Exemplary centre and terra incognita : Excursions, diplomacy, and appropriation of colonial knowledge in Belu, Timor

• The article analyses European colonial knowledge and approaches to Belu, a region in Central Timor (now mostly in Indonesia). It scrutinizes the careers of three Dutch colonial representatives, A.G. Brouwer (fl. 1840s-1850s), Willem Leendert Rogge (1828-1884) and Hendrik Jan Grijzen (1870-1961). Belu had a particular position between the Dutch and Portuguese colonial realms, and was thoroughly colonised at a late stage, around the early 20th century. At the same time it was an exemplary centre in Timorese eyes, to which the other regions of Timor related themselves. Through the texts that the three authors left, we can see how they reviewed and sometimes misunderstood political conditions, diplomatic conventions, social hierarchies and economic prospects in Belu and paved the way for colonial subordination.

Subject headings

HUMANIORA  -- Historia och arkeologi -- Historia (hsv//swe)

HUMANITIES  -- History and Archaeology -- History (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Coloniality

diplomacy

Timor

Indonesia

Belu

exemplary centre

Historia

History

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

art (subject category)