Probably around 500 AD, Deutero-Malays (who emerged from Iron Age Austronesian peoples who came equipped with more advanced farming techniques and new knowledge of metals)[8][9][10] became the dominant population throughout the archipelago and also reached Timor.

Recent cultural contacts of West Timor's dominant population, the Atoin Meto, are due to the interest of various Asian (India and China) and European (Portugal and the Netherlands) traders in the island's formerly very rich sandalwood resources.

The centre of the island was dominated by the Wehale (Wehali) kingdom with its allies among the tribes of the Tetum, Bunak and Kemak ethnic groups.

The capital Laran village on the territory of today's West Timor formed the spiritual centre of the entire island at that time.

[14] In 1556, the Dominican Order founded the village of Lifau,[15] six kilometres west of today's Pante Macassar, to secure the sandalwood trade.

Fernandes first moved through the Sonba'i area and then quickly conquered the kingdom of Wehale, which was considered the religious and political centre of the island.

Until the final conquest of the Portuguese fortress in Kupang Bay in 1688, the Dutch East India Company (VOC) concluded treaties with the five small rulers in this area, the "five loyal allies" (Sonbai Kecil, Helong, Amabi in 1665, Amfo'an in 1683 and Taebenu in 1688).

However, when an attack by the Portuguese and Topasses on Kupang ended in disaster in 1749, despite superior numbers, the rule of both in West Timor collapsed.

At the Battle of Penfui (today Kupang's El Tari International Airport is located there), Capitão-Mor Gaspar da Costa and many other Topasse leaders were killed.

[25] In 1752, the Bishop of Malacca branded the Dutch trade in slaves, which were also sold to Chinese and Arabs, as a crime that would lead to excommunication for Catholics.

[26] In 1755, the Dutch East India Company (VOC) sent John Andrew Paravicini to negotiate treaties with rulers in several of the Lesser Sunda Islands.

Among them was a certain Jacinto Correa (Hiacijinto Corea), King of Wewiku-Wehale and Grand Prince of Belu, who also signed the dubious Treaty of Paravicini on behalf of 27 territories dependent on him in central Timor.

[28] On 11 August 1769, the Portuguese governor António José Teles de Meneses was forced to leave Lifau by the Topasses.

Paravicini, of all people, who had praised the VOC so much in his treaty, described their personnel as bad, dishonest, greedy, cruel and disobedience would run rampant with him.

They forced local rulers to buy goods at outrageous prices and Opperhoofd (settlers) preyed on the impoverished rajas.

In 1851, the Portuguese governor José Joaquim Lopes de Lima reached an agreement with the Dutch on the colonial boundaries in Timor, but without authorisation from Lisbon.

[37] From 1872 onwards, the Dutch left "internal affairs" to the native rulers, who were thus able to continue unhindered with slave trading and piracy and to carry out raids on other places.

The rulers were again forced to sign a treaty (Korte Verklaring) in which they recognised the sovereignty of the Netherlands and were forbidden contact with foreign powers.

[38] The wrangling over this border between Portugal and the Netherlands and the views of the indigenous population as to whether they belonged to the West or the East has had consequences that extend to the present day.

The captain of the Portuguese corvette Sa de Bandeira reported from his visit in 1869 that the Dutch could not return his 21-gun salute because they lacked guns and soldiers.

There it demanded a reduction in taxes and an end to forced labour, which led to the imprisonment and exile of its leader Christian Pandie.

On 6 September 2000, Pero Simundza from Croatia, Carlos Caceres-Collazio from Puerto Rico and Samson Aregahegn from Ethiopia – all UNHCR staff members – were killed in an attack by 5,000 members of a pro-Indonesian militia, armed with machetes, on the office of UNHCR in the town of Atambua, which is in the vicinity of the border with Timor-Leste and where the main refugee camp was located[45] (see attacks on humanitarian workers).

The Indonesian western part of the island, with an area of 14,513 km2,[46] is divided into the city of Kupang (the chief port and largest town in West Timor, and the capital of Nusa Tenggara Timur province.)

[47] West Timor owes its present appearance to an extremely eventful geological past, the special characteristic of which is large differences in altitude within short distances.

When downpours happen, these rivers briefly become wild, raging torrents of water, which then cause major traffic and communication problems.

In the past, these isolated plateaus and mountain landscapes favoured the emergence of politically relatively autonomous territories.West Timor is part of the East Nusa Tenggara province.

In literature, the derogatory foreign names Dawan, Orang Gunung (mountain people) or Timorese can be found, which can lead to confusion with the inhabitants of independent Timor-Leste.

Helong was the original language in Kupang, but has been largely replaced by Bahasa Indonesia and is only spoken in a few villages south of the city along the east coast and on Semau Island.

From the Catholic missionary Apostolic Vicariate of Dutch Timor stem the Metropolitan Archdiocese of Kupang and its suffragan Diocese of Atambua.

The alternation of dry and rainy seasons shapes the agricultural rhythm and social life of the widely dispersed farming communities of the populations of West Timor.