East timor-nationalism and colonialism

Abstract

On November 25, 1975, one of the last of Portugal's colonial territories declared itself the independent Democratic Republic of East Timor. On December 7, 1975, 4,000-6,000 Indonesian troops landed in the capital of the country. So began a major military and political struggle that continues to this day as a nation of 950,000 people resist the forced annexation and incorporation into a nation of 130 million. Despite massive supplies of United States military equipment on their side, the Indonesians have run into two difficult obstacles: the tortuously rugged terrain of an island that has fascinated geographers for the past two centuries, and the solid will and political organization of a people who had been written off by many observers and politicians as not likely to care too much one way or the other about who was governing them.