Portuguese Timor was the name of East Timor when it was under Portuguese control. During this period, Portugal shared the island of Timor with the Netherlands East Indies, and later with Indonesia.

The first Europeans to arrive in the region were Portuguese in 1515.^{[citation needed]}Dominican friars established a presence on the island in 1556, and the territory was declared a Portuguese colony in 1702. Following a Lisbon-instigated decolonisation process in 1974, Indonesia invaded the territory in 1975 ending Portuguese rule. The invasion was never accepted by other countries so Portuguese Timor existed officially until independence of Timor-Leste in 2002.

Prior to the arrival of European colonial powers, the island of Timor was part of the trading networks that stretched between India and China and incorporating Maritime Southeast Asia. The island's large stands of fragrant sandalwood were its main commodity. The first European powers to arrive in the area were the Portuguese in the early sixteenth century followed by the Dutch in the late sixteenth century. Both came in search of the fabled Spice Islands of Maluku. Portuguese first landed near modern Pante Macassar,^{[citation needed]} and in 1556 a group of Dominican friars established the village of Lifau.

José Maria Vasconcelos, popularly known by his nom de guerre Taur Matan Ruak (Tetum for "Two Sharp Eyes") is an East Timorese politician who has been President of East Timor since 20 May 2012. Before entering politics, he was the Commander of the FALINTIL-Forças de Defesa de Timor-Leste (F-FDTL), the military of East Timor, from 2002 until 6 October 2011. Prior to serving in the F-FDTL, he was the last commander of the Armed Forces of National Liberation of East Timor or FALINTIL (Forças Armadas para a Liberação Nacional de Timor Leste), the insurgent army which resisted the Indonesian occupation of the territory from 1975 to 1999.

Leaving the military in 2011, he stood as an independent candidate in the 2012 presidential election and prevailed in the second round of the vote, held in April 2012.

On 7 December 1975, when Indonesia invaded East Timor, Taur Matan Ruak took to the hills with the recently formed FRETILIN Army, FALINTIL. As a combatant, he participated in battles against the Indonesian military in Dili, Aileu, Maubisse, Ossu, Venilale, Uatulari and finally in Laga on the northeastern coast, where he eventually stayed. Major-General Ruak’s first official FALINTIL appointment was at the end of 1976. From 1976 to 1979, he rose through the FALINTIL ranks in the two eastern military sectors, the Central East Sector and the Eastern Point, or the Ponta Leste Sector. Then he became a company commander.

Kirsty Sword Gusmão (born Kirsty Sword 19 April 1966) is married to Xanana Gusmão, Prime Minister and former President of the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste or East Timor. She is the founding director of the Alola Foundation, which seeks to improve the lives of women in Timor-Leste, a nation with one of the world's lowest per capita GDP.

Sword Gusmão was born in 1966 in Melbourne, Australia, to schoolteachers Brian and Rosalie Sword, and was raised there and in Bendigo. Sword Gusmão attended Eaglehawk Primary School, where her father was the principal and her mother a music teacher in the 1970s. She was taught her first Indonesian words by her father when she was four years old. She was a promising ballet dancer, but decided not to pursue it as a career. As a teen, Sword Gusmão travelled to Bali and Jakarta with her father and brother. After Golden Square Secondary College, she attended Monash University and University of Melbourne in the 1980s where she completed a Bachelor of Arts (Honours), majoring in Indonesian and Italian, and a Diploma of Education. In 1985, while studying Indonesian at Monash, Sword Gusmão met Timor-Leste students and took up their struggle for independence. Her father Brian died in 1998.