Bali Indoneisa Travel   Nature
Channel: Relaxing and Motivation
Date: 2022-03-23

Bali was used as a settlement by Austronesians who immigrated from Taiwan in 2000 BC. Therefore, the Balinese people show similarities with the Philippines and Oceania in terms of culture and language.

Balinese culture was significantly influenced by Indian and Chinese cultures from the 1st century AD. Hinduism in particular has had strong influences on the culture in the region. The name "Bali dwipa" (Bali Island) is first mentioned as "Walidwipa" in the inscriptions written by Sri Kesari Warmadewa in 914 AD. The complex irrigation system called Subak and used in rice cultivation was also developed during this period. Today, traces of that period can still be found in some religious and cultural traditions. The Hindu Majapahit Empire (1293–1520), which ruled East Java, established a colony in Bali in 1343. As the empire began to decline in the 15th century, immigration from the island of Java to Bali began. Intellectuals, artists, clergy and musicians constituted the majority of this migration.


Balinese dancer performing for tourists in Bali.
The first arrival of Europeans on the island of Bali was carried out in 1597 by the Dutch explorer Cornelis de Houtman. Before that, a Portuguese ship ran aground on the island of Bali in 1585. Dutch colony controlled the entire Indonesian archipelago in the 19th century. Dutch economic and political control over Bali began in the 1840s as a weakening of their power by pitting the different kingdoms on the island against each other. In the late 1890s, the kingdoms on the island began to fight each other at the instigation and tricks of Dutch colonialism.

In 1906, the Netherlands made a sudden attack with large naval and land forces in the Sanur region of Bali. Rather than surrender, the Balinese people united and fought against this great army. Thousands of Balinese, who did not listen to the Dutch calls to surrender, marched to their deaths against the invaders. A similar conflict and massacre took place in Klungkung in 1908. Unable to resist the Dutch, the local population eventually surrendered and the Dutch established an island-wide administration. The arrival of the Dutch in Bali was later and more difficult than in other Indonesian islands.

In the 1930s, anthropologists Margaret Mead and Gregory Bateson, artists Miguel Covarrubias and Walter Spies, and musicologists Colin McPhee introduced Bali to Western tourism with their works.

Bali, II. It was occupied by the Japanese Empire during World War II. Gusti Ngurah Rai, one of the Balinese generals, formed the independence army against the occupation. Shortly after the Japanese lost the war in the Pacific and retreated from Indonesia in 1945, the Netherlands returned to Indonesia and the island of Bali. The Balinese people resisted this return with weapons left over from the Japanese. On 20 November 1946, the Battle of Marga took place in Tabanan, one of the central districts of Bali. The 29-year-old young commander, Gusti Ngurah Rai, sent suicide commandos against the Dutch. Almost the entire Balinese army was destroyed in this war.

The eruption of Mount Agung in 1963 killed thousands of people. Because of this, there was a major economic crisis on the island and many Balinese were forced to migrate to other places. Towards the end of the 1950s, problems arose in Bali between supporters of the caste system and those against it. These problems as a political game; It was provoked by supporters of the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) and the Indonesian Nationalist Party. The tension was further increased by the land reform program of the Indonesian Communist Party. The military coup against the government in Jakarta was thwarted by General Suharto. Suharto and his supporters, who held the Indonesian Communist Party responsible for the coup, started violent acts against Communist Party members throughout the country. As a result, around 500,000 people were killed across Indonesia. Around 80,000 people were killed in Bali, or 5% of the island's population. The high-caste landowner leaders of the Indonesian Nationalist Party played a major role in the murder of members of the Indonesian Communist Party.

After great upheavals in 1965/66, Suharto overthrew and succeeded Sukarno, who declared Indonesia's independence in 1945 and became its first president. His government, which he called the "New Order", began to reorganize Indonesia's relations with western countries. Bali, which was depicted as a paradise before the war, has started to take a modern form again. With the massive increase in tourism, living standards have also increased. In 2002, 202 people, mostly foreigners, were killed with a bomb detonated in Kuta, one of the touristic parts of Bali, by an Islamic group. This and then another attack in 2005 greatly affected tourism and the island's economy.