The Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste declared Independence Day on November 28. This day is a celebration of the 1975 proclamation of independence from Portugal.
The Portuguese were the first Europeans to come to the area in the early 1500s. After that, Christian missionaries arrived for the next hundred years, followed by a military group. By 1702, the territory had become a Portuguese colony known as Portuguese Timor.
The Portuguese never thought of it as a key strategic colony, yet they nonetheless ruled it until the 1970s.
In 1974, the Carnation Revolution in Portugal put an end to the dictatorship and transformed how the government interacted with its regions outside of Portugal.
Portugal handled Timor very well. Fretlin, the Revolutionary Front for an Independent East Timor, was apprehensive about this. They preferred Portuguese rule even if their name suggests otherwise because they were concerned (and they were right) that Indonesia would try to take over the country if Portugal left.
The left-wing Fretlin said on November 28, 1975, that the Democratic Republic of East Timor was its own country. It was significant that few other nations supported the announcement; only a few Marxist countries accepted the territory's independence from Portugal.
The proclamation of independence was short-lived. Nine days later, Indonesia invaded, and for the next 25 years, East Timor was part of Indonesia.
