Indonesia

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Bali is an island and province of Indonesia. The province includes the island of Bali and a few smaller neighbouring islands, notably Nusa Penida, Nusa Lembongan, and Nusa Ceningan. It is located at the westernmost end of the Lesser Sunda Islands, between Java to the west and Lombok to the east. Its capital of Denpasar is located at the southern part of the island.

Bali - with a population of 3,890,757 in the 2010 census, and 4,225,000 as of January 2014, the island is home to most of Indonesia's Hindu minority. According to the 2010 Census, 83.5% of Bali's population adhered to Balinese Hinduism, followed by 13.4% Muslim, Christianityat 2.5%, and Buddhism 0.5%...

Rice fields provide the chief food for Indonesia's people. This field lies in cen­tral Java near Mount Merapi, a volcano that erupted in 1954.

Flag of Indonesia became official on Independence Day, Aug. 17,1945. Red stands for courage, and white for purity.

The coat of arms bears the national motto of Indonesia, Unity Through Diversity. The motto dates from the 1200’s.

Indonesia, an island country in Asia, is about 25 per cent as large as Australia, its neighbour to the south.

The Parliament Building in Jakarta is the meeting place for the People’s Consultative Assembly and the House of People’s Representative.

Central Jakarta has many wide boulevards lined with modern buildings. Traffic fills the main streets much of the time.

Farm crops are sold or traded at village marketplaces like this one in Sumatra, where most of the Batak people live.

A popular dance on Bali is the legong, performed by two or three girls. It tells an ancient story of love and battle.

Dyak long house in Bor­neo is the home of many fami­lies, most of which are related to one another. The Dyaks are mainly farmers, and each fam­ily cultivates its own land.

Population density - About 60 per cent of all the Indonesian people live on the island of Java, though Java accounts for only about 7 per cent of the country's total land area. Most of Indonesia's largest cities are also on Java. The most thinly populated area is Iran Jaya.

Outrigger canoes are used in Indonesian waters for such purposes as fishing, ship-to- shore transportation, and car­rying passengers and light cargo among the islands.

Hot, rainy Indonesia has an ideal climate for growing rubber trees. These workers are planting the seeds at a tree nursery.

Indonesian rice is grown mostly in irrigated fields, above, which are drained when the grain begins to ripen. Harvested crops are often stored in beautifully carved granaries.

The Buddhist temple at Borobudur in Java was built for a Shailendra king in about A.D. 800.

The temple of Shiva at Prambanan in Java is one of a group of Hindu temples built in about A.D. 900.

The Strait of Malacca (also spelled Melaka) is the narrow seaway between Malaysia and the Indonesian island of Su­matra. It has been an impor­tant trade route since ancient times, bringing foreign influ­ences to Indonesia from India, China, the Middle East, and Europe. The drawing dates from the late 1700's.

The influence of Islam had reached Indonesia by the late 1200's and the faith gradually 9 spread through Sumatra, Java, and many other islands. About 85 per cent of the Indonesian people are Muslims, Islamic influence is apparent in the architectural styles  used for stations, schools, and  other public buildings, as well  as for mosques.

Government House at Bogor, West Java, was the residence of the Dutch governor general. The British adminis trator, Stamford Raffles, took 1 it over after the British conquest of Java in 1811. The watercolour, painted in 1812, shows the peaks of Gunung Cede in the back ground.

Petroleum and natural gas have become major exports. The drilling rig, is exploring for oil in the Java Sea.

Sukarno and Suharto survived the attempted Gestapu coup of 1965. Sukarno, gave up the presidency to Suharto in 1967.

The Buddhist kingdom of the Sailendras grew powerful in Java in the 70ffs. The monument of Borobudur still stands.

Dutch colonial rule left an architectural heritage. The old city hall in Jakarta was built in 1710. It is now a museum.
Independence is proudly commemorated by the National Monument in Merdeka Square, Jakarta.

Facts in brief about Indonesia

Capital: Jakarta.

Official language: Bahasa Indonesia.

Area: 1,919,318 km². Greatest distances— east-west, about 5,150 km; north-south, about 1,930 km. Coastline—36,835 km.

Elevation: Highest— Puncak Jaya, 5,030 m above sea level. Low­est—sea level along the coasts.

Population: Estimated 1996population—204,660,000; density,

107 people per km²; distribution, 67 per cent rural, 33 per cent urban. 1990 census—179,378,946. Estimated 2001 population— 220,788,000.

Chief products: Agriculture— bananas, cassava, coconuts, cof­fee, maize, palm oil, poultry and eggs, rice, rubber, spices, sugar cane, sweet potatoes, tea, tobacco. Fishing- prawns, tuna. Forest Industrie bony, teak. Manufacturing— cement, glassware, petroleum products, processed foods, textiles. Mining— bauxite, coal, copper, natural gas, nickel, petroleum, tin.

National anthem: Indonesia Raya ("Great Indonesia").

Money: Currency unit— Indonesian rupiah. One rupiah = 100 sen.

Indonesia

Indonesia is a country in Southeast Asia that consists of more than 13,600 islands. The islands lie along the equator and extend more than 5,000 kilometres. Many of the islands cover only a few square kilometres. But about half of New Guinea Ian area called Irian )aya), and three-quarters of Borneo (Kalimantan), also belong to In­donesia. New Guinea and Borneo are the second- and third-largest islands in the world, after Greenland.

Indonesia is fifth in population among all countries. People live on more than 6,000 of its islands. About three-fifths of all the Indonesian people live on Java, which covers about 7 per cent of Indonesia's total area. Most of Indonesia's large cities are also on Java. They in­clude Jakarta, the capital and largest city, Surabaya, a busy port, and Bandung, a cultural and educational cen­tre. Indonesia's third largest city is Medan, on the north­eastern coast of Sumatra. Most of the country's people are Muslims. There are also some Christians, Buddhists, and Hindus.

Most Indonesians live in small farm villages and still follow many ancient ways of life. For example, Javanese villagers celebrate important personal or family events with a ceremonial feast called a selametan. Many dedi­cate the various foods to spirits and combine Muslim prayers with this spirit worship.

Farming is the chief industry of Indonesia but manu­facturing has grown rapidly since the 1970's. Rice is the people's main food, and Indonesia is among the leading rice producers. Other important farm products include coconuts, coffee, maize, rubber, tea, and spices. Indone­sia also has large deposits of petroleum and tin.

Tropical rainforests cover much of Indonesia. The for­ests contain many hardwood trees, such as teak and ebony. Crocodiles, elephants, pythons, rhinoceroses, and tigers are found in some of the forests. Much of the country has mountains, among them about 60 active vol­canoes. A number of Indonesia's volcanoes have erupted and killed many people. But Indonesians still live near volcanoes in spite of the danger, because vol­canic ash makes the soil extremely fertile.

In early times, the region from India to Japan, includ­ing Indonesia, was known to Europeans as the Indies. Christopher Columbus was looking for a westward sea route from Europe to the Indies when he arrived in America. During the 1600's, Dutch political control began to spread through Indonesia. Indonesia declared its independence in 1945 and fought the Dutch until 1949, when they gave up their control.

National government. The government of Indonesia is based on a constitution that was written in 1945. A president serves as head of the government. The presi­dent appoints a cabinet of advisers consisting of top mil­iary leaders and civilians. In theory, the People's Con­sultative Assembly is supposed to establish the general direction of the government's policies. A House of Peo­ple's Representatives is the nation s parliament. How­ever, in practice, neither the Assembly nor the House has real power. Instead, it is the president and his cho­sen cabinet of advisers who make all the important deci­sions.

The president is elected to a five-year term by the people's Consultative Assembly. The Assembly has 1,000 members. It includes the 500 members of the House of people's Representatives. It also includes 500 represent­atives of regional, occupational, and other groups. All Assembly members serve five-year terms. The Assembly normally meets only once every five years.

The 500 members of the House of People's Represent­atives includes 400 who are elected through a system that ensures that the government's political organization—Golkar— wins a majority of the seats. Servicemen have no vote, so the remaining 100 members are appointed by the president from the armed forces.

Local government. Indonesia is divided into 27 provinces. The provinces are divided into regencies and municipalities. These units are further divided into vil­lages. Officials of all local government units except the villages are appointed by the central government from lists of people nominated by regional legislatures. Indonesian villagers elect their own village officials to pro­vide local government.

Flag of Indonesia became official on Independence Day, Aug. 17,1945. Red stands for courage, and white for purity.

Politics. Golkar is Indonesia's most important politi­cal organization and dominates the political life of the country. It is controlled by the government. It is not a traditional political party but is made up of professional, military, agricultural, and other groups that join to­gether to sponsor candidates in parliamentary elections. Golkar's members hold a large majority in parliament. Only two other parties are allowed to operate, the United Development Party and the Indonesian Democ­racy Party. These two parties have much less influence than Golkar.

Courts. Indonesia's highest court is the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court is the final court of appeal. Other courts include High Courts and District Courts. The central government appoints judges. There are no juries. Special religious courts handle such personal matters among Muslims as divorces and inheritances.

