#7: Oecusse

Timor-Leste, also known as East Timor, is one of the newest sovereign states on the planet, having only gained full independence from Indonesia in 2002.  Initially a Portuguese colony, Timor-Leste declared its independence in 1975, when the entire Portuguese empire was breaking up (Guinea-Bissau became independent in 1974, while Angola, Cape Verde, Mozambique, and São Tomé and Príncipe all gained independence in 1975), but Indonesia proceeded to occupy the territory for the next quarter-century, only finally departing in 1999, which allowed a transition to full independence.

Looking at Timor-Leste on the map, something jumps out at you: the exclave of Oecusse.  It's a real quandary: how did one of the world's newest, smallest, and poorest nations manage to get away with holding onto a sliver of territory beyond its main national borders?  As usual, the answer lies in history, and in particular the history of colonization.

Timor-Leste in Google Maps.  The Oecusse exclave is on the north side of Indonesian Timor, separated by the national border line.

As far as anyone knows, the Portuguese were the first Europeans to visit the island of Timor in the 1500s, when the remnants of Ferdinand Magellan's expedition - post-Magellan's death in the Philippines - stopped briefly on their way back to Europe in 1522.  Traders began to visit the island the following year.  In short order, Portugal controlled a significant portion of territory in southeast Asia, from the southwest coast of India all the way to southern China.  By the mid-1600s, however, the Dutch had swept through the region, evicting the Portuguese from nearly every possession they had.  The Portuguese foothold was limited to a few small territories that they managed to hold for the next few centuries: Goa, Macau, and East Timor.

So, back to Timor itself.  The Dutch had established a firm presence on the western half of the island, with a fort at Kupang in the southwest, around 1613.  Meanwhile, the main Portuguese settlements were at Dili (now the capital of Timor-Leste) and Lifau, located in what is currently Oecusse.  The question is, how did we get to the point where the Dutch not only did not boot the Portuguese out of Timor as well, but couldn't even manage to take control of Oecusse?

Apparently, it has a lot to do with intermarriage.  The Portuguese colony managed to generate a significant mestizo population on the island, and this made the locals unwilling to see the Portuguese be completely replaced by the Dutch; too, the Portuguese missionaries had created many Catholic converts, and the Dutch Protestants were viewed more as outsiders.  In addition, the Portuguese held on just long enough to see the establishment of a peace treaty between the Netherlands and Portugal back in Europe which helped prevent the outbreak of full-on war between the two countries in the East Indies.  By the 1670s, the Dutch were actually trading more or less peacefully with the Portuguese faction at Lifau.

1943 US Army map denoting the line between Portuguese East Timor and the rest of what was then still Dutch territory.  Retrieved from http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/east_timor.html.

Ultimately, the difference between the two groups was that before too long, the Portuguese presence was made up mostly of Timorese locals who felt a connection to Portugal, while the Dutch presence was composed more of white Europeans.  Plus, it wasn't long before the Dutch had bigger regional fish to fry - namely the British, who had established significant presence in the region by the early 1700s.  By the mid-1800s, the Dutch and Portuguese had signed multiple treaties, and the 1859 Treaty of Lisbon officially ceded to Portugal the area around Oecusse where the local tribes were loyal to the Portuguese.

Basically, then, Oecusse owes its status as part of Timor-Leste to the simple fact that it was where Dominican missionaries first made converts way back in the 1550s.  These historic ties to Portugal kept it part of Portuguese territory all the way up through 1975, when it was the first part of East Timor to be invaded by the Indonesians following the declaration of independence.  Even when Timor-Leste finally became independent in 2002, they were able to hold onto their claim to this tiny outpost, which today has a population of about 60,000.  Fittingly, though, it, like the rest of Timor-Leste, is almost entirely Catholic, setting it distinctly apart from Indonesia, the largest Muslim nation in the world.

Most of the historical information in this entry comes from Hägerdal, Hans (2012), Lords of the Land, Lords of the Sea; Conflict and Adaptation in Early Colonial Timor, 1600–1800.  Other information from Wikipedia.

#6: Campobello Island

At the far eastern point of the United States mainland is a point called West Quoddy Head, Maine.  This is an oddity in itself - the easternmost point in continental America is named "West?" - although it turns out to have a prosaic explanation: to the east of the point is a strait known as Quoddy Narrows, and thus the point lies at the west head of Quoddy Narrows.

But we're not here to talk to about West Quoddy Head.  Instead, let's discuss the piece of land that lies on the other side of Quoddy Narrows: Campobello Island, Canada.

The border between Maine and New Brunswick has long been a matter of some dispute.  There was a brief "war" over it in the 1830s which led to the Webster-Ashburton Treaty of 1842, which clarified (in the same sort of excruciating geographic legalese as previous border treaties) the boundary.  This seems to have applied primarily to the northern border, however.  The border in southeast Maine, based on the mouth and initial course of the St. Croix River, does not appear to have changed or been claimed differently from how we know it today at any point prior to 1842, as seen on the map here.

Which brings us to Campobello Island.  The odd thing about Campobello isn't that it belongs to Canada; that's been well-established since Jay's Treaty of 1794.  The odd thing is that it's a part of Canada that is only reachable by road from somewhere other than Canada.  That's right: while there are vehicle ferries from Canada, the only road bridge to Campobello starts in the small town of Lubec, Maine.

Bridge crossing from Lubec to Campobello.  Image from http://makemytripadvisor.blogspot.com/2011/05/canada-travel-sensation.html.

In the late 1800s, New England had become a place where the well-to-do from New York and other major cities came to spend time during the summers due to the milder ocean climate and open space to build large seaside estates.  Campobello, though officially in Canada, became a commonly-visited part of that trade.  In the mid-1880s, James Roosevelt, scion of a prominent American family, purchased several acres of land on the island and built a summer home there.

By the 1910s and 1920s, the resort craze had died out, and the island's main industry returned to fishing.  So why, in 1962, was a bridge built from Lubec to Campobello?  Well, you probably already know: James Roosevelt was the father of the 32nd U.S. president, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and FDR summered on the island regularly from 1909 until 1921.  The bridge, indeed, is named the Franklin D. Roosevelt Memorial Bridge.

FDR isn't the only reason the bridge was built; Lubec, Maine and Campobello have expectedly close ties, and joining the two was the most reasonable location for a road crossing to Campobello, as the nearest Canadian mainland is roughly ten miles away, while Lubec is only a few hundred yards across a narrow channel.  But the 1964 opening of the Roosevelt Campobello International Park confirmed the utility of the crossing.

The park may be the oddest thing about Campobello itself, as it sits within Canada but is administered by a commission of citizens from both countries.  This makes it the only part of the National Park Service I'm aware of that one requires a passport to visit.

Google Maps image of the crossing between Lubec, ME and Campobello, showing the location of the international park.