who created a colony in Dili in the late 1700s. Portuguese Timor remained under colonial rule until 1975, at which time Portugal lost all its colonies in close order. While East Timor declared independence, it was soon invaded by Indonesia, which annexed it as part of its Lesser Sunda Province.
The local population never accepted the domination of Indonesia, and when that country agreed to a UN-supervised referendum, the independence option passed with close to 80% of the vote. After a three year transition under the auspices of the UN, Timor-Leste reached full sovereignty on May 20, 2002.
More on Timor-Leste
East Timor in 2022