Armed forces. Indonesia's army, navy, airforce, and police force make up the Indonesian armed forces, or ABRI. The president is the supreme commander of ABRI. About 284,000 people serve in the Indonesian armed forces, excluding the police force. Another 400,000 peo­ple are in reserve. By law, Indonesian men may be con­scripted for two years. But in practice, there are enough volunteers.

Most Indonesians are Malay peoples whose ances­tors came from the mainland of Southeast Asia. Scholars believe that the early Malays began coming to the is­lands about 4,500 years ago. Indonesia also has some Arabs, Chinese, Papuans, and other peoples.

More than 250 Malayo-Polynesian and Papuan lan­guages are spoken by different groups in Indonesia. Bahasa Indonesia is the country's national language. Children learn the language of their region at home be­fore entering school. They learn Bahasa Indonesia in school. Indonesia adopted the national language early during its movement for independence from the Dutch. Bahasa Indonesia was developed from the Malay lan­guage spoken in the eastern part of the island of Suma­tra. It is similar to Coastal Malay, which was the common language of trade in the port areas of Indonesia. Bahasa Indonesia became the language used in schools and universities. Today most Indonesians speak it.

Slightly more than half the people of Indonesia are farmers or agricultural workers who live in small vil­lages. Life in most of the villages is controlled by village headmen and other traditional leaders, such as religious teachers. The headmen and other leaders govern by a system of local customs stressing cooperation. The vil­lagers often settle disputes and solve problems by hold­ing an open discussion that continues until everyone reaches agreement.

Many Indonesians, especially those born in Java, have only one name. They include Sukarno, the country's first president, and Suharto, who became president in the late 1960's.

Religion. More than 80 per cent of the Indonesian people are Muslims, and about 10 per cent are Chris­tians. Many of Indonesia's Muslims follow the practices of their religion, Islam, less strictly than do most Mus­lims in Arab countries. Many Indonesians believe in

Central Jakarta has many wide boulevards lined with modern buildings. Traffic fills the main streets much of the time.

spirits, and combine ancestor and nature worship with Islam or Christianity. See Islam.

People in Bali and western Lombok follow a religion called Bali-Hinduism. It is based on Hinduism but in­cludes ancient Balinese and Javanese beliefs. The Bali- Hindus worship the spirits of important natural features including mountains and large trees. They also honour the spirits of ancestors which, they believe, visit them. Bali has thousands of Bali-Hindu temples where the reli­gion's many holidays are celebrated. The ceremonies in­clude colourful dances and dramas.

Buddhism and Hinduism were important religions on the islands hundreds of years ago, but Indonesia now has relatively few Buddhists or Hindus. People in some' isolated areas still follow ancient local religions, in parts of Borneo, for example, people worship ancestors, idols, and natural features.

Food. The main food of Indonesians is rice. The peo­ple boil or fry rice in various ways and serve it with a great variety of other foods. Indonesians generally cook their food in coconut milk and oil, and sometimes serve it wrapped in banana or coconut leaves.

The people may serve rice with meat, fish or a fish sauce, vegetables, or simply flavoured with hot spices. The meat is usually water buffalo, beef, or chicken. They eat little pork because most are Muslims, and their reli­gion forbids them to eat pork. Maize is a major food in some areas. Tea and coffee are favourite beverages.

People in the cities have a more varied diet than those in farm areas. Some city people eat Chinese and West­ern dishes as well as Indonesian foods.

Clothing. The traditional clothing of Indonesian men and women is a kind of colourful skirt called a sarong or a kain. A sarong is a long strip of cloth wrapped around the body. A kain is similar, but with the ends sewn to­gether. Men wear a shirt with trousers, or a sarong.

Women usually wear a long-sleeved blouse and a sarong or a kain.

The men often wear a special hat or cap, and women wear a shawl over the shoulders or on the head.

Unlike Muslim women in many other countries, those in Indonesia do not wear a veil over the face. In the cities, most people wear Western-style clothes, but many pre­fer the traditional clothing.

Shelter. Most Indonesian farm families live in houses that consist of a sleeping room and a large living room. The living room may also serve as the kitchen and have a rectangular hearth filled with clay and ashes. Stones are arranged to hold the cooking pans over the fire. The people often dry and smoke fish or meat on bamboo poles that hang above the hearth. Indonesians also use paraffin or oil stoves for cooking.

Except in Java, where houses are built on the ground, most traditional Indonesian houses stand on stilts about 2 metres high. Families use the space underneath for cattle stalls or chicken coops, or to store tools and fire­wood. The floors and walls are made of timber or flat­tened bamboo. The roofs are covered by clay tiles or thatch made of palm leaves.

Some Indonesian groups build long houses, in which 100 people may live. These groups include the Dyak peoples in Borneo, the Toradja in Sulawesi, the Batak in Sumatra, and some Papuan groups in Irian Jaya. In Su­matra, the Minangkabau people build houses with steeply sloping roofs that curve up at both ends like buf­falo horns. Many Indonesians decorate their walls with beautifully carved wood panels. City people live in Western-style homes as well as in traditional houses.

Arts. The most famous arts of Indonesia include dances of the old royal courts of Java and the dramatic folk dances of Bali. The Javanese dancers use slow, elab­orate motions in which even finger movements have a particular meaning. The dances may represent scenes of adventure, battle, or love. Many Balinese dances are based on ancient Hindu stories, and have forceful rhythms and movements.

Puppet dramas are a major part of Javanese and Bali­nese culture. The most popular puppets are flat and made of leather, and wooden puppets are also used.

The puppeteer sits behind a white screen and moves the puppets to act out stories. A palm-oil lamp throws the shadows of the puppets onto the screen. The puppeteer tells the story and speaks the part of each pup­pet Most performances last from 9 p.m. until 6 a.m.

in Java and Bali, an orchestra called a gamelan accom­panies the dances and the puppet plays. A gamelan con­sists chiefly of metal gongs, with flutes, gambangs (in­struments like xylophones), double-ended drums, and rebabs (two-stringed instruments played like cellos).

Beautiful stone sculptures decorate Indonesia's many ancient Hindu and Buddhist temples. The temples in­clude the famous Buddhist temple of Borobudur and the Hindu temples of Prambanan in central Java.

Early Indonesian literature consisted largely of local folktales and traditional Hindu and Islamic stories. Liter­ature became highly developed in many regional lan­guages, especially Javanese. Modern literature in the In­donesian language began in the 1920's.

Famous Indonesian crafts include the batik method of waxing and dyeing cloth to make beautifully coloured fabrics. Craftworkers also make puppets, and daggers called krises. Some Indonesian peoples carve seated wooden figures to represent their ancestors, and pray to them. The Dyaks of Borneo carve objects to ward off evil spirits. The Balinese carve Hindu figures and symbols for their homes and temples.

Education. In 1945, less than 10 per cent of Indone­sia's people could read and write. The government set up special programmes to promote literacy, especially in the villages. Today, more than two-thirds of the peo­ple 15 years old and older can read and write.

The government provides free primary schools and helps to support private schools. Children are required by law to go to primary school for six years, beginning at least by the age of 8. Some parts of Indonesia do not have enough schools, teachers, or textbooks to meet the needs of the rapidly increasing population. But overall, almost all the country's children attend primary school.

Indonesia's secondary school programme consists of three-year junior secondary schools and three-year sen­ior secondary schools. Nearly 40 per cent of the young people attend secondary school.

Before 1945, Indonesia had some colleges but no universities. About 50 public and private universities have been established since it declared its independence that year. The largest one, Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta, has about 22,000 students. Only about 4 per cent of college-age youths receive college educations.

Sports. Cockfighting, though outlawed by the gov­ernment, is popular in Indonesia. It is a main pastime in Bali. In Madura and in other cattle-breeding areas, the people hold ox races and bullfights during festivals. In Bali, Java, and Sumatra, Indonesians enjoy a traditional recreation called pencaksilat. It combines dancing and self-defence, and is taught in the schools.

Western sports, especially badminton, basketball, and soccer, are also popular. Indonesian teams have won several world badminton championships, and there are national basketball and soccer associations. Indonesians also enjoy cycling, swimming, and volleyball.

Population. For Indonesia's total population, see the Facts in brief table with this article. About three-fifths of the people live in Java, which ranks as one of the most densely populated regions in the world. The govern­ment has encouraged people to move from Java to less I thickly populated islands, but Java's population continues to increase, though not as rapidly as it has in the past. Most of the largest cities of Indonesia are in Java. They include Jakarta, which is Indonesia's largest city by far.
The islands

Many geographers divide the more than 13,600 islands of Indonesia into three groups: (1) the Greater Sunda Islands, (2) the Lesser Sunda Islands, and (3) the Moluccas. Indonesia also includes Irian Jaya, which is part of New Guinea. The table on this page lists the Ire as and populations of the chief islands.

The Greater Sunda Islands include Borneo, Sula­wesi (formerly Celebes), Java, and Sumatra. Most of the Indonesian people live on these islands, and most of the nation's economic activity is centred there.

