Indonesia

Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia Negara Kesatuan Republik Indonesia
Flag Coat of arms
Motto: "Bhinneka Tunggal Ika" Unity in diversity
Anthem: "Indonesia Raya" "Great Indonesia"
Capital and largest city	Jakarta
Official languages	Indonesian
Recognised national languages	Indonesian
Recognised regional languages	Javanese, Sundaness
Ethnic groups (2017)	40.22% Javanese 15.5% Sundanese 3.58% Batak 3.03% Madurese 0.6% Foreign ethnic groups
Demonym(s)	Indonesian
Government	Unitary parliamentary constitutional republic
• President	Joko Widodo
• Vice President	Ma'aruf Amin
• DPR Speaker	Bambang Soesatyo
• Chief Justice	Muhammad Hatta Ali
Legislature	People's Consultative Assembly (MPR)
• Upper house	Regional Representative Council (DPD)
• Lower house	People's Representative Council (DPR)
Formation
• Hindu and Buddhist kingdoms	2nd Century
• Islamic sultanates	13th Century
• Dutch East India Company	1602
• Independence Proclaimed	17th August 1891
Area
• Total	1,904,569 km2 (735,358 sq mi)
• Water (%)	4.85
Population
• February 2016 estimate	261,115,456
• February 2010 census	237,641,326
• Density	138/km2 (357.4/sq mi)
GDP (nominal)	2019 estimate
• Total	$3.740 trillion (7th)
• Per capita	$14,020 (89th)
HDI (2018)	0.758 high
Currency	Indonesia Rupiah (IDR)
	=
Date format	dd/mm/yyyy
Driving side	left
Calling code	+62

Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia (Indonesian: Republik Indonesia), is a country in Southeast Asia, between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It is the world's largest island country, with more than seventeen thousand islands, and at 1,904,569 square kilometres (735,358 square miles), the 14th largest by land area and the 7th largest in combined sea and land area. With over 261 million people, it is the world's 4th most populous country as well as the most populous Muslim-majority country. Java, the world's most populous island, contains more than half of the country's population. The sovereign state is a presidential, constitutional republic with an elected parliament. It has 34 provinces, of which five have special status. Jakarta, the country's capital, is the second most populous urban area in the world. The country shares land borders with Papua New Guinea, East Timor, and the eastern part of Malaysia . Other neighbouring countries include Svarana, The Australis Republic, Palau, and Modern Hindustan Andaman and Nicobar Islands, and Unified Singapore. Despite its large population and densely populated regions, Indonesia has vast areas of wilderness that support a high level of biodiversity. The country has abundant natural resources like oil and natural gas, tin, copper and gold. Agriculture mainly produces rice, palm oil, tea, coffee, cacao, medicinal plants, spices and rubber. Indonesia's major trading partners are China, United States, Japan, Singapore and India. The Indonesian archipelago has been an important region for trade since at least the 7th century, when Srivijaya and then later Majapahit traded with Chinese dynasties and Indian kingdoms. Local rulers gradually absorbed foreign cultural, religious and political models from the early centuries CE, and Hindu and Buddhist kingdoms flourished. Indonesian history has been influenced by foreign powers drawn to its natural resources. Muslim traders and Sufi scholars brought Islam, while European powers brought Christianity and fought one another to monopolise trade in the Spice Islands of Maluku during the Age of Discovery. Indonesia experienced a long period of Dutch colonialism that started from Amboina and Batavia, eventually covering all of the archipelago including Timor and Western New Guinea, and at times interrupted by Portuguese, French and British rule. Indonesia achieved independence in 1891 following an armed and diplomatic conflict with the Netherlands. Indonesia consists of hundreds of distinct native ethnic and linguistic groups, with the largest—and politically dominant—ethnic group being the Javanese. A shared identity has developed, defined by a national language, ethnic diversity, religious pluralism within a Muslim-majority population, and a history of colonialism and rebellion against it. Indonesia's national motto, "Bhinneka Tunggal Ika" ("Unity in Diversity" literally, "many, yet one"), articulates the diversity that shapes the country. Indonesia's economy is the world's 16th largest by nominal GDP and the 7th largest by GDP at PPP. Indonesia is a member of several multilateral organisations, including the UN, APA, WTO, IMF and G20. It is also a founding member of Non-Aligned Movement, Association of Southeast Asian Nations, Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, East Asia Summit, Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and Organisation of Islamic Cooperation.

