The largest country in Southeast Asia, both in area and population, is the Republic of Indonesia. It consists of some 13,670 islands that cover 730,024 square miles (1,890,754 square kilometers) of land along the Equator between the Indian and Pacific oceans. With a population of more than 220 million, it ranks as the world's fourth most populous country. The nation is poor, with a generally low standard of living, though it has many valuable natural resources. These include large onshore and offshore petroleum and natural gas deposits, huge tracts of tropical hardwood forests, and a variety of minerals, including tin, nickel, and copper.
The islands of Indonesia, of which more than 6,000 are inhabited, spread out about 3,300 miles (5,300 kilometers) from east to west and 1,300 miles (2,100 kilometers) from north to south. The country's total land and sea area is more than 3 million square miles (7.7 million square kilometers). Despite the vast number of islands, five of them account for more than 90 percent of the land area and the vast majority of the population. These are Sumatra, Java, Celebes (Sulawesi), and the portions of the islands of Borneo and New Guinea that are politically part of Indonesia. The country includes the southern three quarters of Borneo, called Kalimantan, and the western half of New Guinea, called Papua (formerly Irian Jaya). More than half the population lives on Java. Under international law, the waters between the islands of an archipelago have not traditionally been regarded as part of a country's territory. However, Indonesia claimed them as such, which led to international disagreements. The Law of the Sea Convention, approved by the United Nations in 1982, established the concept of archipelagic waters, supporting Indonesia's claim.
From the start of its history, Indonesia was divided in various ways among a number of rulers. The Netherlands ruled the islands for nearly 350 years, until Indonesia declared its independence in 1945. The capital of Indonesia is Jakarta, which is located on the island of Java.
Land and Climate
Land
Most of the islands of Indonesia are mountainous. The lowland areas, with a few exceptions, are relatively small. Most of Indonesia's mountains are the products of mountain-building forces associated with the intersection of two blocks, or plates, of Earth's crust—the Pacific Plate and the Indian Ocean Plate, which meet in Indonesia. These plates have long been moving slowly into the Eurasian Plate. The resulting pressure pushed up mountain ranges and created the numerous volcanoes of Indonesia, the contorted shapes of islands such as Celebes, and the ocean deeps, such as the Java Trench. This trench, located south of Java, is about 24,000 feet (7,300 meters) deep.- The peak of the volcano called Mount Agung is the highest point on Bali, Indonesia.
Climate
Since all of Indonesia lies near the Equator, the country has a year-round growing season. Frost occurs only at the peaks of the highest mountains. Rainfall near the Equator is abundant and well distributed throughout the year. Away from the Equator, however, the rainfall becomes seasonal, with a summer maximum and a winter minimum. In eastern Java and the Lesser Sunda Islands, the dry season is accompanied by severe water shortages. This season is associated with the so-called southeast monsoon of May through September. The climates of the lowlands are hot and humid almost all year. In the mountains, the temperatures are somewhat lower and the climate is more agreeable.Plants and Animals
The vegetation found in Indonesia is typical of the tropics. There are approximately 40,000 species of flowering plants, including 5,000 species of orchids. Among the most notable native plants is the monster flower (Rafflesia arnoldii), which is the largest flower in the world. More than 3,000 tree species can be found across Indonesia. These include sandalwood, rattan, and valuable timber varieties such as teak and ironwood. In the hills and lowlands below 5,000 feet (1,500 meters) are lush tropical rain forests that feature a rich diversity of vegetation ranging from enormous trees to thick lianas (woody vines) and epiphytes—plants that live on top of other plants and get their nourishment from air. Only a small portion of Indonesia's forests have never been cut or burned. Mangrove tree swamps are common along the shores of alluvial lowlands, including most of Sumatra's east coast.The animals in Indonesia are largely of Asian origin. They include monkeys, orangutans and gibbons, tigers, elephants, water buffalo, a variety of birds, the rare Sumatran rhinoceros of Java, and a giant monitor lizard, the Komodo dragon. Eastern Indonesia, however, reflects a relationship with Australasia through marsupials (mammals with pouches) and birds of non-Asian origin. Like all tropical regions, Indonesia is rich in insects; among the most unusual are the giant walkingstick and the atlas beetle. Notable bird species include the Sumatran drongo and the peacock. By the end of the 20th century, human activities from logging to hunting and poaching posed severe threats to many species of both plants and animals, notably the Sumatran rhinoceros, Sumatran tiger, and the primates.