Borneo is the third largest island in the world, after Greenland and New Guinea. The southern three-fourths of Borneo is part of Indonesia. The other fourth of Bor­neo is made up of Brunei and two Malaysian states— Sarawak and Sabah. The Indonesian region of Borneo is called Kalimantan, and is about the same size as France. Thick tropical rain forests and mountains cover most of inland Kalimantan. The Kapuas River, the longest river in Indonesia, flows about 1,100 kilometres from the moun­tains to the sea. The low coastal plains are largely swampy. Kalimantan is thinly populated, and most of the people live along the coast Banjarmasin is the largest city. See Borneo.

Sulawesi consists mainly of four long peninsulas. It is the most mountainous island of Indonesia. Mountains in the central region average about 3,000 metres above sea level. Many volcanoes, some of them active, rise on the northern peninsula. Forests cover most of Sulawesi.

Some inland valleys and plateaus have fertile farmlands and rich grazing lands. Many of the coastal peoples fish for a living. Ujung Pandang is the largest city and chief seaport of Sulawesi.

Java, the most heavily populated island of Indonesia, has 810 persons per square kilometre. Thousands of small farming villages cover most of Java, which is also Indonesia's most industrialized island. Java has most of the country's large cities, including Jakarta, the capital and largest city. An east-west chain of mountains, sev­eral of which are about 3,000 metres high, extend across Java. These mountains include many volcanoes, some of which are active. Wide plains with largely fertile vol­canic soils lie north of the mountains, with limestone ridges to the south. A large highland plateau covers western Java.

Sumatra is the sixth largest island in the world. The Barisan Mountains, a range of volcanic peaks along the southwestern coast, rise about 3,660 metres. The moun­tains slope eastward to a broad plain covered mostly by thick tropical rain forests and some farmland. Much of the land along the eastern coast is swampy. To the west, the mountains drop sharply to the sea. Medan is Suma­tra's largest city.

The Lesser Sunda Islands extend from Bali east­ward about 1,100 kilometres to Timor. Bali has the most people and the largest city—Denpasar—of these islands. Most of the towns are coastal trading centres. Timor is the largest island (see Timor). The Lesser Sundas have many mountains. The tallest one, Mount Rinjani on the island of Lombok, rises 3,726 metres. Many short riv­ers flow from the mountains to the sea.

The rainy season in the Lesser Sunda Islands be­comes shorter toward the east. As a result, the eastern islands have fewer tropical rainforests and more dry grasslands than those in the west. Maize is the main crop that is grown in the east, and rice ranks first in the west.

The islands become less populated toward the east. Ways of life vary greatly. The Sasaks on Lombok build their houses on stone mounds instead of the more usual wooden stilts. The Timorese on southwestern Timor live in grass houses that look like beehives.

The Lesser Sunda Islands are called Nasa Tenggara, which means "southeast islands" in Bahasa Indonesia.

The Moluccas lie on both sides of the equator be­tween Sulawesi and New Guinea. Halmahera, the largest island of this group, covers 17,790 square kilometres. Hundreds of ring-shaped coral reefs called atolls and other coral islands lie among the various large islands. Most of these small islands have no people. The major­ity of the large Moluccas are mountainous and thickly forested, but the Aru and Tanimbar islands are flat and swampy. The highest mountain, 3,027-metre Mount Binaiya, is on Ceram.

Most of the people of the Moluccas live in coastal trading settlements. Ambon, an important port, is the largest city. The Moluccas became famous hundreds of years ago after traders began to gather spices there for sale in Europe. They were known as the Spice Islands.

The original Moluccan people were probably much like the Papuans of New Guinea. Through the years, the spice trade has attracted people from many lands. These traders, including Arabs, Dutch, and Malays, intermar­ried with the islanders and greatly influenced their way of life. On some isolated islands, the Moluccans have kept their old customs and traditions.

New Guinea is the second-largest island in the world. The western half, called Irian Jaya, is a province of Indonesia. The eastern half is part of Papua New Guinea, an independent nation that also includes some small islands east of New Guinea.

Irian Jaya is the least developed and most thinly popu­lated region of Indonesia. It has an average of 2 people per square kilometre. Most of the population consists of dark-skinned peoples called Papuans. The Papuans be­long to a number of different ethnic groups, several of which live in isolated areas and follow traditional ways of life. Much of Irian Jaya is unexplored and it is still pos­sible that some undiscovered ethnic groups live there.

Tropical rainforests cover about 90 per cent of Irian Jaya. Towering mountains extend from east to west through most of the region. These mountains include 5,030-metre Puncak Jaya, the highest mountain in Indo­nesia. Most of the coastal areas are low and swampy. Jayapura, Irian Jaya's largest city, and the other towns are situated along the coasts. Most of the farmland also lies along the coasts. See New Guinea.

Climate

Indonesia has a hot, humid climate. The lowlands have an average yearly temperature of about 27° C, but temperatures are lower in the highlands. Average local temperatures vary little throughout the year. As a result, the seasons in Indonesia are based on differences in rainfall, not on temperature changes. Only Java and the Lesser Sunda Islands have a distinct dry season, with little rainfall. Rainfall is fairly evenly distributed throughout the year in other parts of the country, with somewhat heavier rains during the wet season.

The wet and dry seasons are caused largely by two major winds called monsoons. From December to March, one monsoon blows toward Indonesia from the Asian mainland. This monsoon crosses the South China 1 Sea, where it picks up much moisture, and brings heavy  rains to Indonesia. From mid-June to October, another monsoon brings dry air from Australia. Timor, the Indo­nesian island that is most affected by this wind, has the longest dry season—five months. Kalimantan and Suma­tra, which lie the farthest from Australia, have no dry season. See Monsoon.

The driest regions of Indonesia receive between 90 and 100 centimetres of rain a year. Lowlands in other parts of the country generally have from 180 to 320 cen­timetres annually, with 300 to 370 centimetres in Kali­mantan and Sumatra. Rainfall increases in the highlands, and some mountainous areas in Irian Jaya receive about 640 centimetres a year. Rainforests flourish in Indone­sia's hot, rainy climate.

Indonesia is rich in a variety of natural resources.

Much of the country's soil is especially fertile because it contains volcanic ash. Indonesian farmers, helped by the tropical climate and plentiful rainfall, grow a large vari­ety of crops. Indonesia also has important deposits of tin and petroleum. Other minerals include bauxite, coal, iron ore, and nickel. Forests, many with valuable hard­wood trees, cover about two-thirds of the country. Many kinds of fish are caught in Indonesian waters.

Service industries are economic activities that pro­duce services rather than goods. Such industries are be­coming increasingly valuable in Indonesia's economy. Service industries include such activities as banking, government, trade, transportation, and utilities.

Manufacturing has grown rapidly since the 1970's.

But Indonesian factories meet only a small part of the country's needs for manufactured goods. As a result, In­donesia must rely on the import of industrial goods, such as machinery and equipment.

The major industries of Indonesia include petroleum and natural gas refining, and the manufacture of steel, alumina (the ore of aluminium), cement, fertilizers, paper, textiles, and cigarettes. Some plants assemble cars, trucks, and light aeroplanes using imported parts and machinery. But most factories are small, such as those producing food products, wood products, soap, and other consumer goods. About 80 per cent of Indo­nesia's factory workers live in Java.

Agriculture employs over half the people of Indone­sia. Indonesian farms include large plantations where workers grow such crops as coffee, palm oil, rubber, sugar cane, tea, and tobacco for export. Rice, the chief food crop, is grown on small farms. The small farms also produce bananas, cassava, coconuts, maize, peanuts, spices, and sweet potatoes. Farmers generally grow crops for sale as well as for their own use. Their major cash crop is rubber, the chief agricultural export. Some farmers rear water buffalo, cattle, goats, and poultry.

The farmers in Java grow most of Indonesia's rice. They irrigate their rice fields with water from mountain streams and produce at least two rice crops a year. On several other islands, farmers practise slash-and-burn agriculture. They cut down and bum forest trees, and grow crops in the clearing for a few years until the soil is exhausted. Then they start the process in a new area.

Mining. Indonesia is a member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). The country is one of the chief producers of petroleum in the Far East. Petroleum and natural gas are Indonesia's chief exports. Two-thirds of the country's petroleum comes from Su­matra.

Indonesia is also a leading tin-mining country. Most of the tin mines are near Sumatra on the islands of Bangka, Belitung, and Singkep. Some of the other prod­ucts mined in Indonesia include bauxite, coal, copper, manganese, and nickel. Indonesia also mines some gold, silver, and sulphur.

Fishing. Indonesia has one of the world's largest fish­ing industries. The people take a wide variety of fish from the sea, including anchovies, mackerel, sardines, scad, and tuna. They catch milkfish and prawns in coastal ponds. Fish provide a major part of the coastal people's diet.

Forestry. Indonesia produces valuable hardwoods, including ebony and teak. These woods come mainly from Borneo and Sumatra. Poor inland transportation in­terferes with the development of forestry on most of the other large islands. Other forest products include bam­boo; mangrove bark, which is used to make dyes; and cinchona bark, which is used to make quinine a medi­cine.

