page_title: West Timor
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: West Timor / History
caption_attribution_description: Nederlands: Negatief. Het hoofd van Molo met zijn gevolg op bezoek bij de posthouder van Babaoe, Timor
context_page_description: West Timor is an area covering the western part of Timor island, except for the district of Oecussi-Ambeno. Administratively, West Timor is part of East Nusa Tenggara Province, Indonesia. The capital as well as its main port is Kupang. During the colonial period, the area was named Dutch Timor and was a centre of Dutch loyalists during the Indonesian National Revolution. From 1949 to 1975 it was named Indonesian Timor.
  The total area of West Timor is 16,264.78 km². The highest peaks are Mount Mutis, 2,427 meters above sea level, and Mount Lakaan, 1,600 meters above sea level.
  The main languages of West Timor, Dawan, Marae and Tetun, as well as several other languages, such as Kemak, Bunak and Helong, are also used in East Timor. The other three languages which are only used in the local area of the Austronesian language group from the Fabron branches are Ndao, Rote and Sabu.
  West Timor was a refugee shelter from 1998 to 2002, due to the prolonged East Timor conflict. Some of the most populous cities are Kupang City with over 400,000 inhabitants, Atambua Town with over 86,000 inhabitants, Kefamenanu Town with over 40,000 inhabitants, Soe City with over 40,000 inhabitants.
context_section_description: European colonization of Timor began in the 16th century. Although the Portuguese claimed the island of Timor in 1520, the Dutch (in the form of the Dutch East India Company) settled West Timor in 1640, forcing the Portuguese out to East Timor. The subsequent collapse of the company meant that in 1799, the area returned to official Dutch rule. Finally, in 1914, the border between East and West Timor was finalized by a treaty between Portugal and the Netherlands that was originally signed in 1859 and modified in 1893.
  West Timor had the status of residentie within the Dutch East Indies.
  Japan conquered the island during World War II in early 1942. Upon Indonesian independence, West Timor became part of the new Republic of Indonesia.
  On 6 September 2000, Pero Simundza from Croatia, Carlos Caceres-Collazio from Puerto Rico and Samson Aregahegn from Ethiopia – all UNHCR staff members – were killed in an attack by 5,000 members of a pro-Indonesian militia, armed with machetes, on the office of UNHCR in the town of Atambua, which is in the vicinity of the border with East Timor and where the main refugee camp was located (see attacks on humanitarian workers).
caption: Molo chief with delegation visiting Dutch representative in Babau.
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