History of East Nusa Tenggara
After the declaration of Indonesian independence in 1945, the eastern part of Indonesia declared the State of East Indonesia. The state was further included in the United States of Indonesia as part of the agreement with the Dutch contained in the transfer its sovereignty to Indonesia in 1949.
In 1950, United States of Indonesia dissolved itself into a unitary state and began to divide its component area into provinces. In 1958, by Indonesian law (Undang-Undang) No. 64/1958, three provinces were established in the Lesser Sunda Islands, namely Bali, West Nusa Tenggara and East Nusa Tenggara. The area of East Nusa Tenggara province included the western part of Timor island, Flores, Sumba and other several small islands in the region. The province was sub-divided into twelve regencies and the City of Kupang, which had regency-level status.
Following the fall of the Suharto regime in 1998 and the passage of a new regional autonomy law, there was a dramatic proliferation (known as pemekaran) of regional governments across Indonesia (at both provincial and regency level). Several new regencies were created in East Nusa Tenggara by the division of existing regencies:
- In 1999, the new Lembata Regency was formed after the division of the East Flores Regency.
- In 2002, Rote and Ndao Islands were split off from Kupang Regency, to form a new Rote Ndao Regency.
- In 2003, Manggarai Regency was split into two and a new West Manggarai Regency was established.
- In 2007, the administration of East Nusa Tenggara province was expanded by the establishment of four new regencies - Central Sumba and Southwest Sumba (both cut out of West Sumba Regency), Nagekeo (cut out of Ngada Regency) and East Manggarai (cut out of Manggarai Regency).
- In October 2008 a further regency - Sabu Raijua (comprising the Savu Islands group) - was formed from part of the remaining Kupang Regency.
- In December 2012 yet another regency - Malaka - was created out of the southern half of Belu Regency.
Therefore, as of early 2013, there were twenty-one regencies plus the one autonomous city (Kupang) in the province.