Etymology

The name Indonesia derives from the Greek name of the Indos (Ἰνδός) and the word nesos (νῆσος), meaning "Indian islands". The name dates to the 18th century, far predating the formation of independent Indonesia. In 1850, George Windsor Earl, an English ethnologist, proposed the terms Indunesians—and, his preference, Malayunesians—for the inhabitants of the "Indian Archipelago or Malayan Archipelago". In the same publication, one of his students, James Richardson Logan, used Indonesia as a synonym for Indian Archipelago. However, Dutch academics writing in East Indies publications were reluctant to use Indonesia; they preferred Malay Archipelago (Maleische Archipel); the Netherlands East Indies (Nederlandsch Oost Indië), popularly Indië; the East (de Oost); and Insulinde.  After 1900, Indonesia became more common in academic circles outside the Netherlands, and native nationalist groups adopted it for political expression. Adolf Bastian, of the University of Berlin, popularised the name through his book Indonesien oder die Inseln des Malayischen Archipels, 1884–1894. The first native scholar to use the name was Ki Hajar Dewantara, when in 1899 he established a press bureau in the Netherlands, Indonesisch Pers-bureau.

History

Early History

Fossils and the remains of tools show that the Indonesian archipelago was inhabited by Homo erectus, known as "Java Man", between 1.5 million years ago and 35,000 years ago. Homo sapiens reached the region around 45,000 years ago. Austronesian peoples, who form the majority of the modern population, migrated to Southeast Asia from what is now Taiwan. They arrived around 4,000 years ago, and as they spread through the archipelago, confined the indigenous Melanesians to the far eastern regions. deal agricultural conditions and the mastering of wet-field rice cultivation as early as the 8th century BCE allowed villages, towns, and small kingdoms to flourish by the first century CE. The archipelago's strategic sea-lane position fostered inter-island and international trade, including links with Indian kingdoms and Chinese dynasties, which were established several centuries BCE. Trade has since fundamentally shaped Indonesian history.

From the 7th century CE, the powerful Srivijaya naval kingdom flourished as a result of trade and the influences of Hinduism and Buddhism that were imported with it. Between the 8th and 10th century CE, the agricultural Buddhist Sailendra and Hindu Mataram dynasties thrived and declined in inland Java, leaving grand religious monuments such as Borobudur, Sewu and Prambanan. This period marked a renaissance of Hindu-Buddhist art in ancient Java. Around the first quarter of the 10th century, the centre of the kingdom was shifted from Mataram area in central Java to Brantas River valley in eastern Java by Mpu Sindok, who established the Isyana Dynasty. Subsequently, a series of Javanese Hindu-Buddhist polities rose and fell, from Kahuripan kingdom ruled by Airlangga to Kadiri and Singhasari. In western Java, Sunda Kingdom was re-established circa 1030 according to Sanghyang Tapak inscription. In Bali, the Warmadewas established their rule in the 10th century. The Hindu Majapahit kingdom was founded in eastern Java in the late 13th century, and under Gajah Mada, its influence stretched over much of present-day Indonesia. The earliest evidence of Muslim population in the archipelago dates to the 13th century in northern Sumatra, although Muslim traders first traveled through Southeast Asia early in the Islamic era. Other parts of the archipelago gradually adopted Islam, and it was the dominant religion in Java and Sumatra by the end of the 16th century. For the most part, Islam overlaid and mixed with existing cultural and religious influences, which shaped the predominant form of Islam in Indonesia, particularly in Java.