Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of more than seventeen thousand islands, including Sumatra, Java, Borneo (Kalimantan), Sulawesi, and New Guinea (Papua). Indonesia is the world's largest island country and the 14th-largest country by land area, at 1,904,569 square kilometres. With over 267 million people, it is the world's 4th-most populous country as well as the most populous Muslim-majority country. Java, the world's most populous island, is home to more than half of the country's population.
The history of Indonesia has been shaped by its geographic position, its natural resources, a series of human migrations and contacts, wars and conquests, as well as by trade, economics and politics. Indonesia is an archipelagic country of 17,000 to 18,000 islands stretching along the equator in South East Asia. The country's strategic sea-lane position fostered inter-island and international trade; trade has since fundamentally shaped Indonesian history. The area of Indonesia is populated by peoples of various migrations, creating a diversity of cultures, ethnicities, and languages. The archipelago's landforms and climate significantly influenced agriculture and trade, and the formation of states. The boundaries of the state of Indonesia represent the 20th century borders of the Dutch East Indies.
The Indonesian National Revolution, or Indonesian War of Independence, was an armed conflict and diplomatic struggle between the Republic of Indonesia and the Dutch Empire and an internal social revolution during postwar and postcolonial Indonesia. It took place between Indonesia's declaration of independence in 1945 and the Netherlands' recognition of Indonesia's independence at the end of 1949.
Java is an island of Indonesia, bordered by the Indian Ocean on the south and the Java Sea on the north. With a population of over 141 million or 145 million, Java constitutes 56.7 percent of the Indonesian population and is the world's most-populous island. The Indonesian capital city, Jakarta, is on its northwestern coast. Much of the well-known part of Indonesian history took place on Java. It was the centre of powerful Hindu-Buddhist empires, the Islamic sultanates, and the core of the colonial Dutch East Indies. Java was also the center of the Indonesian struggle for independence during the 1930s and 1940s. Java dominates Indonesia politically, economically and culturally. Four of Indonesia's eight UNESCO world heritage sites are located in Java: Ujung Kulon National Park, Borobudur Temple, Prambanan Temple, and Sangiran Early Man Site.
Chinese Indonesians or Orang Tionghoa, are Indonesians whose ancestors arrived from China at some stage in the last eight centuries. Most Chinese Indonesians are descended from Southern Chinese immigrants.
The Special Region of Yogyakarta is a provincial-level autonomous region of Indonesia in the southern Java. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south, as well as sharing all the land borders to the province of Central Java. Ruled by the Yogyakarta Sultanate, the region is the only officially recognised monarchy within the government of Indonesia. The city of Yogyakarta is a popular tourist destination and cultural centre of the region.
There are 34 largest subdivisions of the country Indonesia and the highest tier of the local government. Provinces are further divided into regencies and cities, which are in turn subdivided into districts (kecamatan).
East Java is a province of Indonesia. It has a land border only with the province of Central Java to the west; the Java Sea and the Indian Ocean border its northern and southern coasts, respectively, while the narrow Bali Strait to the east separates Java from Bali. Located in eastern Java, it also includes the island of Madura, which is connected to Java by the longest bridge in Indonesia, the Suramadu Bridge, as well as the Kangean and Masalembu archipelagos located further east and north, respectively. Its capital is Surabaya, the second largest city in Indonesia, a major industrial center and also a major business center. Banyuwangi is the largest regency in East Java and the largest on the island of Java.
Hubertus Johannes "Huib" van Mook was a Dutch administrator in the East Indies. During the Indonesian National Revolution, he served as the Acting Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies from 1942 to 1948. Van Mook also had a son named Cornelius van Mook who studied marine engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He also wrote about Java - and his work on Kota Gede is a good example of a colonial bureaucrat capable of examining and writing about local folklore.
Bogor is a city in the West Java province, Indonesia. Located around 60 kilometers (37 mi) south of the national capital of Jakarta, Bogor is the 6th largest city of Jakarta metropolitan area and the 14th nationwide. The city covers an area of 118.5 km2, and it had a population of 950,334 at the 2010 Census; the latest official estimate was 1,096,828. Bogor is an important economic, scientific, cultural and tourist center, as well as a mountain resort.
The Japanese Empire occupied the Dutch East Indies, during World War II from March 1942 until after the end of the war in September 1945. In Indonesian history, the period was one of the most critical.
The Dutch East India Company had a presence in the Malay archipelago) from 1603, when the first trading post was established, to 1800, when the bankrupt company was dissolved, and its possessions nationalised as the Dutch East Indies.
The Dutch East Indies was a Dutch colony consisting of what is now Indonesia. It was formed from the nationalised colonies of the Dutch East India Company, which came under the administration of the Dutch government in 1800.
The State of Pasundan was a federal state (negara bagian) formed in the western part of the Indonesian island of Java by the Netherlands in 1948 following the Linggadjati Agreement. It was similar to the geographical area now encompassed by the current provinces of West Java, Banten and Jakarta.
The United States of Indonesia, was a federal state to which the Netherlands formally transferred sovereignty of the Dutch East Indies on 27 December 1949 following the Dutch-Indonesian Round Table Conference. This transfer ended the four-year conflict between Indonesian nationalists and the Netherlands that was fought over for control of Indonesia. It lasted less than a year, before being replaced by the unitary Republic of Indonesia.
Raden Panji Soeroso was a politician, Sarekat Islam activist, and a National Hero of Indonesia. He served as Governor of Central Java and Minister of Public Works and Manpower under the Greater Indonesian Party. He was also a vice chairman of the BPUPK and a member of PPKI. He was the founder of the Civil Servants Cooperative Republic of Indonesia. Soeroso was born in Porong, Sidoarjo, East Java, Dutch East Indies. Soeroso was posthumously honored as an Indonesian National Hero through a Presidential Decree issued on October 23, 1986. He died in Indonesia.
French and British interregnum in the Dutch East Indies were a relatively short period of French and followed by British interregnum on the Dutch East Indies that took place between 1806 and 1815. The French ruled between 1806 and 1811. The British took over for 1811 to 1815, and transferred its control back to the Dutch in 1815.
Johannes Latuharhary was an Indonesian politician and nationalist. He was the first Indonesian governor of Maluku, serving between 1950 and 1955, and was an early proponent of Moluccan inclusion in the Indonesian state.
Paula Bataona Renyaan was an Indonesian police general and politician. She was the first woman to hold the office of Vice Governor in Indonesia, serving as the Vice Governor of Maluku from 1998 to 2003.
