Topasse

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A Topas or Mardick with his wife (J. Nieuhof in the 17th century)

The Topasse (also Black Portuguese or Bidau ) are descendants of Indian and Malay women and mainly Portuguese soldiers, sailors and traders. Over time, the term was used for various mixed populations, but ultimately only referred to the Larantuqueiros , the Catholic mixed population on the Lesser Sunda Islands, among the Portuguese . There the Topasse succeeded in creating de facto independent, small empires within a generation in the 17th century, which until the 19th century were only nominally under the Portuguese crown. Dutch sources use the term topasse both for the mixed population and for natives who had adopted the Christian faith and lived in the European style.

The name Topasse is probably derived from the Malay topaz or Hindi word dobashi , which means something like "two languages" or "translator". Another explanation is derived from the word topi for a hat. Accordingly, the Topasse also called Gente de Chapeo ( port. : People of hats).

history

First reports

In 1604 the Dominican Gabriel Quiroga de San Antonio reported for the first time about "Topasse" on the Coromandel coast . In 1619 the Viceroy of India reported in a letter to the Portuguese court that due to the lack of Portuguese soldiers, topazes in the fort of Malacca would eliminate "annoying" Japanese , Javanese and Malays .

Dutch records from 1648 tell of a group of toupas alongside the mestizos , and after the Portuguese defeat on January 7, 1663 in Cochin , the rights of captured toupas were established. In 1690 the German Engelbert Kaempfer , who was in the Dutch service, reported about a village near Ayutthaya in what is now Thailand , in which a "Portuguese race with black women" lived together. The English captain Alexander Hamilton writes in his book in 1727 of 200 topasses, or Indian Portuguese , who settled in Cambodia .

Lesser Sunda Islands

The topasse of the Lesser Sunda Islands come from women from Larantuka on what is now the Indonesian islands of Flores and Solor and Portuguese, but also Dutch. Here they refer to themselves as Larantuqueiros .

According to Dutch reports, the Topasse ruled the ports on the north coast of Timor from Larantuka as early as 1623. The Topasse experienced a new beginning with the arrival of Jan da Hornay (also João de Hornay , d'Ornay , da Ornai , de Horney ). Mestizo himself, he was the Dutch commandant of the fortress on Solor from 1627, but two years later he defected to the Portuguese, whereupon the Portuguese Dominicans took control of Solor again. Hornay went to Larantuka, married a Timorese slave and founded a powerful family clan with his two sons António and Francisco . Mateus da Costa , a companion in arms of António da Hornay, married the daughter of a West Timorese ruler (depending on the source from Amanuban or Ambeno ) and founded the rival clan of the Costas. The clans united by marriage to many ruling families of West Timor, and some rulers adopted their family names in order to assert their authority.

On Flores, the Topasse founded their own loose but powerful state, which essentially consisted of the triad Larantuka, Wureh and Konga. The sovereignty of Portugal was only nominal. There were no Portuguese officials and no taxes were paid. Letters from the government in Lisbon were ignored. The Topasse exercised control over the original peoples of Flores by making them their "allies". The conquest of the individual peoples always proceeded according to the same pattern: The most respected Raja was converted to Catholicism through military pressure . He had to swear an oath of allegiance to the King of Portugal and was then awarded the title of Dom . The Raja could continue to rule his people autonomously, but auxiliary troops had to be provided during wars. This method was also used by the Portuguese in their colonies. Since the Topasse ruled, they introduced Portuguese as the official language to differentiate themselves from the locals. They used Malay as their trade language, which was understood on the surrounding islands.