People and Culture
- Batak people gather at a market on the shore of Lake Toba, on Sumatra, Indonesia.
Ethnic Groups
The Javanese make up more than a third of the population and live chiefly in central Java. Large Javanese populations also live in southern Sumatra. Western Java is inhabited mostly by Sundanese, and eastern Java and the island of Madura by Madurese. Northern Sumatra has Achinese, Batak, and Minangkabau peoples. In the eastern Outer Islands are a number of groups, such as the Ambonese of the Moluccas, the Minahasans of northern Celebes, and the Bugi and Makasarese of southern Celebes. The Balinese are the most numerous in the Lesser Sundas to the east of Java. Chinese make up a small minority of the population but control a large portion of the country's wealth. Many Chinese families have lived in Indonesia for many generations. Through intermarriage with ethnic Indonesians, the majority of the Chinese have assimilated somewhat into mainstream Indonesian society. The people of this group, known as the peranakans, do not speak Chinese. A smaller portion of the Chinese population, the totoks, remain distinctly Chinese in custom, culture, and language. Most Chinese residents live in cities and towns. The Dayak inhabit the Borneo highlands, and small numbers of Papuan peoples of Melanesian origin live in Papua.Languages
Indonesia developed an official national language because of the great variety of tongues spoken in the country. All Indonesian schoolchildren are required to learn this language, called Bahasa Indonesia, or Indonesian. It was developed from Trade Malay, one of the most widespread hybrid languages used by Indonesians. Bahasa Indonesia also contains elements borrowed from other Malay languages, particularly Javanese. English is taught in the schools as well.Demographic Patterns
The majority of Indonesians live in rural areas. Most of these people engage in subsistence farming or earn a living through fishing, forestry, handicrafts, or the processing of agricultural products.The most common type of rural settlement, typified by the Javanese village, is a concentration of large thatched-roof houses on stilts. These villages, called kampongs, are surrounded by fruit trees and various kinds of palm trees, which contribute substantially to the family food supply. A kampong normally provides shelter for about 500 people, but many of the structures blend into neighboring settlements and form a townlike aggregation of several thousand people, most of whom are engaged in agriculture. Rural population densities in these areas are extremely high. Densities tend to be much less in the Outer Islands.
More than two fifths of Indonesia's people live in cities and towns. The urban population grew rapidly in the second half of the 20th century as people moved into cities from the countryside. In 2000 Indonesia had more than 30 cities with populations greater than 200,000 and several cities with populations of more than 1 million. Jakarta, the capital, has more than 8 million residents. Jakarta was developed by the Dutch as the commercial and administrative center of the islands, then called the Dutch East Indies. Many Indonesian cities reflect their colonial origins. Old colonial architecture, modern buildings, and kamponglike areas stand next to one another.
Religion
- The Great Mosque in Palembang, on Sumatra, Indonesia, was built in the mid-1700s.
- Borobudur is a massive Buddhist monument in central Java, Indonesia.
