The failed decolonisation of Portuguese Timor, 1974–75: beyond the Macau Summit

Résumé fourni par la source

While most Portuguese colonies moved towards independence through decolonisation managed by Lisbon’s provisional government, Portuguese Timor followed a markedly different trajectory. A growing body of interpretation attributes the collapse of decolonisation primarily to Fretilin’s absence from the Macau Summit. This article challenges that view by locating the breakdown of decolonisation in the wider political field that preceded Macau. Rather than reducing the failure of decolonisation to a single episode, it traces it to the period from the Carnation Revolution of April 1974 to Indonesia’s invasion on 7 December 1975. The article draws on Portuguese and Australian diplomatic records, contemporary reporting, memoirs, and the existing historiography. The article argues that the decisive problem was not one absence alone but the cumulative effect of political drift in Lisbon, competing Timorese projects, Indonesian intervention and Cold War alignments that progressively narrowed the space for an autonomous Timorese outcome. By reconstructing these interlocking dynamics, the article offers a broader explanation for the failed decolonisation of Portuguese Timor and for the contested exercise of self-determination in 1974–75.

Ce résumé expose les affirmations des auteurs. BNTIC ne l’interprète pas comme une validation indépendante des résultats.