From Larantuka, the Topasse and the Portuguese settled in Lifau in today's East Timorese special administrative region Oe-Cusse Ambeno from 1640 onwards . From 1641/42 the leader of the Topasse also resided temporarily in Lifau. He received the title from the Portuguese as a sign that he was the regional representative of Portugal. From here the Topasse took control of the sandalwood trade . Around 1642 a large number of Topasse lived on Timor and advanced into the interior of the island. Strong troops forced negotiations with the local Liurais (small kings). In doing so, they penetrated the power vacuum that had remained after the destruction of Wehale by Topasse Francisco Fernandes, who was in Portuguese service . Many of Wehale's former allies have now joined the Topasse. In return for the delivery of muskets, control over most of the sandalwood production was obtained and prices could be set. Here, too, the Costa and Hornay family clans fought for supremacy.

A Dutch report from 1659 states:

“All Portuguese are moving with their families from Larantuka to Timor [...]. Initially the Capitão-mor had 200 people in Lifau, including our 20 Dutch [apostates] who are still alive. In Amakono there is a group of 30 men; in the negry [settlement or land] of Amanuban two groups of 20 each, which makes 40; in Amarasi 30 in a group; in Amfo'an (also called a snick snack) there is only one clergyman. Together that makes 300 men. Among them are a few whites and mestizos, most of them are blacks with guns. "

Ruler of the topasse
1665 † Simão Luis
1666-1669 Antonio da Hornay
1670-1673 Mateus da Costa (from 1671 general captain)
1673 Manuel da Costa Viera (interim)
1673–1693 † Antonio da Hornay
1693-1696 Francisco da Hornay (captain general from 1694)
1697–1722 (?) † Domingos da Costa
1722-1730 Francisco da Hornay II
1730-1734 João Cave
1734–1749 / 1751 † Gaspar da Costa
1749/51 - 1757 João da Hornay
1757-1777 Francisco da Hornay III. and
Domingos da Costa II (at least until 1772)
1782-1796 Pedro da Hornay (from 1787 again under Portuguese suzerainty)
from 1816 José da Hornay
from around 1835 Filippe da Hornay
1868-1879 João da Hornay Madeira
after 1893-1896 Domingos da Costa III.
after 1898 Pedro da Costa
after 1911-1948 Hugo Hermenegildo da Costa
1948-1999 João Hermenegildo da Costa (until 1990) and (from 1949) José Hermenegildo da Costa († November 4, 1999)
since 1999 Antonio da Costa

The Topasse saw themselves threatened from several sides: once by Portuguese traders, who were given permission by the crown to take control of the sandalwood trade, then by the Dominicans, who tried to create their own independent power base in Timor, and finally by the indigenous Liurais, who regularly rebelled against both the Topasse and the Portuguese. However, all were united by the struggle against the expansion of the Dutch . In 1656 the Topasse under António da Hornay and Mateus da Costa destroyed a Dutch military expedition near the village of Amarasi that had been sent against them, forcing them to give up the newly conquered fortress of Kupang. The Portuguese viceroy in Goa finally took advantage of the rivalry between the family clans. He sent the same letter to both António da Hornay and Mateus da Costa, in which he declared them his captain general ( Capitão-mor ), provided that they were in power. At that time, this was with António, Mateus did not accept this and relied on an earlier appointment. A bloody power struggle between the families began and later led to power sharing within the Topasse. Between 1668 and 1670 Mateus da Costa subjugated several kingdoms of the Tetum in the coastal area of ​​Belus for Portugal. From 1671 Mateus could also claim the title of Capitão-Mor for himself, but he died in 1673. After a brief interlude by Manuel da Costa Vieira, António da Hornay regained the title in the same year and ruled de facto as prince over Larantuka, Solor and parts of Timor. He is described by the Dutch as so ruthless that they hoped the Timorese would turn against him and the Portuguese because of it. After the death of António da Hornay in 1693, he was replaced by Father António de Madre de Deus and finally by António's brother Francisco da Hornay. Finally, the Hornays and the Costas were united through the marriage of Francisco da Hornay to a daughter of Domingos da Costa , the son of Mateus.