Transportation is difficult in much of Indonesia be­cause of the thick forests and rugged mountains, and the wide stretches of sea that separate the islands. Less than 1 per cent of all Indonesians own a car. Buses and small vehicles called bemos pick up and let off passen­gers along most roads. Railways, owned by the govern­ment, operate on the islands of Java, Madura, and Suma­tra. A government-owned shipping company handles most transportation among the islands. Many local ves­sels carry passengers and freight along the coasts and between islands. Tanjungperiuk, near Jakarta, is the leading port. A government-owned airline flies within Indonesia and to several other countries. The main air­port is near Jakarta.

Communication. The government operates Indone­sia's postal, telegraph, and telephone systems, and its radio and television services. The country has an aver­age of about 1 radio for every 7 people and 1 television set for every 20 people. There are approximately 100 In­donesian daily newspapers. The paper with the largest circulation in Indonesia is Kompas of Jakarta.

History

For most of its history, the region now called Indonesia has consisted of many states, some large and some j tiny. Peoples of basically Malay culture lived on the Indonesian islands and the Malay Peninsula. The area was once known as the East Indies. The part which later became Indonesia was also known as the Netherlands East Indies. The name "Indonesia" was first used in 1850. The modern nation of Indonesia was not created until the 1940's, and its people then began to call themselves Indonesians. For convenience, this section of the article refers to "Indonesia" and "Indonesians".

Ancient times. Scholars know little about the origins S of the Indonesians. Scientists have found in Java bones of one of the earliest types of prehistoric human beings. Near the town of Mojokerto in eastern Java, they have discovered remains of human beings who lived more than half a million years ago. The first important discovery of the remains of prehistoric humans in Indonesia 1 was in 1891. Eugene Dubois, a Dutch surgeon, discov­ered in Java the remains of the skeleton of a human who lived about half a million years ago. Dubois named the find Pithecanthropus erectus (erect apeman), but a more i common name is Java man (see Java man). Scientists found no evidence that Java man was the ancestor of later Indonesian peoples.

Malay peoples. The ancestors of most Indonesians came to the islands from the mainland of Southeast Asia. Some historians believe that Malay peoples left the Asian mainland in a series of migrations, probably be­tween about 2500 and the 100's B.C. These Malay peo­ples lived in villages. They knew how to work bronze and iron, to weave textiles, and to navigate ships across the sea. They worshipped thunder, spirits inhabiting rocks, streams, and trees, the gods of rain and of the soil, and other natural objects.

Indonesians refer to their land as the Tanah Air (Land and Water). Water was as important as land to these people, who travelled by boat to settle in more than 13,000 islands. They lived either around the coasts or along the banks of the rivers. Here they found low-lying land where they could grow rice and other crops. They could also catch fish. They lived in wood and thatch houses raised up on stilts, sometimes over the water.

Rice was an important crop in Java and Bali. The peo­ples of ancient Indonesia developed a system of irrigat­ing their rice fields. They cut terraced fields out of the steep hillsides, and channelled water to flow down the slopes from terrace to terrace. The people of Java and some other parts of Indonesia still water their crops by this system. Terraced fields are a feature of the Javanese and Balinese landscapes.

Villages had to co-operate with one another to de­velop such an advanced system of irrigation. This co­operation probably led to the growth of civilized com­munities, sharing an irrigation system. In this way, small states began to appear.

Early traders sailing between India and China had to pass down the Strait of Malacca, and through the Indo­nesian islands. These foreign sailors stopped at coastal ports to buy and sell cargoes, and to wait for the favour­able monsoon winds to carry them onward (see Mon­soon). As Indonesians were exposed to outside influ­ences, they learned new techniques, adopted foreign words and, in time, foreign religions. They were influ­enced in turn by Chinese, Indians, Arabs, Persians, Por­tuguese, Dutch, and English. Hinduism, Islam, and Chris­tianity all arrived in Indonesia. The Indonesians also traded from island to island, and played a part in the wider trade around the coasts of Asia.

Indian influence

Historians have found signs of Indian influences from about A.D. 400 in Indonesia, although Indian influence probably developed hundreds of years earlier. The Indi­ans did not establish colonies in Indonesia. Some as­pects of Indian culture were introduced through trade. Rulers of small kingdoms in Indonesia borrowed Indian ideas about kingship and about the organization of king­doms. Many Indonesian words to do with kings and government come from Sanskrit or other Indian lan­guages. An example is the Indonesian word raja mean­ing king.

The Javanese kingdoms borrowed some Hindu ideas about government, such as the ideas of divine kingship.

The Hindus believed that a ruler was descended from a god, or was himself a god in human form. The king ruled through an aristocratic class. Indonesian king­doms developed an aristocracy, but did not borrow the Indian caste system (see Caste).

Buddhist thought also influenced the Indonesians. In Java, the main influence was Hindu. But Buddhism had its influence there also. In southern Sumatra, the empire of Srivijaya was a centre of Buddhism, and of Buddhist studies (see Srivijaya).

Dynasties and temples. The kingdoms that grew up in Java and Sumatra under these Indian influences were rivals for about 1,000 years. During the A.D. 700’s, a Hindu kingdom called Mataram was established in cen­tral Java under a ruler named Sanjaya. At the same time, and in the same area, there was a Buddhist dynasty called the Shailendra (lords of the mountains). Sometime around 850 these two dynasties were joined by marriage.

Historians judge the size and power of such king­doms from the ruins that remain. In central Java are two important temples. The huge Buddhist temple of Boro­budur, near the city of Yogyakarta, was built at the end of the 700's. The group of Hindu temples at Prambanan was built probably a little later. See Borobudur; Pram­banan.

Some temples are burial-places of rulers as well as places of worship. This suggests that Hindu beliefs may have been mixed with earlier ideas of ancestor-worship. The style of these buildings shows Indian influence. But the buildings look distinctive, because Javanese workers developed their own style of craftsmanship.

The Shailendra dynasty reappeared as rulers of the Buddhist empire called Srivijaya, which had been founded in southern Sumatra in the 600's. A new Hindu kingdom, also called Mataram, was established in cen­tral Java. Mataram and Srivijaya were bitter rivals. Srivi­jaya was to remain the most powerful kingdom in the is­lands until the 120ffs.

By A.D. 928, the central Javanese ruler had transferred his court to east Java. From then until the time of Majapahit, the history of Java is really the history of east Java (see Majapahit). East Java was more accessible to the sea, and the sea trade in spices and other goods made the region wealthy.

During the 1000's, Airlangga, a legendary hero in Indonesian history, built up a strong kingdom in eastern Java. He later divided his kingdom between his two sons. See Airlangga. The two new kingdoms, Kediri and Janggala, were later reunited as Singosari. During the 1200's, under a king named Kertanagara, Singosari gained control of a large territory. After the death of Kertanagara, his son-in-law Wijaya established the new kingdom of Majapahit. Majapahit was the last and greatest of the kingdoms of the Hindu period.       

Majapahit reached the height of its power during the ac 1300’s, under the ruler Hayam Wuruk. Its power was largely due to Hayam Wuruk's chief minister, Cajah Mada. During his period of office, the empire claimed to control a large part of Indonesia. It did not control many places outside Java, but it was more powerful than pre­vious empires.

Expansion of trade. Trade in the Malay archipelago expanded greatly as Indians, Arabs, Persians, and Chi­nese traders sold their goods round the coast of Asia. This trade extended from China to the Arabian penin­sula. Other traders carried such Asian goods as raw silk, textiles, and porcelain from Arabia as far as the Mediter­ranean. Indonesia was a "crossroads" for this coastal commerce. Traders of many countries gathered in ports on the Strait of Malacca, along the northern coast of Java, and in the eastern Indonesian islands. Traders took spices such as nutmeg and mace, and sweet-smelling woods such as camphor, from Indonesia to other parts of the world.

At the height of its power, the kingdom of Srivijaya controlled trade in Indonesian waters with its powerful fleets. At other times, the northern coastal ports of Java exercised control. Inland kingdoms grew up in Java, owing their power to rice production rather than to commerce. Rivalry developed between the coastal states and inland states. The conflict between Srivijaya and Mataram is an example of this rivalry. Later, similar rivalry developed between Srivijaya and Singosari. Ma­japahit was the first kingdom to owe its power to both rice production and commerce.

The powerful new states borrowed Indian ideas of or­ganization. Court life, too, showed strong Indian influ­ences, especially in the inland rice-growing areas of central and eastern Java, and of Bali. The languages were written down for the first time, in scripts copied from Indian. Village life also showed some Indian influ­ences. For example, Indian legends were retold in the wayang (shadow puppet plays), which were performed in villages (see Wayang). But Indian gods such as Shiva did not displace the spirits that the village people had worshipped for thousands of years. The Indonesians adopted the new without getting rid of the old.

The arrival of Islam

Traders of many countries visiting Indonesian ports, brought with them new ideas and religious beliefs.

Muslim traders from Arabia and India brought the reli­gion of Islam. Islam gradually spread amongst the Indo­nesians, though most people were slow to give up their old beliefs. Islam had begun to take root in Indonesia long before the end of the period of Indian influence in the area.