The Arts
The arts in Indonesia have their roots largely in the pre-Islamic cultures, especially of Java and Bali. An oral tradition of storytelling, particularly of epic tales of Indian origin, continues to be important. Puppet shadow plays associated with the same themes are common in most rural areas. There also is a formal dance tradition, similarly based on themes and movements in the Indian manner. The dancing is accompanied by an orchestra, called a gamelan, consisting of such percussion instruments as drums, gongs, and xylophones together with flutes and stringed instruments. Weaving is another high art, and each region has distinctive patterns of largely cotton fabrics. A fabric, called batik, created in Java, is particularly well known in other countries, and some is exported. A contemporary literature in Bahasa Indonesia has developed.Education and Social Welfare
More than four fifths of adults can read and write, a vast improvement since Indonesia became independent in 1945. The government has promoted education at all levels, and almost all children now receive some elementary-school education. However, the dropout rate is high, particularly in rural areas, and enrollment drops dramatically between elementary school and high school. Each province has a university, and there are several hundred teacher-training institutes and private colleges. Only a few of the universities—those in Jakarta, Bandung, Surabaya, Bogor, and Yogyakarta—are of high quality, however.In general, social welfare standards are also low. People in the larger cities receive fair medical care, but the rural areas, despite government-sponsored efforts to raise standards, have an acute shortage of doctors and paramedics. Infectious diseases pose the largest threat to public health. The prevalence of HIV and AIDS, while generally low relative to other parts of Southeast Asia, began to increase dramatically in some parts of Indonesia in the early 21st century.
Economy
Indonesia's gross national product places it just above the very poorest nations. As in most developing countries, agriculture has contributed greatly to the economy. For generations, agriculture accounted for more than half the value of the economic output and for at least 60 percent of the labor force. By the first years of the 21st century, however, the agricultural share of the economic output had dropped below 20 percent and the sector employed about two fifths of the labor force. This change was largely a result of rapid growth in oil production during the 1970s and the resulting major rise in productivity of the mining and related industries. Trade, finance, and other services account for about one third of economic production.Agriculture, Forestry, and Fishing
Less than 10 percent of Indonesia's land is under permanent cultivation, the majority of it for rice. More than 50 million tons of rice were harvested in 2005. The nation's agriculture is based on wet-paddy cultivation of rice, chiefly in Java, Madura, and Bali. Indonesia has several million acres of wet-paddy fields, as well as permanent dry fields in other annual crops. Most of Indonesia's wet-paddy fields are wholly or partially terraced, and all of them are irrigated. In addition, a smaller area of rice fields is used to grow the crop in dry paddies. Most fields produce two crops a year. Dry or upland crops are frequently double-cropped. They include corn (maize), of importance chiefly in the drier areas, such as Madura and eastern Java and the Lesser Sundas; cassava; sweet potatoes; soybeans; sugarcane; and peanuts (groundnuts); and vegetables grown primarily near the larger cities.There also are extensive plantations, chiefly in Sumatra, about half of which produce rubber. The remainder produce such crops as coffee, tea, oil palm, tobacco, bananas, cotton, and sugarcane. Under the Dutch, estate agricultural production was the mainstay of the export economy. The nationalization of the Dutch-owned estates in 1958 and the encroachment of squatters on estate lands diminished estate production. Many commercial crops are also grown by smallholders. These growers account for a large share of the rubber production. Indonesia ranks among the world's leading rubber producers. Smallholders also produce large quantities of copra (from coconut palms) and spices, such as cloves, cinnamon, and pepper, for which the area was famous for centuries.In the mountainous and remoter areas of the Outer Islands, the people carry on shifting cultivation. They clear the fields for brief periods by cutting trees and burning the waste. Then they cultivate cassava, corn, and other food crops on small plots for a year or two before abandoning the land. Several commercial crops, including rubber, are grown in this way. This method affects vast areas of forest.
Indonesian agriculture has done well to provide the growing population with food, but the food supply must be augmented by imported goods. Until the mid-1970s food production kept pace with the population growth, but productivity has grown faster than the population since then as a result of government programs. These programs have raised rice yields through the use of high-yielding varieties of rice, improvements in irrigation, and providing fertilizers, pesticides, and credit to farmers at reasonable rates.
Other sources of food include domestic poultry—chickens, ducks, geese, and turkeys—which are raised in every village. Pigs have less importance because Muslims do not eat pork, but goats and sheep are numerous. Beef comes from cattle and water buffalo, which are used primarily as work animals.
