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

Kuala Lumpur was the capital city of Malaya. *Photo from Wikipedia August 31 is Independence Day, celebrates the independence of Malaya from the United Kingdom in 1957. The Federation of Malaya was a federation of what previously had been British Malaya comprising 11 states (nine Malay states and two of the British Straits Settlements, Penang and Malacca) that existed from February 1, 1948 until September 16, 1963. Although Muslims had passed through the Malay Peninsula as early as the 10th century, it was not until the 14th century that Islam first firmly established itself. Islam had a profound influence on

A market in Guinea. *Photo from Wikipedia October 2 is Independence Day, which celebrates the independence of Guinea from France in 1958. The slave trade came to the coastal region of Guinea with European traders in the 16th century. Guinea’s colonial period began with French military penetration into the area in the mid-19th century. France negotiated Guinea’s present boundaries in the late 19th and early 20th centuries with the British for Sierra Leone, the Portuguese for their Guinea colony (now Guinea-Bissau), and Liberia. Under the French, the country formed the Territory of Guinea within French West Africa. In 1958, the