In north Sumatra, a local Indonesian ruler called Malik al-Salih had adopted Islam for himself and his subjects by the 1290's. He was ruler of Pasai. An Arabic inscription on his tombstone records his death in 1297. Ibn Batuta, a famous Arab traveller, visited Pasai in 1345. (see Ibn Batuta). He found the sultan of the time gener­ous, fond of religious debates, and humble, walking to the mosque on Fridays. This sultan sent out expeditions to convert the people around Pasai to Islam.

The rise of Melaka. In about A.D. 1400, Melaka, on the western coast of the Malay Peninsula, became a cen­tre of the Muslim faith, as well as a commercial centre. According to local Malay belief, Melaka was founded by Parameswara, a Sumatran prince. Fleeing from enemies, Parameswara took refuge on the island of Singapore, and then moved to Melaka, a small fishing village. Melaka was a base for pirates, who preyed on shipping passing through the strait. Under Parameswara's rule, the settlement became a centre of trade. It gained con­trol of the Strait of Malacca, and became the centre of a new commercial empire.

Historians believe that Parameswara may have be­come a Muslim. Under his son, who definitely was a Muslim, Melaka became a base from which the new re­ligion of Islam grew rapidly. During the 1400's, Islam spread widely in northern Sumatra. By the 1500's Aceh, at the northern tip of Sumatra, was the most powerful trading state of the island, and had become a centre for the study of Islam. Islam also spread through western Sumatra, and developed in the trading centres of Java's northern coast, such as Demak, Tuban, and Surabaya; and in southern Sulawesi.

Tombstones of Javanese Muslims have been found near Majapahit, dating from 1376 onward. However, the inland kingdoms were not ready to receive the new faith. In Java, the Muslim states on the coast, particularly Demak, quarrelled with the declining Hindu empire of Majapahit. During the 1500's, a new kingdom arose in central Java on the ruins of Majapahit. It adopted the name of Mataram, after the earlier kingdom of that name. The ruler of the new Mataram became a Muslim. Mataram became powerful enough to defeat Demak and the other neighbouring Muslim states. It reestab­lished a united Muslim empire over central and eastern Java. See Wali Sanga.

The spread of Islam. Islam was more successful than Christianity in the East Indies. The Islamic faith spread mostly through the use of the Malay language. This language was written in Arabic script, which the Muslims brought to the Indonesian region. Malay be­came so widespread that in time a form of Malay be­came the national language of modern Indonesia.

Gradually, Islam spread through the Indonesian is­lands. It is still spreading. Today, about 85 per cent of In­donesia's people are Muslims. Indonesia has more Mus­lims than any other country in the world.

In areas where Hinduism was practised, for example in central and eastern Java and Bali, the rulers were re­luctant to abandon Hinduism, because under Hinduism they were regarded almost as gods. Even today, in these formerly Hindu areas Islamic practice is less orthodox than in other areas. Accepting Islam has not meant a complete break with the past. In these areas, some Mus­lims may, for example, neglect the daily prayers, and may even eat pork. In Bali, most of the people remain Hindus.

The coming of the Portuguese

In the early 1500's, the first European traders arrived in the East Indies. Only a few European travellers, such as Marco Polo in 1292, had visited the islands before this time. The first Europeans to establish direct continu­ous contact with Indonesia were the Portuguese.

In 1497, the Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama sailed beyond the Cape of Good Hope, and eastward across the Indian Ocean to the port of Calicut on the Malabar coast of India (see Da Gama, Vasco). Other ex­plorers followed. The Portuguese were looking for new routes to the "Indies", as Europeans called Indonesia, by J the beginning of the 1500’s. Before the 1500's, goods I ; from the Indies, such as spices, could reach Europe only 1 through the eastern Mediterranean. Traders, mostly Muslims, carried goods from Asia and sold them to European merchants in Middle Eastern cities such as Damascus. Merchants from Venice, in Italy, handled most of the Mediterranean trade in these goods. The Portuguese wanted to break the control of the Muslim and Venetian traders, by finding a new route to the Indies. In a surprisingly short time, the Portuguese established trading posts and built fortresses to protect their new interests in the area. In this way, they came to dominate trade across the Indian Ocean. In 1509, the Portuguese sent four trading vessels to Melaka, in the Malay Peninsula. The sultan of Melaka at first received them kindly. But, fearing their threat to his trade, he then attacked them and took some prisoners. In 1510, the Portuguese captured Goa, on the western coast of India, and Goa became their major base. In 1511, the new Portuguese viceroy in the Indian Ocean, Alfonso d'Albuquerque, led a fleet from Goa to Melaka, and succeeded in capturing it. As a result, the Portuguese were then able to control the trade of western Indonesia, just as the Melaka sultanate had done. They built a fortress at Melaka.

The Portuguese were few in number but they were experienced sailors, and had effective guns on their ships. Unlike the earlier Asian traders who were content to have just trading rights in Indonesian ports, the Portu­guese demanded the right to build fortresses. If refused, they attacked the local ruler. Indonesian settlements were mostly near the coast, and so were usually within range of Portuguese naval guns.

The Portuguese were anxious to spread the Christian religion. Their main interest, however, was in collecting spices from the eastern islands of Indonesia to sell in Europe. They set up trading posts in the Spice Islands (the Moluccas) at Ternate, Tidore, and Ambon, and tried to establish a monopoly over trade there (see Spice Is­lands).

Most of this trade was controlled by Muslims. The Portuguese were constantly at war against them, be­cause they saw Islam as the enemy of Christianity. Portu­guese dominance in Indonesia lasted only until the early 1600's when traders from other European countries suc­cessfully challenged Portuguese power in the islands. Portugal's hostile presence accelerated the spread of Islam, because the peoples of Indonesia found in Islam a faith that could bind them together to resist the Chris­tian Europeans. The Portuguese quickly lost all their set­tlements, except the small colony of Portuguese Timor, which they held on to until 1975.

The Dutch East India Company

The first Dutch merchant ships in Indonesia ap­peared off the coast at Bantam, in western Java, in 1596. Sailors and merchants from Britain and the Netherlands made their own trading voyages around the Cape of Good Hope to the East Indies. They, too, were attracted by the immense profits to be made from the spice trade. A fierce rivalry developed between them. A British expe­dition to the Indies, led by James Lancaster, left Europe in 1591. A Dutch expedition, under Cornelis de Houtman, set sail in 1595. One ship of Lancaster's expedition reached the Indies, but it was lost on the way home. Houtman had better fortune. He lost many sailors, but managed to return to the Netherlands with three of his four ships. Other voyages followed.

In 1600, the British East India Company was formed. It received a royal charter that gave it a monopoly over British trade in the East Indies. In 1602, merchants in Amsterdam and other Dutch towns formed the Dutch East India Company.

For the next few years, the British and Dutch compa­nies struggled for the control of trade in the East Indies. They gained trading footholds in Java, Sumatra, and Su­lawesi. Each tried to keep the other out of the spice trade by making agreements with local rulers.

The massacre of Ambon, in 1623, worsened rela­tions between the Dutch and British. At Ambon (also called Amboina), the Dutch had a fortress which served as a collecting centre for the products of the Spice Is­lands. The British also had a trading post there. The Dutch seized 18 British people, and beheaded 10 of them. They claimed that the British had been plotting to seize the Dutch fortress.

In 1641, the Dutch captured Melaka from the Portu­guese. The British held on to a trading post at Bantam in western Java, until 1682. In that year, the Dutch captured Bantam, and drove out all the foreign traders. The Dutch company had won, and was now able to dominate the trade of the islands.

The person responsible for the Dutch victory was Jan Pieterszoon Coen (see Coen, Jan Pieterszoon). He was the Dutch governor general in the Indies from 1619 to 1623, and again from 1627 to 1629. After this setback, the British East India Company turned its attention to India. The East Indies became a dominated by the Dutch, al­though the British continued to trade there, especially in pepper, but the Dutch were the strongest foreign power.

Effects of European dominance. The coming of Eu­ropeans made an enormous change in the history of In­donesia, as elsewhere in Asia. However, historians point out that the islands of Indonesia had a civilization that had existed for many hundreds of years before Por­tuguese and Dutch sailors first appeared in Indonesian waters.

At first, the Europeans did not have a great effect on the life of the islands. The Portuguese did not want to conquer and rule territory. All they wanted was to cap­ture the trade of the Indies. The same was true of the Dutch, whose aim was to collect spices and other prod­ucts and to ship them to Europe.

However, the Dutch were different from the Asian traders who had come before them. Like the Portu­guese, the Dutch brought superior naval and military power to Indonesia. They forced local princes to trade on their terms. The Dutch East India Company was big­ger and more powerful than any of the Asian traders who had visited the islands before.

The Dutch could not keep out of local affairs, particu­larly when disputes occurred. Sometimes a claimant to a disputed throne would appeal to the company for armed support. A ruler would seek its help to control his rebellious subjects. As the price for such aid, the company always obtained some power over the ruler in the form of concessions. As a result, the company's in­fluence gradually extended through the Indies. Local rul­ers, particularly those whose kingdoms were near com­pany trading posts, found their power slipping away.

