Happy Birthday to Panama!

The Portuguese School of Díli, the capital and largest city of East Timor. *Photo from Wikipedia May 20 is Independence Day, celebrates the independence of East Timor from Indonesia in 2002. East Timor was colonised by Portugal in the 16th century, and was known as Portuguese Timor until November 28, 1975, when the Revolutionary Front for an Independent East Timor (FRETILIN) declared the territory’s independence. Nine days later, it was invaded and occupied by Indonesia and was declared Indonesia’s 27th province the following year. The Indonesian occupation of East Timor was characterized by a highly violent decades-long conflict between separatist

A Samoan family. *Photo from Wikipedia June 1 is Independence Day, celebrates the independence of Samoa from New Zealand in 1962. The Samoan Islands were first settled some 3,500 years ago as part of the Austronesian expansion. European exploration first reached the islands in the early 18th century. Louis-Antoine de Bougainville named them Navigator Islands in 1768. The United States Exploring Expedition (1838-42) reached Samoa in 1839. In 1855 J.C. Godeffroy & Sohn, a German trading company, expanded its trading business into the archipelago. The Samoan Civil War of 1886-1894 devolved into the Samoan crisis between colonial powers, followed by

School children in Cameroon *Photo from Wikipedia January 1 is Independence Day, celebrates the independence of Cameroon from France in 1960. Portuguese explorers reached the coast in the 15th century and named the area Rio dos Camarões (“Shrimp River”), which became Cameroon in English. Cameroon became a German colony in 1884 known as Kamerun. After World War I, the territory was divided between France and the United Kingdom as League of Nations mandates. The Union des Populations du Cameroun (UPC) political party advocated independence, but was outlawed by France in the 1950s, leading to the Cameroonian Independence War. In 1960,