Editing Flores (section)

===Modern history===
[[File:COLLECTIE TROPENMUSEUM Bewoner uit Ende op Flores staat klaar voor de jacht of de strijd TMnr 60028899.jpg|thumb|Indigenous warrior from [[Ende, Indonesia|Ende]], Flores, before 1938.]]

Flores was most likely first inhabited by [[Melanesians]] at least since 30,000 BC.

[[Kingdom of Portugal|Portuguese]] traders and missionaries came to Flores in the 16th century, mainly to [[Larantuka]] and [[Sikka Regency|Sikka]]. Their influence is still discernible in Sikka's language, culture, and religion. The first Portuguese visit took place in 1511, through the expedition of [[António de Abreu]] and his vice-captain [[Francisco Serrão]], en route through the Sunda islands.

The [[Dominican order]] played an important role on this island, as well as on the neighbouring islands of [[Timor]] and [[Solor]]. When the Dutch attacked the fortress of Solor in 1613, the population of the fort, led by the Dominicans, moved to the harbor town of [[Larantuka]] on the eastern coast of Flores. This population was mixed, of Portuguese and local islander descent and Larantuqueiros, [[Topasses]], or, as the Dutch knew them, the 'Black Portuguese' (Zwarte Portugezen).

The Larantuqueiros or Topasses became the dominant sandalwood trading people of the region for the next 200 years. This group was observed by [[William Dampier]], an English privateer visiting the Island in 1699:
{{blockquote|These [the Topasses] have no Forts, but depend on their Alliance with the Natives: And indeed they are already so mixt, that it is hard to distinguish whether they are Portuguese or Indians. Their Language is Portuguese; and the religion they have, is Romish. They seem in Words to acknowledge the King of Portugal for their Sovereign yet they will not accept any Officers sent by him. They speak indifferently the Malayan and their native Languages, as well as Portuguese.<ref name="fox2003">{{Cite book|last=Fox|first=James J.|date=2003|chapter=Tracing the path, recounting the past: historical perspectives on Timor|editor-last1=Fox|editor-first1=James J.|editor-last2=Soares|editor-first2=Dionisio Babo|title=Out of the Ashes: Destruction and Reconstruction of East Timor|publisher=ANU E Press|isbn=978-0-9751229-1-4|doi=10.22459/oa.11.2003.01|doi-access=free}}</ref>}}

In the western part of Flores, the [[Manggarai people|Manggarai]] came under the control of the [[Sultanate of Bima]], in eastern Sumbawa. The Dutch effectively established their administration over western Flores in 1907. In 1929, the Bimanese sultanate ceded any control over Manggarai.

In 1846, the Dutch and Portuguese initiated negotiations towards delimiting the territories but these negotiations led nowhere. In 1851 Lima Lopes, the new governor of Timor, Solor and Flores, agreed to sell eastern Flores and the nearby islands to the Dutch in return for a payment of 200,000 [[Dutch guilder|Florins]] to support his impoverished administration. Lima Lopes did so without the consent of Lisbon and was dismissed in disgrace, but his agreement was not rescinded and in 1854 Portugal ceded all its historical claims on Flores. After this, Flores became part of the territory of the [[Dutch East Indies]].

During [[World War II]], Great Britain, the Netherland East Indies and the United States imposed on Japan an embargo on rubber and oil and froze Japan overseas funds. This was a strong incentive for Japan to get hold of the rich colonies of South East Asia,<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Webb|first1=Paul|date=March 1986|title="Too many to ignore...": Flores under the Japanese occupation 1942–1945|journal=Philippine Quarterly of Culture and Society|volume=14|issue=1|pages=54–70|jstor=29791877|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/29791877}}</ref> and its Operation "S" targeted the Lesser Sunda Islands – including Flores. On 14 May 1942 [[Labuan Bajo]] was the theatre of an amphibious landing by the Japanese Army landing force; and a Japanese Navy Special Naval Landing Force (SNLF) landed at Reo. Japan occupied Flores until the end of the [[Pacific War]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Flores Island (Pulau Flores), East Nusa Tenggara Province, Indonesia|website=pacificwrecks.com|url=https://pacificwrecks.com/provinces/indonesia_flores.html|access-date=2024-06-07}}</ref>
During that time, the Japanese administration and forces saw Christians as suspected Dutch sympathizers and were exceedingly heavy-handed towards them in general; but not so much on Flores, where Christians were treated notably less harshly than in the neighbouring islands of Timor and Sumba. Remarkably, in Flores the European priests and nuns were neither interned nor evicted throughout the occupation. According to Paul Webb (1986), this is because Florenese Christians were "too many to ignore": nearly half the population of Flores was Catholic and the Japanese, who could not afford to increase the size of their small occupation forces on the island, allowed European priests and sisters to stay at their posts rather than risking a general rebellion.<ref name="webb_cited">{{harvnb|Webb|1986}}, cited in {{cite web|title=The influence of Catholicism on Flores island during WWII|website=kajomag.com|date=19 July 2021 |url=https://kajomag.com/the-influence-of-catholicism-on-flores-island-during-wwii/|access-date=2024-06-07}}</ref>{{efn|Webb recalls the Shimabara rebellion that took place near Nagasaki in 1637 and 1638, when 40,000 Catholics entrenched themselves into an old castle on the Shimabara peninsula and held out against 120,000 Japanese soldiers for about four months; they were all put to death after they had surrendered. According to Webb, the Japanese did not want a historical repeat of it. <br>
Nevertheless this did not stop them establishing military brothels staffed with kidnapped hundreds of young Indonesian women for their troops on the island, and treating the rest of the population and the prisoners of war as badly as they did elsewhere. See [[International Military Tribunal for the Far East]].<ref>{{cite web|title=The influence of Catholicism on Flores island during WWII|website=kajomag.com|date=19 July 2021 |url=https://kajomag.com/the-influence-of-catholicism-on-flores-island-during-wwii/|access-date=2024-06-07}}</ref>}}

After the war, Flores became part of independent [[Indonesia]].<ref name="fox2003"/>

[[1992 Flores earthquake and tsunami|On 12 December 1992, an earthquake]] measuring 7.8 on the [[Richter magnitude scale|Richter scale]] killed 2,500 people in and around Maumere, including islands off the north coast.

In 2017 two men were killed in Flores due to land disputes between warrior clans; the Mbehel, a [[West Manggarai Regency|West Manggarai]] [[Hill people|mountain tribe]], and the Rangko from [[Sulawesi]] island who helped build [[Manggarai]] and were given land near [[Labuan Bajo]] by the Manggarai king.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/deadly-trouble-for-surf-pioneer-in-indonesias-new-paradise/news-story/690b0036a934168e92dc23498b455e74|title=Deadly trouble for surf pioneer in Indonesia's new paradise|date=28 January 2017|work=The Australian|access-date=17 October 2018}}</ref>