Moradores
Moradores (singular: Morador ; Portuguese for residents ) was the name for various military units of the Portuguese .
origin
King Sancho I of Portugal (1185–1211) founded peasant cavalry to defend the individual districts of the young kingdom. The Moradores were only gradually replaced by regular armed forces until the last units under Manuel I (1495-1521) were dissolved.
Moradores in the colonies
Various military units that were recruited from locals in the Portuguese colonies were also known as Moradores.
On the east coast of Africa, blacks converted to Christianity defended the Portuguese bases as Moradores. Similar units existed in Brazil and the possessions in Asia.
Portuguese Timor
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In Portuguese Timor , native Timorese served , recruited by the loyal Liurais , the traditional rulers, proportionally according to the population of each empire of the colony. As arraias , irregular auxiliary troops, they together with the Bidau and the Sica formed the majority of the Portuguese armed forces on Timor. All three groups lived in their own neighborhoods in the capital Dili .
From 1860 Timorese were grouped together as Moradores in one company, but retained their status as irregular armed forces. They received no pay or uniforms. In the 1880s there were also Moradores in Batugade (with those in Dili 70 people) and in Manatuto (56 people).
In 1887 the Moradores revolted , in which the Portuguese governor Alfredo de Lacerda Maia was murdered. At that time, only 100 to 150 European soldiers were stationed in the colony. The number of Moradores and Indian soldiers was about the same. The revolt was finally put down.
Under Governor José Celestino da Silva (1894–1908) the Moradores received their own uniform for the first time, borrowed from the local costume. But after the Portuguese defeated the Manufahi rebellion , the colonial power gained total control of their possessions. The Moradores were no longer needed and the units disbanded.
Today these associations are folkloric groups that appear at celebrations in East Timor , comparable to the Bavarian mountain riflemen . They are considered to be the traditional origin of the professional Timorese army .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d Monika Schlicher: Portugal in East Timor. A critical examination of the Portuguese colonial history in East Timor from 1850 to 1912. Aberag, Hamburg 1996. ISBN 3-934376-08-8
- ↑ a b Geoffrey C. Gunn: History of Timor ( Memento of the original from March 24, 2009 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. - Lisbon Technical University (PDF file; 805 kB)
