Portuguese were the first Europeans to actively begin colonising Timor-Leste, having first arrived around the beginning of the sixteenth century. Upon their arrival, the country was divided into an assortment of tiny kingdoms, the largest of which was known as Wehale. Originally drawn by the abundance of sandalwood, they eventually began to exhaust the island’s wealth in the timber, and so, around three hundred years later, began farming coffee, sugar cane, and cotton in Timor-Leste.