A Dutch empire. During the 1600's, the Dutch East India Company gained power in the Spice Islands, and conquered Makassar. The Dutch in eastern Indonesia could look after the company interests best by control­ling local rulers. In Java, things were rather different. There, the Dutch were reluctantly drawn into a struggle with the Muslim kingdom of Mataram. In 1674, there was a rebellion in Mataram. The ruler, Amangkurat I, asked for Dutch help. In return, the Dutch gained some of Mataram's territory in western and central Java. Other parts of Java gradually passed into Dutch hands. By 1755, the small principalities of Yogyakarta and Surakarta in central Java were all that remained of Mataram.

In this way, the Dutch company became more than just a trading company. By the end of the 1700's, it con­trolled Java. In the other islands, too, it had begun to set up a similar kind of control. This control did not unite the islands into one political unit, under the Dutch gov­ernment at Batavia (now Jakarta), but it laid the founda­tions for a Dutch East Indies empire.

Dutch control of trade. The trading monopoly of the Dutch company was never quite complete. Smug­glers and pirates evaded it to some extent. But the once- flourishing Indonesian trading class lost its power. To prevent smuggling, the company tried to restrict the production of certain goods to particular areas. For ex­ample, they tried to restrict the trade in cloves and nut­meg to the Banda Islands and Ambon. They destroyed clove trees in Ternate and Tidore to preserve their mo­nopoly. They also demanded forced deliveries. They forced the Indonesians to produce certain crops, at fixed prices.

Such ruthless measures harmed the Dutch. By exclud­ing Indonesians from a share in their own commerce, the company made the local people too poor to buy the European goods that it wanted to sell. So trade was mostly one-sided. The Dutch exported Indonesian prod­ucts to a European market.

At first, the Dutch made enormous profits from the spice trade. However, the company had to take more re­sponsibility for government in areas it controlled. Many of its employees became corrupt. As a result, the com­pany gradually declined during the late 1700's. In 1799, the Dutch government took over the Dutch East India company, and took control of all company territories in the Netherlands Indies.

The Dutch Empire

The fall of the Dutch East India Company came during a troubled period of European history. From 1802 to 1815, the Napoleonic Wars were in progress. The Netherlands was defeated and seized by France. Britain was at war with France, and so Britain decided to take over the Dutch East Indies. The Dutch governor general at Batavia from 1808 to 1811 was Herman Wil­lem Daendels, one of Napoleon's marshals. He made vigorous preparations for defence against the British. But in 1811, a British military expedition sent from India captured Batavia. Within 45 days, the French and Dutch forces in Java had surrendered. Stamford Raffles, the British official who had planned the operation, was appointed lieutenant governor of Java. See Raffles, Sir Stamford. Raffles introduced changes in the administra­tion of the island. His aim was to make the former Dutch possessions become a permanent part of Britain's em­pire.

After the defeat of Napoleon in 1815, Britain returned the former Dutch territories to the Netherlands. Britain kept only a trading station at Bengkulu (formerly called Bencoolen), in southern Sumatra.

In 1816, the Dutch government again took over Java and the trading posts in the other East Indian islands. At first, they behaved like the Dutch East India Company. Their aim was to collect the goods of the Indies for sale in Europe. But they adopted some new methods of or­ganizing cultivation and taxation.

The dividing line. In 1824, another treaty between the Netherlands and Britain settled some disputes be­tween the two countries. Britain agreed to withdraw from its post in Bengkulu, and the Dutch agreed to give up Melaka on the Malay Peninsula. The two nations drew a line on the map down the Strait of Malacca, and agreed that the Dutch should control the Sumatran side, and the British on the Malay Peninsula side. Then, nei­ther country could control both sides of the Strait and so close it to the shipping of the other country. Today, the region is split between two countries, Malaysia and Indonesia, with the Strait of Malacca forming the inter­national boundary.

The cultivation system. In 1830, Dutch governor Jo­hannes Van Den Bosch introduced a new way of gaining Indonesian products for export. This was the cultivation system. Villagers had to pay a land tax of one-fifth of their produce. Instead of accepting rice as payment, the Dutch ordered the villagers in Java to set aside one-fifth of their land to grow whatever crops the government ordered. The crops grown were mostly coffee, indigo, sugar, tea, and tobacco. The government fixed the price it would pay for these crops. It then sold the crops in Eu­rope, at a big profit.

The Dutch persuaded the Javanese ruling class to help them enforce the cultivation system. In some ways, the system was like the earlier system of forced deliver­ies, but it was much more tightly controlled, and there was more corruption and more abuse.

The cultivation system brought huge profits to the Dutch, but it put heavy burdens on the Indonesians. In time, it even became unpopular in the Netherlands, be­cause it was government-run. Many Dutch people wanted private companies and individuals to have more opportunities to trade in the Indies. In the 1860's, the Dutch government abolished the system and allowed in­dividual Dutch citizens to lease land in Indonesia in 1870.

Colonization. In 1825, Diponegoro, a Javanese prince, took up arms against the Dutch in central Java (see Diponegoro, Pangeran). But most of the inhabitants of Java stayed out of the revolt. In 1830, the Dutch lured Diponegoro into a trap, and captured him.

The Dutch began to extend their control of the Indies, outside Java and Sumatra, only after 1870. They gradu­ally brought the remainder of the archipelago under one system of government, partly by conquest. The In­donesian states did not unite against the Dutch, and fell one by one.

The encouragement of Dutch private enterprise in In­donesia was called the liberal policy. It led to enormous economic and political changes in Indonesia. The year 1870 marked a change in the development of Dutch rule and economic policy in the Indies. Private individuals could invest money in plantations. These plantations re­placed the old method of collecting produce from Indo­nesian growers. In eastern Sumatra, plantations flour­ished, producing palm oil, rubber, tobacco, and other products. Plantations also developed in Java. Between 1870 and 1930, exports from the Indies increased more than 10 times. By 1900, there were more than three times as many European settlers in Java as there were in 1852.

Some Indonesian chiefs still fought fiercely against the Dutch. It took the Dutch from 1873 to 1908 to con­quer the Acehnese in the northern tip of Sumatra. They had to keep troops in Bali until 1914 to maintain order.

In other places, the local rulers accepted Dutch rule without a fight. After 1909, the Dutch did not need to mount any more major expeditions to enforce their rule. By about 1910, the final extent of the Dutch East Indies had been established.

The ethical policy. The liberal policy led to a great increase in the wealth of the Indies. But Indonesians did not share in this wealth. While the Dutch made great profits, the Indonesians' standard of living fell. In the Netherlands, humanitarian people criticized govern­ment policy. They argued that the Netherlands had a debt of honour to repay, because it had drawn wealth from the colony.

In 1900, in response to these criticisms, the Dutch government decided to encourage Indonesian develop­ment. It tried to introduce a welfare policy for the col­ony. The new approach was called the ethical policy. Under this policy, the Dutch government made money available for agricultural development, and for health services and education.

This policy did not succeed. The Dutch tried to assist village agriculture. They introduced new crops, built new roads, and enabled farmers to get credit more eas­ily. They improved the irrigation system on which the agriculture system depended. But the Dutch made no at­tempt to change the system itself. Living standards of most Indonesians did not improve. Villagers resented the increased supervision of their lives under the new arrangements.

The Dutch increased the number of schools, but the results were disappointing. Only a few more people learnt to read and write. A tiny number of Indonesians went on to secondary school or university. Of these few people, some were able to get jobs in government serv­ice or in business. But there were not nearly enough such opportunities. Indonesians with a Western educa­tion who could not find work felt that their new skills were not being used. They became extremely resentful that Dutch people were preferred for the few jobs that became available.

Social change. The Dutch intended the ethical policy to be an experiment in social change, to train Indone­sians for life in the modern world. Although they were not successful, social change did take place in Indone­sia, alongside great economic changes. For hundreds of years, the islands had been the home of farming and trading communities. The farmers had grown little more than was needed to feed themselves and their families. Traders merely collected and exchanged garden prod­ucts such as nutmeg, pepper, and cloves. By the end of the 1800's, the region felt the full force of the European industrial revolution. European factories needed copra, petroleum, rubber, and tin. Indonesia became part of a new world economy. Great social changes affected the

age-old patterns of life among the people of Indonesia.

Many Indonesians left the village for a new life on plantations. Others left the land to work in the cities for Europeans. Cities grew rapidly, and slums developed. Many Indonesians who had left behind their old way of life did not easily adapt to a fast-changing world. The same was true of Indonesians who had received a Euro­pean education. Such people seldom had the opportu­nity to use their new skills, but neither did they feel a sense of belonging to the old village-based society.

A major development of this period was the growing importance of the Chinese community. The Chinese had taken part in the trade of the islands for hundreds of years. They had collected produce for the Dutch East India Company. In the new economic system, they be­came very important in the internal commerce of the In­dies. In particular, most shopkeepers were Chinese.