In 1695 Portugal tried for the first time to place a governor for Timor and Solor in front of the Capitão-mor . António de Mesquita Pimentel quickly drew the anger of the locals after his arrival in 1696. He shamelessly plundered them and murdered two of Francisco da Hornay's children. Domingos da Costa, now the new Capitão-mor, put Pimentel in chains in 1697 and had him sent back to Goa. Pimentel's successor André Coelho Vieira was captured by Domingos da Costa in Larantuka in 1698 and sent back to Macao. Only António Coelho Guerreiro succeeded in 1702 to take up office again in Lifau, even if the majority of the Topasse were hostile to him. Guerreiro was supported by the resident and generally venerated Bishop Manuel de Santo António , who negotiated with Lourenço Lopes , the brother-in-law of Domingos da Costa. Lopes was made lieutenant general in return. Guerreiro made Lifau the administrative seat of the colony in 1702, but it was constantly besieged by the Topasse. Guerreiro held out until 1705 before he had to leave. After Lourenço Lopes (1705 to 1706) and Manuel Ferreira de Almeida (1706 to 1708) had led the fortunes of the colony, Manuel de Santo António at Domingos da Costa ensured that the new Portuguese governor Jácome de Morais Sarmento (1708 to 1709) ) was recognized. But there was a dispute between Morais Sarmento and Manuel de Santo António. Morais Sarmento had Dom Mateus da Costa , the Liurai of Viqueque , arrested against all rights in 1708 and humiliated him. Domingos da Costa then besieged Lifau until 1709. Manuel de Santo António saved the situation by going to the camp of Domingos da Costa and persuading the Topasse ruler to submit to the Portuguese crown. The subsequent governor Manuel de Souto-Maior (1709-1714) rehabilitated Dom Mateus.

In 1722 António de Albuquerque Coelho was appointed governor, but was besieged for three years in Lifau by the Topasse under Francisco da Hornay II in Lifau, as well as Coelho's successor António Moniz de Macedo (1725-1729 and 1734-1739) for a longer period . The Topasse continued to control the sandalwood trade in the interior of the island and most of west Timor. The situation improved for the Portuguese when Governor Macedo assumed his second term in 1734. The incumbent Capitão mor Gaspar da Costa received Macedo kindly. Gaspar also made it possible to build the first seminary on Timor in Lifau. At that time he was living in Animata , a place with 1,800 huts, a few kilometers south of Lifau, where Portuguese and locals lived. Another center of Topasse in Timor was Tulang Ikan .

The decline in Timor

The Topasse tried three times to expel the Dutch from Timor: 1735, 1745, 1749. The joint attack by the Portuguese and Topasse on Kupang on October 18, 1749 ended in disaster, despite their superior odds. The Dutch called on their Timorese allies and Marjdikers of Solor, Roti and Semau for help. The Marjdikers were a mixed population of different "Indian peoples" who, unlike the Topasse, did not admit to the Catholic faith. They established themselves in inter-island trade and supported the Dutch. Gaspar and many other Topasse leaders were killed at the Battle of Penfui . A total of 40,000 warriors of the Topasse and their allies are said to have perished. As a result of the defeat, the rule of the Portuguese and Topasse in West Timor collapsed. In April 1751 Liurais rose from Servião ; According to a source, Gaspar is said to have died here. In 1752 the Dutch attacked the Amarasi Empire and the Noimuti Topasse Empire . The German Hans Albrecht von Plüskow led this attack . The Dutch also used this campaign to hunt slaves to meet the needs of the plantations on the Moluccas . In the same year, the Bishop of Malacca branded the Dutch trade in slaves, who were also sold to the Chinese and Arabs, as a crime that would lead to excommunication among Catholics. In 1755 the Dutch East India Company (VOC) sent Johannes Andreas Paravicini to negotiate treaties with the rulers of Timor, Solor and Sumba . In 1756, a large part of the Little Kings of West Timor concluded an alliance with the VOC in the Treaty of Paravicini . This was the beginning of Dutch rule in what is now Indonesian West Timor.

