section_path: History/Portuguese era (1769–1975)
section_name: Portuguese era (1769–1975)
paragraph_text: Portuguese era (1769–1975)
  
  Early Portuguese presence on Timor was very limited; trade was directed through Portuguese settlements on nearby islands. Only in the 17th century did they establish a more direct presence on the island, a consequence of being driven out of other islands by the Dutch.: 267 After Solor was lost in 1613, the Portuguese moved to Flores. In 1646, the capital moved to Kupang on Timor's west, before Kupang too was lost to the Dutch in 1652. The Portuguese then moved to Lifau, in what is now Timor-Leste's Oecusse exclave.: 90 Effective European occupation in the east of the island only began in 1769, when the city of Dili was founded, although actual control remained highly limited. A definitive border between the Dutch and Portuguese parts of the island was established by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in 1914 and remains the international boundary between the successor states Indonesia and Timor-Leste, respectively.
  
  For the Portuguese, East Timor remained little more than a neglected trading post, with minimal investment in infrastructure and education, until the late nineteenth century. Even when Portugal established actual control over the interior of its colony, investment remained minimal.: 269, 273 Sandalwood continued to be the main export crop and coffee exports became significant in the mid-nineteenth century.
  
  At the beginning of the twentieth century, a faltering domestic economy prompted the Portuguese to extract greater wealth from its colonies, which was met with East Timorese resistance. The colony was seen as an economic burden during the Great Depression and received little support or management from Portugal.: 269
  
  During World War II, Dili was occupied by the Allies in 1941, and later by the Japanese beginning in 1942. The mountainous interior of the colony became the scene of a guerrilla campaign, known as the Battle of Timor. Waged by East Timorese volunteers and Allied forces against the Japanese, the struggle killed between 40,000 and 70,000 East Timorese civilians. The Japanese eventually drove the last of the Australian and Allied forces out in early 1943. Portuguese control resumed, however, after Japanese surrender at the end of World War II.
  
  Portugal began investment in the colony in the 1950s, funding education and promoting coffee exports, but the economy did not improve substantially and infrastructure improvements were limited.: 269 Yearly growth rates remained low, near 2%. Following the 1974 Portuguese revolution, Portugal effectively abandoned its colony in Timor, and civil war between East Timorese political parties broke out in 1975.
  
  The Revolutionary Front for an Independent East Timor (Fretilin) resisted a Timorese Democratic Union (UDT) coup attempt in August 1975, and unilaterally declared independence on 28 November 1975. Fearing a communist state within the Indonesian Archipelago, the Indonesian military launched an invasion of East Timor on 7 December 1975. Indonesia declared East Timor its 27th province on 17 July 1976. The United Nations Security Council opposed the invasion, and the territory's nominal status in the UN remained as "non-self-governing territory under Portuguese administration".