The growth of nationalism

One reason why Indonesians from the different re­gions of the East Indies never united to oppose the Dutch was because they did not see themselves as Indo­nesians. They saw themselves as Javanese, or Bugis, or Batak, or some other local group. Nearly 300 states, spread throughout the archipelago, came under colo­nial rule. Each state had its own culture and history, and often its own language. There was no sense of nation­hood until after about 1910 when the Dutch brought the whole of the East Indies under the rule of the governor general in Batavia. Only then was Indonesian national­ism possible.

The rise of Indonesian nationalism. Educated In­donesians began to wonder why they lived in a colony ruled by the Dutch. Those people who received an edu­cation in Dutch could read books published in Europe, which informed them of independent countries and de­mocracy. A few Indonesians went to study at universities in the Netherlands. They found themselves in a country where people were proud of having driven out foreign invaders to win their independence. The feeling began to grow that Indonesians should do the same. They would drive out the Dutch and become independent. By 1920, nationalists had conceived the idea of an independent Dutch East Indies, which they would call Indo­nesia. See Earl, George Windsor.

From the early 1900's, organizations with nationalistic aims began to form in the East Indies. Some were Com­munist, some Islamic. Some nationalists demanded complete independence. Others wanted Indonesians simply t° have a greater share in the government. A pio­neer in the nationalist movement was Kartini, the daugh­ter of a Javanese noble. See Kartini, Raden Ajeng.

In 1908, Wahidin Sudirohusodo, a Javanese doctor, inspired Indonesia's first nationalist organization, Budi Utorrto (High Endeavour). It appealed to Western- educated Indonesians, rather than to the mass of the people. Budi Utomo was not strong enough to chal­lenge Dutch authority. Its aims were cultural rather than political.

In 1912, a group of Javanese traders formed a new so­ciety, which became Sarekat Islam (Islamic Union). This Muslim society presented a more important challenge to the Dutch. The traders wanted to resist Chinese com­petition in the batik industry (see Batik). But the new so­ciety soon changed its character. Under the leadership of Omar Said Tjokroaminoto, it became a mass political organization. Within seven years, it had a membership of several hundred thousand people. The new party wanted to base itself on Muslim support, but soon faced a challenge from the newly-formed Communist Party of the Indies. Members of the Communist Party became members of Sarekat Islam, and attempted to influence it. During the early 1920's, Sarekat Islam succeeded in ex­pelling the Communists.

Other nationalist societies sprang up. One of these was the PNI (Indonesian Nationalist Party), under the leadership of Sukarno (see Sukarno). Other groups in­cluded Partindo (Indonesian Party), PRI (Indonesian Peo­ple's Party), Parindra (Greater Indonesia Party), and the Freedom Group. Two members of the Freedom Group later became prime ministers of Indonesia. They were Mohammad Hatta and Sutan Sjahrir (see Hatta, Moham­mad; Sutan Sjahrir).

Dutch reaction to the nationalist movement. At first, the Dutch government allowed the nationalist movement to develop. In 1905, it had introduced munici­pal councils to govern the towns and cities. By 1920, there were 32 such councils, with a limited electoral franchise. Other councils were also established. They in­cluded provincial councils in Java, and group commu­nity councils outside Java.

By 1918, the colonial government had created a na­tional assembly, the Volksraad (people's council). Repre­sentatives of the Dutch, Indonesians, and other Asians sat on this council. Some representatives were elected, and some were appointed. The Volksraad had few pow­ers, except those of debate. Some nationalists tried to work within the assembly, but most considered it inade­quate and worked for the nationalist cause in more radi­cal ways.

As the Indonesian nationalist movement grew, the Su­matran patriots, Mohammad Hatta and Sutan Sjahrir, promoted nationalist ideas in the Netherlands and other countries. The name "Indonesia", known only to a few in­tellectuals in 1920, was soon known to the masses. In 1926, the Communists launched revolts against the Dutch in Java and Sumatra, but the Dutch had no diffi­culty in suppressing these revolts. At a congress held in Jakarta in 1928, young Indonesian nationalists pledged themselves to one nation state, united by the Indonesian language.

Sukarno, a graduate engineer, emerged as one of the

most prominent nationalist leaders. In 1929, he was ar­rested by the Dutch, but was released in 1931. In 1933, he was again arrested, and imprisoned in Flores, along with Mohammad Hatta and Sutan Sjahrir. Later, Sukarno was transferred to detention in Sumatra. In the 1930% such measures enabled the Dutch government to keep the nationalist movement under control.

The birth of independent Indonesia

The Japanese occupation. In 1941, during World War II, Japanese armies advanced into Southeast Asia.

By March 1942, they had occupied the Indies. This con­quest had important consequences. The Japanese proved that the Dutch were not invincible. The Japanese occupation authorities gave Indonesians important jobs, from which the Dutch had previously excluded them. In­donesians who carried out these tasks gained new con­fidence. The Japanese gave some recognition to nation­alist leaders, in order to make their own rule acceptable to the people. Sukarno, in particular, used his position as an intermediary between the Japanese army and the Indonesian people to speak against imperialism. His ar­guments against Dutch rule were just as easily applied to Japanese rule.

When the Japanese began to lose the war in the Pa­cific, they promised to grant independence to the Indo­nesians. On Aug. 14, 1945, the Japanese surrendered to the Allies. On Aug. 17, 1945, Sukarno and Hatta jointly proclaimed the independent Republic of Indonesia. This proclamation was not recognized by the Dutch.

British troops arrived in September 1945 to receive the Japanese surrender. They found that the Indonesian nationalists had already created the framework for a government. When the Dutch returned, the nationalist government was strongly established. British forces left at the end of 1946, and the Indonesians and Dutch fought for power.

The war of independence. The next three years were years of bitter struggle alternating with negotia­tion. Neither side could win the war. The Dutch held the key ports and cities. They were superior in training, equipment, and organization. But outside the cities, the Republican guerillas were in control.

In their colonial army, the Dutch employed Indone­sian soldiers. The best known of these were from Ambon. After the Dutch had left, other Indonesians felt great bitterness against those who had fought on the Dutch side. The Dutch supported a rebellion by ex­soldiers, who wanted to form an independent republic of Ambon. Many Ambonese families settled in the Neth­erlands.

In 1946, the Dutch and Indonesians reached an agree­ment under which the Dutch promised limited inde­pendence within the Dutch Union. But the nationalist government feared that the Dutch would not give inde­pendence if they regained control. In 1947, and 1948, the Dutch launched "police actions" in an attempt to settle the dispute. During the 1948 action, they attacked Yogyakarta, captured Sukarno, Hatta, and other Republican leaders, and detained them in Sumatra. Indonesian troops resisted bravely. In 1947, the United Nations tried to help negotiations. The Dutch attempted to isolate the Indonesian nationalists by setting up separate states out­side Java and Sumatra, as parts of a new federalist Indonesia. Finally, in 1949, after the United States brought pressure to bear on the Netherlands, the Dutch agreed to transfer sovereignty to Indonesia. The Dutch held on to Netherlands New Guinea (West Irian). On Dec. 27, 1949, the Netherlands East Indies ceased to exist, and the sovereign Federal Republic of Indonesia was born. The first president of the new nation was Sukarno. The prime minister was Mohammad Hatta.

Indonesia under Sukarno

Indonesia emerged as an independent state with high expectations. On Sept. 28, 1950, Indonesia gained inter­national recognition by becoming a member of the United Nations. At first, following the agreement with the Netherlands, the government operated under a fed­eral constitution. The Dutch had argued that federation was the only way in which the interests of the more sparsely populated outer islands could receive equal weight with those of densely populated Java, where two out of every three Indonesians lived. Indonesian leaders resented this arrangement They changed the constitu­tion, to concentrate power in the centre. In August 1950, the country became the Unitary State of Republic of In­donesia.

Many Indonesians had hoped for great changes once the Dutch were driven out When people found that their living standards were little better than before, many became discontented.

The people in Sumatra, Kalimantan, Sulawesi, and the other outer islands were outnumbered by the Javanese. They resented Javanese control. People in the outer is­lands smuggled goods to by-pass the central govern­ment and to keep export profits themselves.

A great number of political parties sprang up, but none of these parties was strong enough to provide strong government. When elections were held in 1955, there were about 30 parties. The 1955 election was the only general election held during Sukarno's presidency. It did not give a majority to any one party. After the elec­tions, President Sukarno began to take a greater part in politics. The army also began to show signs of impa­tience with the corruption of politicians.

In 1956 and 1958, there were revolts in Sumatra and Sulawesi. These crises gave Sukarno the opportunity to take a leading part in active politics. In putting down the revolts, the army became a stronger political force.

Sukarno had begun to put forward his own ideas about the government of Indonesia. He summed up these ideas in the term guided democracy. He said that Western democracy was not suited to Indonesia's needs. Sukarno wanted to get rid of the country's parlia­ment because the political parties in it pursued their own interests. In 1959, he succeeded in reintroducing the 1945 constitution. Parliament continued to exist, but became less important. Sukarno set up a Supreme Advi­sory Council, made up of members representing farm­ers, workers, and other groups.