When Francisco da Hornay III. took over the management of the Topasse from his late father João da Hornay in 1757, there was a dispute with the Costas over the claim. The dispute ended with the marriage of Francisco with the sister of Domingos da Costa II and the appointment of Domingo as lieutenant general. António da Costa , Domingos' younger brother, became ruler of Noimuti. Larantuka was controlled by Dona Maria , João's sister. The Dutch took the opportunity. They persuaded Maria to marry an attractive Dutch official and thus brought Larantuka into the VOC's sphere of influence.

Governor Vicento Ferreira de Carvalho (1756-1759) decided in 1759 due to the situation to give up and sell Lifau to the Dutch without authorization. When the Dutch wanted to take possession of the place under Hans Albrecht von Plüskow in 1760, they were faced with a Topasse force. From Plüskow was from Francisco da Hornay III. and António da Costa murdered.

In 1766 Francisco da Hornay III broke. also with the Portuguese. In Malacca , the Netherlands, he made an alliance with his relative António da Hornay (other sources call him Domingos da Costa II) and ended the temporary division of the topasse. The goal now was to drive out the Portuguese and secure Timor for the Dutch. The success of this plan was to be limited as the Liurais in east Timor were hostile to both Portuguese and Dutch.

The first victim of the change of sides of Francisco was Governor Dionísio Gonçalves Rebelo Galvão (1763-1765), who was poisoned on November 28, 1765 by Francisco da Hornay III., António da Costa, Quintino da Conceição and Lourenço de Mello. Little is known about the circumstances. The Dominican monks António de Boaventura and José Rodrigues Pereira then took over the administration of the colony until the new governor António José Teles de Meneses arrived. Teles de Meneses was forced to ask Macau for deliveries of rice in 1769 due to the poor supply situation in the besieged colony, but the ship did not reach Lifau. The connections to the inland were interrupted by the Topasse and local Timorese. On the night of August 11, 1769 Teles de Meneses gave up Lifau and moved the capital of the colony to Dili . In Lifau, Francisco da Hornay and António da Hornay took control of the region. Between the Dutch Kupang and the Portuguese area they now controlled 25 to 30 leguas of the coast with several important anchorages. Francisco da Hornay offered Lifau to the Dutch, but after careful consideration they refused. Francisco da Hornay's son, Pedro da Hornay , placed himself under the suzerainty of Portugal again in 1787, which is why Oecusse is now part of East Timor. Topasse, who settled in Dili, were called Bidau , and after them their district Bidau in the east of the city. The Bidau, along with the Sica and the Moradores, formed one of the three parts that formed the Portuguese armed forces of the colony. The other two ethnic groups also lived in their own quarters of the capital.

In 1854 Afonso de Castro , the then Portuguese governor of the properties on the Lesser Sunda Islands , offered the Dutch sovereignty over Larantuka, among other things, for sale. The treaty was ratified in 1859. The Dutch sent a commanding officer and an administrative officer to reside in a small fort, but they were rather reserved towards the population. Since Larantuka was no longer economically attractive after the decline of the sandalwood trade, the local Topasse switched to agriculture. Little was left of the formerly profitable foreign trade.

The topasse today

Formally, the Topasse were Catholics, but control of the faith had passed to lay organizations, which gave the faith its own direction. In Larantuka the most powerful was La Confraria da Rainha do Rosário , the brotherhood of the Rosary Queen, which still exists today. In the Dutch-Portuguese treaty, the Catholic population was assured the freedom to practice their religion. Because of this, the Calvinism common among the Dutch was not spread in Larantuka . Instead, the Dutch Jesuits could now get involved in colonial work. In Larantuka they built the first parish building and reintroduced the orthodox form of faith. For example, you were now only allowed to be married to one woman. The missionaries also built schools and provided medical care for the population.

Thanks to Indonesia's independence, the Topasse were able to regain influence in Larantuka. Having a higher level of education than other locals made it easy for them to get into top positions. The new official language Indonesian was not a problem for them either, as it is very similar to Malay.