Fishery production has risen steadily, and Indonesia ranks among the world's top suppliers of seafood. Most of the catch comes from waters near the shore and is harvested by fishers using small boats, despite government-sponsored attempts to modernize the fishing industry. In addition, aquaculture in both brackish and fresh waters, including some paddy fields, contributes to the fish catch.
More than half the land is forest and woodland, but many of the forests consist of second-growth trees. Such trees are used primarily for fuelwood, as are the mangroves of low-lying coastal marshes that provide immense quantities of charcoal, the chief domestic fuel in rural areas. Productive stands of virgin rain forest, especially in Borneo, have come under intensive exploitation for sawlogs and veneer logs.
Mining and Energy
Minerals and petroleum are the most important Indonesian exports. The country produces several important metallic minerals primarily for export—tin and bauxite chiefly from the islands south of Singapore, nickel ores from Celebes, and copper from Papua. Salt, sulfur, asphalt, and coal are mined largely for domestic use. Indonesia also is a major producer of oil and natural gas, as well as petroleum products. Production and refining are controlled by a government corporation, though various international oil companies participate as contractors. The chief market for hydrocarbon fuels is Japan, but the United States and Singapore are also important customers. Indonesia's first geothermal power station, which opened in 1983 in western Java, harnesses natural heat from the Earth. The government has given high priority to geothermal and hydroelectric development to conserve oil supplies for export.Manufacturing
More than a quarter of the gross domestic product comes from manufacturing. Textile and machinery production are the most important industries, but Indonesia also has shipyards, cement and paper works, and glass plants. The production of fertilizers, chemicals, plastics, and tires has become increasingly important. Indonesian workers assemble thousands of motor vehicles annually from imported parts, and bicycle assembly is also important.Transportation and Communications
As a multi-island country, Indonesia depends particularly on interisland shipping for commerce and communication. The Dutch developed highly efficient shipping services to all the islands and ports, and the company that provided those services was nationalized by the Indonesian government in 1958. Since then, regular shipping services have been sporadic and inefficient. Some of the demand for interisland transport has been met by thousands of small native craft. The major deepwater ports are Tanjung Priok in the area of Jakarta, Surabaya, and Cilacap on Java; Belawan, Dumai, and Palembang on Sumatra; Balikpapan on Borneo; and Ujung Pandang (Makassar) on Celebes.Overland transportation consists of an expanding highway system, chiefly on Java and Sumatra, of which more than half is paved. The Indonesian State Railway operates on Java, Madura, and Sumatra.
Air service is available at most of the major cities. Telecommunications are limited by a weak infrastructure—less than 20 percent of Indonesians own a telephone. Internet usage is increasing, though it too is limited by the low availability of phone lines. Radio and television are widely available in urban areas; some networks are state-run, but private ownership is increasing.
Government
Indonesia is a multiparty republic in which the president has the primary executive power. For much of the 20th century there were no term limits for the president, who was elected by the legislature, and the military appointed some of the legislators. Since 2004, however, the president and vice president have been popularly elected to five-year terms. The president may only be reelected once. All 550 members of the House of Representatives are now also elected to five-year terms. In addition, another legislative house, called the Regional Representatives Council, was created in the early 21st century. It consists of four elected members from each province and special autonomous and metropolitan district.Indonesia has 30 provinces, two special autonomous districts, and one metropolitan district (Jakarta). The country is further divided into more than 350 districts called regencies, which provide most government services.
Indonesia regards itself as one of the so-called unaligned nations. It helped organize and served as host for the Bandung Conference of 1955, which helped give identity to the concept of a Third World in international affairs. Indonesia was also one of the organizers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in 1967, designed to promote regional integrity and collective welfare in Southeast Asia. In the United Nations, Indonesia has consistently voted with the developing countries. Its relations with China became strained in 1965, the year of a procommunist rebellion in Indonesia, and the two countries did not have formal diplomatic ties from 1967 to 1990. Relations with neighboring Australia also were weakened by Indonesia's occupation from 1976 to 2002 of the eastern half of Timor, a former Portuguese colony. (It is now the independent country of East Timor.)