Sukarno's policies. These changes did not solve In­donesia's problems. Exports declined. In 1957, Indonesia seized foreign-owned plantations and industries. Within a few weeks, 40,000 Dutch citizens left Indonesia. There were not enough Indonesians trained to run the former Dutch enterprises. In 1958, the government imposed re­strictions on the non-Indonesian Chinese, who played a very important part in the business life of Indonesia. Chinese people were banned from any trading in rural areas. The economy suffered. Prices rose, and there was serious inflation.

In 1960, all political parties were banned. Sukarno spent much time and money on prestige events such as the Asian Games, held in Indonesia in 1962. Ever since, Indonesia had hosted the conference of African and Asian leaders, held in Bandung in 1955, Sukarno had sought to be seen as a leader of the Third World strug­gle against colonialism.

Sukarno repeatedly demanded West Irian (then Neth­erlands New Guinea) from the Dutch. West Irian was transferred to Indonesia in May 1963.

When Malaysia was formed, in September 1963, In­donesia objected to the inclusion of Sarawak and Sabah (North Borneo) in the new Malaysia. Sukarno announced a policy of confrontation with Malaysia, and in 1964, armed Indonesian volunteers began crossing into parts of Malaysia. These invasion attempts were unsuccessful, chiefly because of British military support for Malaysia. In 1965, Indonesia withdrew from the United Nations as a protest against the election of Malaysia to the UN Se­curity Council.

The fall of Sukarno. Under Sukarno, people grew to S think of themselves as Indonesians, first and foremost. M All children in school learned Indonesian, as well as their local language. But these gains were at enormous cost. By the 1960's, inflation was more than 650 per cent. Foreign investment had stopped. People were generally worse off than they had been in the 195ffs.

On the night of Sept. 30-0ct. 1, 1965, army and air force officers who supported the Communists tried to seize power. They kidnapped and killed six senior army officers. Lieutenant General Suharto led army troops to suppress the revolt, and to restore order. Against Sukar­no's wishes, he took over command of the army. From then on, Suharto held the real power.

During the following months, civilian mobs killed thousands of Communists and Chinese. Some historians believe as many as 500,000 people were murdered. The unsuccessful coup became known as G-30-S, or Gestapu, a short form of the Indonesian for "The Sep­tember 30 Movement".

On March 11, 1966, Sukarno delegated emergency powers to Suharto to restore order. Suharto banned the Communist party, and helped to reorganize the govern­ment. In June 1966, Indonesia's new leaders agreed to end confrontation with Malaysia. Also in 1966, Indonesia rejoined the United Nations. In 1967, Indonesia helped to set up the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). See Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

In July 1966, the Provisional People's Consultative As­sembly (MPRS) took away Sukarno's title of "president for life" but left him as president and prime minister. In March 1967, Sukarno was compelled to hand over the presidency to Suharto, and went into retirement.

Indonesia under Suharto

On March 27, 1968, the People's Provisional Consulta­tive Assembly elected General Suharto president. Su­harto was Indonesia's second president. His initial term was five years, but he was reelected unopposed in 1973, 1978, 1983, 1988, and 1993.

Suharto's government has become known as the Orde Baru (New Order) to distinguish it from Sukarno's Old Order. After the Cestapu incident, the military were in power. Civilian politicians were even weaker than under Sukarno's "guided democracy".

Foreign affairs. Indonesian foreign policy is one of nonalignment (neutrality between East and West), but the country maintains close relations with the West. Through the Inter-Governmental Group on Indonesia (IGGI) Indonesia has particularly close ties with Aus­tralia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Spain, Switzer­land, the United Kingdom, and the United States. These countries and agencies such as the World Bank have given substantial economic aid to Indonesia since 1967. In 1990-91, foreign aid provided more than one-fourth of Indonesia's government revenue. Payment of interest on foreign loans, and the gradual repayment of capital, has become a heavy burden on Indonesia.

A dispute over West Irian (Irian Jaya) arose in 1949 when the Dutch held on to West Irian (then called West New Guinea). No agreement was reached over its status, and, in 1952, the Dutch government made West Irian part of the Netherlands. Appeals by Indonesia to the United Nations brought no solution to the problem.

In 1962, there was small-scale military action. By UN agreement, the Dutch transferred the territory to the United Nations. In 1963, the United Nations transferred it to Indonesia, on condition that before the end of 1969 a plebiscite (vote) was to be held, under UN supervision, to find out whether the inhabitants of West Irian wished to stay under Indonesian rule or to become independ­ent. The Indonesian government refused to allow a free vote, and said that the people to be consulted were the members of the regency councils in West Irian, which was renamed Irian Jaya. A revolt by the Free Papua Movement, operating from the Netherlands, was de­feated. Irian Jaya was absorbed into Indonesia on Auq. 17, 1969.

Indonesia has governed East Timor since 1976. The eastern half of the island of Timor was a Portuguese col­ony from about 1520. In 1975, the Portuguese withdrew, and Fretilin, a Timorese nationalist party, declared East Timor independent. Indonesian troops invaded, and in July 1976 East Timor was made the 27th province of In­donesia. It is the only Indonesian territory which was never a part of the Netherlands Indies. In 1983, the United Nations Commission on Human Rights adopted a resolution which affirmed East Timor's right to inde­pendence, and demanded the withdrawal of Indonesian troops from the territory. But Indonesia remained in oc­cupation of East Timor.

Economic development The Indonesian govern­ment brought in a series of Five-Year Development Plans. These are known in Indonesian as REPELITA. RE- PELITA I (1969-1974) aimed to make the country self- sufficient in food. It also aimed to modernize roads and communications.

Under the second five-year plan (1974-1979) projects were started to provide work for more people, particu­larly outside the towns. More money was invested in is­lands other than Java. Rice production continued to rise. The four-fold increase in the world price of petroleum in 1973 and 1974 meant that Indonesia received much more for oil exported overseas. The welfare of the peo­ple began to improve. REPELITA III (1979-1984) was affected by falls in world petroleum prices. By 1981, oil and other minerals made up about 85 per cent of Indonesia's exports. To avoid over-dependence on oil exports, the third five-year plan aimed to encourage the export of agricultural and for­estry products, and manufactured goods. By 1985, Indo­nesia was self-sufficient in rice. Between 1969 and 1984, Indonesia's rice production more than doubled.

The fourth five-year plan (1984-1989) was intended to provide employment for 9.3 million new workers. This aim was seriously hindered by falls in world petroleum prices.

REPELITA V (1989-1994) gives emphasis to the development of industry, supported by growth in agriculture. Indonesia still has a large rural economy.

Political life under Sukarno was largely controlled by the government. Under Sukarno, a general election was held once only in 1955. Under Suharto, general elections were reintroduced in 1971 (seethe Government section in this article).

The government party and nine other political parties took part in the 1971 election. Golkar (the Functional Group) won a majority of seats in the House of Repre­sentatives. The second general election was held in 1977. The government had forced the many parties to merge into two large parties, apart from Golkar. The Partai Persatuan Pembangunan (PPP, United Develop­ment Party) represented the five Muslim parties that had taken part in the 1971 election. The Partai Demokrasi In­donesia (PDI, Indonesian Democracy Party) combined the Indonesian Nationalist Party and other parties, in­cluding the two Christian parties. The government intro­duced restrictions on political parties such as forbid­ding their work in villages. As expected, Golkar won with an overwhelming majority.

During the 1970's, there were an estimated 100,000 political prisoners in Indonesia. Most were freed by 1979. In the 1980s, antigovernment protests came mainly from students and Muslims. Protests were met by ar­rests, detentions, shootings, and the banning of news­papers.

The 1982 general election gave Golkar an increased majority, with 64 per cent of the vote. But the election campaign was violent. The government banned several newspapers temporarily for reporting these events. It was concerned at the conflict between the Islamic party and Golkar.

In 1985, Suharto introduced a law to require all politi­cal organizations to adopt as their sole principle Panca­sila, the state philosophy to encourage political consen­sus and religious tolerances (see Pancasila). By July 1985, all political parties had accepted Pancasila. But many Indonesian Muslims opposed this law.

In the general election of 1987, Golkar achieved a landslide victory with 74 per cent of the votes. It won 299 of the 400 elected seats in the House of Representa­tives. The remaining 100 of the 500 seats in the Lower House are reserved for the army.

The Indonesian army is active in political and social life. This role is described in Indonesian as dwifungsi. The idea of dwifungsi has been used to justify the inter­vention of the armed forces in civilian government.

Social problems. The aim of the economic develop­ment plans has been to improve the welfare of the Indo­nesian people. Progress in rice production, industrializa­tion, and health care have brought benefits to the people. But poverty is still a problem.

Indonesia has a fast-growing population. Since 1970, an intensive family planning campaign has had some success in slowing population growth. Infant mor­tality is much higher than the average in neighbouring countries. The transmigration programme is designed to reduce the pressure of over population in Java, by re­settling people in other parts of Indonesia. But it has run into many difficulties. In the mid-1990's, one in every six Indonesians lived below the poverty line even though the standard of living had risen substantially.