José Celestino da Silva

José Celestino da Silva

José Celestino da Silva (born January 6, 1849 in Vilar de Nantes , Portugal , † February 10, 1911 in Lisbon , Portugal) was a Portuguese officer and colonial administrator. Between 1894 and 1908 he was governor of the Portuguese Timor colony . He was also an employee of Revista Militar and an editor at Universal , the party sheet of the Portuguese Regeneration Party ( Regeneradores ).

Life

Revolts and offensives in Portuguese Timor, 1894 to 1910

Until 1865 Silva was at the army school, which he graduated as the best in class. In 1869 he received the rank of ensign, in 1875 he was promoted to lieutenant and in 1883 to captain. At that time he served with the 2nd Cavalry of Lanceiros . Prince Carlos, who later became King Carlos I of Portugal , was assigned to him as ensign . A friendship arose from this relationship. In 1894 Silva became major and governor of Portuguese Timor. Under him the rule of the colonial power was consolidated. Contracts about their vassal status were concluded with several local kings ( Liurai ) and rebellious empires were crushed in three offensives between 1895 and 1900. Even so, he had to put down further rebellions in the years that followed. In total, Silva carried out more than 20 military actions during his tenure as governor. He has received several awards for his military achievements. In 1898 he was promoted to lieutenant colonel and finally a colonel in 1904.

See also : The War of Manufahi

From Celestino da Silva's point of view, future wars could only be prevented if the military, civil officials and the missionaries did a good job. Under Silva, the district tax, which had previously been levied in kind, was changed to a poll tax. He founded schools in different parts of the colony, in which the population was taught the basics of agriculture in order to apply them to coffee cultivation for export. Silva set up a regular ship connection to Macau and had a telephone network of 300 km built in the colony. In addition, new markets were established. The marshes of Dili were drained and a water supply was installed, and in 1906 a modern hospital was built.

However, Silva also used his office as governor to enrich himself, both at the expense of the Portuguese state and at the expense of the Timorese residents. He was involved in, or owned by, almost all of the private plantation companies that came into being for the first time in his reign. These were illegally supplied with Timorese forced laborers by the governor. The company that last had extensive monopolies in the colony, the Sociedade Agrícola Pátria e Trabalho (SAPT), was largely owned by Silva's descendants as late as the 1930s. He also used the administration for his own purposes. Some historians believe that Silva ruled Portuguese Timor as if it were his private property. Contemporary critics mockingly called him the "King of Timor" . Others believe that without him and the reforms he introduced, Portugal would have lost its colony.

It was only when Silva's friend King Carlos I was assassinated in 1908 that the governor was to be recalled. It was feared that Silva would not voluntarily vacate his post, which is why Silva's successor Eduardo Augusto Marques was accompanied by the Director General for Overseas, Captain Gonçalo Pereira Pimenta de Castro , who should arrest Silva in an emergency. For health reasons, however, he had meanwhile appointed Captain Jaime Viera da Rocha as acting governor and had traveled to Australia with his wife . When Silva returned to Dili , he even offered to help Marques, since Castro's father, General Joaquim Pimenta de Castro, was a friend of Silva. Silva's sick wife died on the way home. After Silva's return to Portugal, he never had to answer for the allegations raised by various sides. He became the commander of the 7th Cavalry Regiment in Almeida . In 1910, after the proclamation of the republic, with the rank of general, Silva was retired at her own request. José Celestino da Silva died a year later.

Awards

Governor Celestino da Silva visits the kingdom of Viqueque . The governor stands at the flagpole, next to him the ruler Brigadeiro D. Mateus da Costa Rangel Sarmento Pinto.

Silva was a knight of Avis and holder of the tower and sword order . For his achievements in Timor , he was awarded the gold medal for military merits and the gold medal of Queen Amélie . Rua General José Celestino da Silva street in Lisbon is named after the governor. In the 1930s the place Hatolia Vila was renamed by the Portuguese in Vila Celestino or Vila Celestino da Silva . But the name did not catch on and a few years after the Second World War , the old name was reverted to. Silva was also featured on the colony's 1959 30 Escudo note.

family

Silva was married to Amélia Coelho de Montalvão . His wife died on the return journey from Timor. They had two sons and four daughters: Júlio Celestino de Montalvão e Silva (* 1873), Maria Alda Montalvão Santos Silva (* 1877), Leopoldina Augusta de Montalvão e Silva José da Rocha Carvalho , Adozinda Montalvão e Silva (* 1878), Manuel Celestino Montalvão e Silva (* 1879) and Alcina da Conceição de Montalvão e Silva .

literature

• Grande Enciclopédia Portuguesa e Brasileira Esteves Pereira / Guilherme Rodrigues: Portugal: Diccionario Historico Chorographico, Biographico, Bibliographico, Heraldico, Numismatico e Artistico, Vol. VII, Lisboa 1915 Zola: Quartorze Annos de Timor, Dili 1909.

Web links

• Ilustres Esquecidos -General José Celestino da Silva (Portuguese)

supporting documents

• History of Timor - Technical University of Lisbon (PDF file; 805 kB)
• Monika Schlicher: Portugal in East Timor. A critical examination of the Portuguese colonial history in East Timor from 1850 to 1912 . Abera, Hamburg 1996, ISBN 3-931567-08-7 , ( Abera Network Asia-Pacific 4), (also: Heidelberg, Univ., Diss., 1994).

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} GeneAll.net
2. ^ Frédéric Durand: Three centuries of violence and struggle in East Timor (1726-2008) , Online Encyclopedia of Mass Violence
3. ^ Frédéric B. Durand: History of Timor-Leste, p. 68, ISBN 9786162151248 .
4. ^ WG Clarence-Smith: Planters and small holders in Portuguese Timor in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries , East Timor Agriculture Network and Virtual Library, London, March 1992 ( Memento of the original from February 2, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and not yet tested. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
5. ^ Codigo Postal
6. ↑ Geoffrey Hull : The placenames of East Timor , in: Placenames Australia (ANPS): Newsletter of the Australian National Placenames Survey, June 2006, pp. 6 & 7, ( Memento of the original from February 14, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. accessed on September 28, 2014. 
7. ↑ Picture of the 30 escudo note

predecessor	Office	successor
Porfírio Zeferino de Sousa	Governor of Portuguese Timor 1894–1908	Jaime Viera da Rocha