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Thursday, February 11, 2010

East Timor


Hi! This is Tong Hoe and Isaac and we will be telling you about East Timor!

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Hi, this is Tong Hoe and Isaac, we are here to tell you about East Timor!

Capital: Dili

Official Languages: Tetum & Porturguese

Government: Parliamentary Republic
President: José Ramos-Horta


Prime Minister: Xanana Gusmão


Established: 1702
Declared: November 28, 1975
Recognized: May 20, 2002
Population: 1 134 000

Timor Leste is a country in Southeast Asia. It comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor, the nearby islands of Atauro and Jaco, and Oecusse, an exclave on the northwestern side of the island, within Indonesian West Timor.

East Timor was colonized by Portugal in the 16th century, and was known as Portuguese Timor until Portugal's decolonization of the country. In late 1975, East Timor declared its independence, but later that year was invaded and occupied by Indonesia and was declared Indonesia's 27th province the following year. In 1999, following the United Nations-sponsored act of self-determination, Indonesia relinquished control of the territory and East Timor became the first new sovereign state of the 21st century on May 20, 2002. East Timor is one of only two predominantly Roman Catholic countries in Asia, the other being the Philippines.

East Timor is a lower-middle-income economy. It continues to suffer the aftereffects of a decades-long independence struggle against Indonesia, which damaged infrastructure and displaced thousands of civilians.

The island of Timor was originally populated as part of the human migrations that have shaped Australasia more generally. It is believed that descendants from at least three waves of migration still live in the country. The first were related to the principal indigenous groups of New Guinea and Australia, and arrived before 40,000 years ago. Around 3000 BC, Austronesians migrated to Timor, and are possibly associated with the development of agriculture there. Thirdly, proto-Malays arrived from south China and north Indochina. The mountainous terrain kept these groups separated, and this is why there is so much linguistic diversity in East Timor today!

Hope you felt this was interesting and thanks for reading!



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