History
The recorded history of Indonesia begins in references by the Roman scholars Pliny and Ptolemy, in Chinese texts, and in carved inscriptions dating from about the 6th century AD. Even in those early times, much of Indonesia had come under Indian cultural influences brought by Brahman priests called to the courts of various states and by traders who established themselves in coastal settlements.The group of islands was often highly fragmented politically, but from the early 7th century to the 13th century, most of western Indonesia, as well as Malaya and the Strait of Malacca, came under the control of the Srivijaya Kingdom based in Palembang. Srivijaya extended its influence eastward into Java as well, but it consisted primarily of a number of small principalities linked into a trading network. This network tapped the riches of the Indies and acted as distribution centers for trade between China and the Indies, and China and southern India.
At about the same time, other Buddhist kingdoms developed in central Java. From them arose the Majapahit Kingdom, which controlled most of Java from the 14th to the 16th century.
From Colonial Rule to Independence
Control of the Strait of Malacca passed from the declining Srivijaya Kingdom to Malacca by the 15th century. Also by that time, Islam had spread from northern Sumatra down along the strait. It eventually dominated Java and other islands by means of forcible conversion, which continued through the 17th century. The Portuguese had come to the Moluccas seeking spices in 1510, and Malacca fell to them in 1511. European expansion controlled Indonesian history for the next several hundred years.From the beginning of the 17th century, the Dutch were the dominant foreign power in Indonesia. They gradually extended their control over Java, completing the process by the late 18th century, and then more slowly over the Outer Islands, despite a period of British rule from 1811 to 1815. The Dutch originally operated through a private trading company, the Dutch East India Company, but the Dutch government took over the firm's affairs and territorial holdings in 1799. Some remote areas did not come under Dutch control until the beginning of World War II.
Japan conquered the Dutch East Indies, as the islands were then called, in 1942 and ruled until surrendering to the Allies in 1945. Indonesian nationalism grew rapidly during that period, and independence was proclaimed on Aug. 17, 1945, following the Japanese surrender. The Dutch tried to regain Indonesia but finally transferred sovereignty to the United States of Indonesia on Dec. 27, 1949. The new nation, under President Sukarno, retained a formal association with The Netherlands until 1954, when the independent Republic of Indonesia was declared. In 1959 Indonesia expelled the Dutch from the country and confiscated their assets. The Dutch handed over western New Guinea (now Papua) to the republic in 1962.
Suharto Takes Control
Meanwhile, regional forces continued to threaten the new state. A major rebellion, based in central Sumatra and northern Celebes, occurred in 1958 but was soon put down. In 1959 Sukarno proclaimed a policy of “guided democracy,” which featured the centralization of authority in the president. Another major revolt took place in 1965. It was associated with the rise to power of the Indonesian Communist party, which Sukarno reportedly supported. This uprising forced Sukarno to surrender power to General Suharto of the Indonesian army. Hundreds of thousands of communists and Chinese were massacred, and the Communist party was outlawed. Suharto became acting president, and in 1968 the assembly elected him president.Under Suharto, the government encouraged economic development, foreign investment, and exploitation of natural resources. After 1975 progress sped up greatly. The stagnation in agricultural productivity characteristic of the Sukarno period ended, and food supplies increased faster than the population for the first time since independence.
In 1976, despite international criticism, Indonesia annexed East Timor, a former Portuguese colony. Over the next quarter century, tens of thousands of East Timorese were killed during the struggles of the resistance movement, which the Indonesian government brutally repressed. In 2002 Indonesia finally granted East Timor's independence.
In the 1980s the economic outlook for Indonesia improved as petroleum and other mineral exports financed the nation's development. However, shortfalls in the food supply remained a difficult problem to solve, given Indonesia's rapid population growth. The country's natural resources also required careful management. Such organizations as the World Bank and the United Nations helped create programs to improve the country's agriculture and fisheries, curtail population growth, and expand domestic and export markets for manufacturing.