In East Timor, the Topasse and Bidau no longer form a special ethnic group among the country's mestizos. Here they spoke a Creole Portuguese , the Português de Bidau , which died out in the 1960s, as the speakers increasingly switched to standard Portuguese. Members of the Costa family are still Liurai or Rajas in West Timor , such as António da Costa in Oecusse and Antonius da Costa in Noimuti . The Hornay line died out in Oecusse.

In the 1950s and 1960s, the catechist Carlos da Costa Hornay was active in the east of the country. Since he was the godfather of thousands of Timorese in Luro , Iliomar and other parts of Lautém , many new Christians took the names Costa and Hornay as family names. This is why there are also residents with the family name Hornay in the neighboring municipality of Baucau .

See also

literature

  • CR Boxer: The topasses of Timor . Indisch Instituut, Amsterdam 1947, ( Koninklijke Vereeniging Indisch Instituut (voorheen Koloniaal Instituut) ), Mededeling 73, ( Koninklijke Vereniging Indisch Instituut, Afdeling Volkenkunde 24). http://62.41.28.253/cgi-bin/imageserver/imageserver.pl?oid=CFHEFC19470101-000-1947-0024&key=&getpdf=true ( Memento from March 5, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
  • Ronald Daus: The Invention of Colonialism . Peter Hammer Verlag, Wuppertal 1983, ISBN 3-87294-202-6 .
  • 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).
  • Artur Teodoro de Matos: Timor Português 1515-1769. Contribuição para a sua história . Instituto Histórico Infante Dom Henrique, Lisboa 1974, ( Série ultramarina 2).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g History of Timor - Technical University of Lisbon ( Memento of the original from March 24, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 824 kB) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / pascal.iseg.utl.pt
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j Hans Hägerdal: Rebellions or factionalism? Timorese forms of resistance in an early colonial context, 1650-1769 ( Memento of the original dated December 8, 2015 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. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.kitlv-journals.nl
  3. ↑ a b c d e f g James J. Fox: “The Paradox of Powerlessness: Timor in Historical Perspective”, December 9, 1996, Department of Anthropology, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, The Australian National University ( Memento from 6 July 2007 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 70 kB)
  4. ↑ Luis Filipe Thomas: DE CEUTA A TIMOR ( Memento of February 28, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
  5. ↑ a b c The languages ​​of East Timor
  6. ↑ a b c d Chronologie de l'histoire du Timor (1512-1945) suivie des événements récents (1975-1999) (French; PDF; 887 kB)
  7. ↑ a b c d e f g h Marques, AH de Oliveira: História de Portugal , Volume II, Lisbon, Palas Editores, 1984, p. 474.
  8. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Regnal chronologies: Southeast Asia: the Islands
  9. ↑ History of Timor - Technical University of Lisbon, p. 40ff
  10. ↑ a b History of Timor - Technical University of Lisbon, p. 44ff
  11. ^ Worldstatesman
  12. ^ Artur Teodoro de Matos: D. Frei Manuel de Santo António: missionário e primeiro bispo residente em Timor. Elementos para a sua biografia (1660-1733) ( Memento of the original from May 25, 2013 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. (Portuguese). @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / cvc.instituto-camoes.pt
  13. ↑ Instituto Camões ( Memento of the original dated August 5, 2011 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. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.instituto-camoes.pt
  14. ↑ Hans Hägerdal: Lords of the Land, Lords of the Sea; Conflict and Adaptation in Early Colonial Timor, 1600–1800., 2012.
  15. ^ Royal Timor - Noimuti. Archived from the original on December 21, 2010 ; accessed on January 8, 2016 .
  16. ↑ Laura Suzanne Meitzner Yoder: Custom, Codification, Collaboration: Integrating the Legacies of Land and Forest Authorities in Oecusse Enclave, East Timor , p. 66 ( Memento of March 7, 2007 in the Internet Archive ), Yale University 2005 (PDF file; 1.46 MB)