Indonesia, formally known as the Republic of Indonesia is a nation situated in Oceania and Southeast Asia. It is an archipelago comprising of 17.508 isles. The country boasts of a population of 238 million people spread on 33 provinces. Indonesia ranks as the fourth densely populated country in the world. Jakarta is its capital. Indonesia is bordered by Papua New Guinea, Malaysia and East Timor. Some of its neighbouring nations are Australia, Singapore, Philippines, and the Indian region of Andaman and Nicobar islands.

Indonesia is one of the constituent of the G-20 major economies. It is the founding member of ASEAN. In terms of purchasing power parity and nominal GDP, Indonesia ranks as fifteenth biggest and seventh biggest economy respectively. From the seventh century, the Indonesian archipelago is considered as a vital trade region. Sri Vijaya (based on Sumatra island, present day Indonesia), and Majapahit (based on present day Java) had trade links with India and China.

The archipelago of Indonesia is covered with diverse linguistic, ethnic and spiritual groupings. The biggest and politically prevailing ethnic group is the Javanese people. In spite of having huge population and thickly populated areas, Indonesia boasts of having enormous wilderness area and it has the second highest biodiversity level.

Capital: Jakarta

Independence: Gained Independence from Netherlands. Declared in 17 August 1945 and recognized in 27 December 1949

Language: Indonesian (official)

Religion: Muslims (86%), Christians (9%), Hindus (3%), Buddhism (2%)

Time zone: varies (UTC+7 to +9)



History

The primitive tool traces and the antique fossils indicate Homo erectus, also commonly called as the “Java Man” inhabited the Indonesia archipelago in between 1.5 million years and 550,000 to 143,000 years back. Much to the astonishment of the scientific society, new tiny hominid dating in between 74,000 and 13,000 years old, known as the Homo floresiensis (“Flores Man”) were found. This 3 ft height hominid species is beloved to have descended from Homo Erectus. Through Island dwarfism, a familiar mehod, these species got minimized in size.

In the Seventh century, the Sri Vijaya kingdom prospered due to trade. Buddhism and Hinduism influences also got imported to Indonesia along with the trade. In between the eight and tenth century the Hindu Mantram and farming Buddhist Sailendra empires flourished and declined in the Java mainland, leaving behind its traces in the form of impressive spiritual memorials like Mataram's Prambanan and Sailendra's Borobudur.

Even though, in the premature Islamic period, the Muslim merchants initially voyaged through Southeast Asia, the original proof of Islamized population dates back to the 13th century in the northern part of Sumatra. The initial normal contact between the Indonesians and the Europeans started in 1512, when the Portugese merchants under Francisco Serrão, wanted to control .the nutmeg, cubeb pepper and clove sources in Maluku. The Dutch and the British merchants followed the Portuguese. In 1602, the Dutch East India Company (VOC) was instituted by the Dutch and it became a dominant power. Because of insolvency, the VOC was disbanded in 1800.

For a major part of the colonial period, the Dutch controlled the Indonesian archipelago. During the National Revolution, inspite of the big social, political and sectarian separations, the Indonesians remained united in the struggle for Independence. The rule of the Dutch came to an end, with the Japanese occupation of Indonesia in the Second World War. Subsequent to the Japanese surrender in 1945, Sukarno, a significant leader affirmed Independence and was appointed the President of Indonesia.