Suharto brought large economic gains to Indonesia during his rule, but he kept a tight hold on power and suppressed political opposition and public criticism of his government. Suharto's Golkar party required government workers—including teachers, civil servants, and military personnel—to vote for Golkar. The political system also ensured that opposition groups, though tolerated, could not take control of the presidency. In 1996 Megawati Sukarnoputri, the daughter of Sukarno and the leader of the Indonesian Democratic party, gained popular support as an opponent of Suharto's rule. However, weeks of antigovernment rioting failed to derail parliamentary elections held in May 1997, and the Golkar party won a record parliamentary majority.
In 1997 catastrophic environmental conditions and a major economic crisis besieged the country. Extremely dry conditions in the mountainous interior of western New Guinea led to famine and outbreaks of disease. Raging forest fires also severely damaged farms and created a toxic haze that hovered over the country for months.
In 1997 an economic crisis gripped much of Southeast Asia and sent local currencies, including Indonesia's rupiah, plummeting to record low levels. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) authorized a 40-billion-dollar bailout of the Indonesian government and ordered Suharto's government to undertake a series of economic reforms to restabilize the rupiah. The economy slowly began to recover.
While the IMF reforms helped the economic crisis on a national level, they offered little direct assistance to the working and poor classes of Indonesia. The country's levels of unemployment and poverty had skyrocketed. The rupiah's collapse had also caused sharp rises in the price of such basic commodities as sugar, bread, rice, and kerosene.
In early 1998 protesters called for the government to lower the prices of basic commodities. The protests turned violent in several towns, and the government sent military and police forces into several regions to restore order.
Despite widespread social unrest, Suharto was elected to a seventh term in office in March 1998. Under Indonesian law, only the members of the legislature—dominated by Suharto's supporters—were allowed to vote in the presidential elections.
Suharto Ousted from Power
Suharto's three-decade grip on power in Indonesia began to weaken in May 1998. The government announced that it would sharply increase basic commodity prices once again to cope with the economic crisis, and demonstrators again took to the streets. On May 12 police opened fire on student demonstrators, killing six and sparking a rampage of rioting and looting throughout Jakarta. As civil unrest spread throughout the country, the parliament called on Suharto to relinquish power. On May 21, Suharto resigned, passing control of the government to his vice president, B.J. Habibie. Suharto was formally charged with corruption in 2000, but the case was dismissed because of his poor health.Recent Events
Problems with government corruption continued into the post-Suharto era. However, the government lifted many of the legal restrictions against political parties, and new parties proliferated. In 1999 the country held its first truly democratic elections in more than 40 years. Megawati Sukarnoputri's Indonesian Democratic party won the largest number of seats in the parliament. Nevertheless, Abdurrahman Wahid of the National Awakening party secured a coalition in the People's Consultative Assembly, which appointed him president of Indonesia and Sukarnoputri vice president. Sukarnoputri succeeded Wahid in 2001. Changes to Indonesia's election process took effect in 2004. That year Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (commonly known as SBY) of the new Democrat party became the country's first directly elected president.The Indonesian government faced growing armed separatist movements in the provinces of Aceh and Irian Jaya. In the early 2000s these provinces were given greater autonomy. Irian Jaya was also renamed Papua, but it was later fragmented into more than one province. In addition, ongoing violence between groups of Muslims and Christians in the Moluccas and Celebes claimed thousands of lives. The country also had to contend with increased attacks by Islamic militant groups. On Oct. 12, 2002, a terrorist bombing in Bali killed about 200 people, many of whom were foreign tourists.
A tsunami devastated Sumatra on Dec. 26, 2004. One of the largest earthquakes ever recorded occurred in the Indian Ocean off the islands' northwest coast, causing powerful waves to deluge the coastal areas, especially in Aceh. The tsunami caused massive destruction on Sumatra, killing more than 125,000 people there and displacing some 700,000 others. Population (2005 estimate), 222,781,000.
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