Indonesia

**Indonesia**, () officially the **Republic of Indonesia;** ) is a nation in Southeast Asia and Oceania. As the biggest archipelago country in the world, Indonesia has 17,504 islands. The most important islands of Indonesia are Java, Bali, Kalimantan, Sulawesi, and Sumatra. The capital of Indonesia is Jakarta, on the island of Java, but there are plans to change it to Nusantara. The current president is Prabowo Subianto. Modern Indonesia began on the 17th of August 1945. At 10 o'clock on that Friday morning, Soekarno and Hatta read Indonesia's Declaration of Independence. Indonesia's Independence Day is a national holiday.

Indonesia is the fourth most populated country in the world with 238,452,952 people (2004 est.). Half of the population lives in Java. There are 111 people per km. The land area is , or slightly smaller than Mexico. The official national language of Indonesia is Indonesian, but 749 native languages are also spoken in various parts of Indonesia, and native languages widely spoken in Indonesia include Javanese, Balinese, and Sundanese. Indonesia's neighbors are Australia to the south, Singapore to the northwest, and Philippines to the northeast. Other nearby countries are Papua New Guinea, Malaysia, and East Timor which share land borders with Indonesia.

Indonesia has the most active volcanoes of any country in the world. It is also close to fault lines so there are many earthquakes and tsunamis.

Most people in Indonesia follow Islam, but Indonesia is not an Islamic country by law. Indonesia has the largest Muslim population on earth. Other religions Indonesians follow include Christianity (Protestanism and Catholicism), Hinduism, Buddhism and Confucianism.

### Pre World War II

Indonesia has a written history as far back as the 7th century and a much longer oral history. Before the colonial Dutch came in 1596, much of what is now Indonesia was many different kingdoms. Often they were fighting each other.

Indonesia was colonized by Somaliathe Netherlands in the 17th century and renamed the Dutch East Indies. During this time, the Dutch captured thousands of Malagasy people from Madagascar and forced them to work on pepper plantations in their colonies as slaves. The Dutch treated the islands like their property until World War II.

During World War II, the Japanese drove out the Dutch and took control of Indonesia. After Japan surrendered in the war, Indonesia claimed its independence on the 17th of August 1945. The proclamation was read by Sukarno and Hatta in Jakarta. Sukarno later became Indonesia's first President and Mohammad Hatta became Indonesia’s first vice President.

British troops came into Indonesia to restore peace and to rescue Europeans who had been prisoners of the Japanese. The British troops also had the job of shipping home 300,000 Japanese troops. The Indonesian Republicans fought the British troops, because it was expected that the British would give Indonesia back to the Dutch. The Indonesian Republicans killed many of the Japanese prisoners, before they could be sent home. They also began killing people from minority groups who might be against the new Republic. Many Europeans and Indonesian Europeans people were killed. Many Chinese business people and other minority groups were killed or made homeless. In Java there were many thousands of homeless people.

In 1946, the Dutch came back. When the British left in 1946, there were 55,000 Dutch soldiers in Indonesia. The Dutch action was called "Operatie Product" or "Politionele Acties". The Indonesian Republicans fought the Dutch until 1949. But the Indonesian Republicans were badly organised and often fought among themselves.  As the Dutch forced the Republican soldiers out of different areas, they moved in more troops until there were 100,000 Dutch troops. The Dutch refused to obey the United Nations who said they should stop the fighting in Indonesia. The United States of America organised for meetings between Dutch and Indonesian leaders. The Dutch finally agreed to recognise Indonesia's independence in November 1949.

Because of the fighting and the bad organisation, it took a long time for the country to become peaceful, and for the economy to get better. Many Indonesian soldiers had died, between 45,000 and 100,000. Also, a very large number of civilians, Indonesians, Europeans and Chinese, had died; perhaps as many as 100,000.

Sukarno was an early leader of Indonesia. Suharto followed his rule.

## Provinces

Indonesia has 38 provinces, and nine of them have special status. Each province has its own legislature and governor. The provinces are divided into regencies (_kabupaten_) and cities (_kota_).  These are further divided into districts (_kecamatan_), and again into village groupings (either _desa_ or _kelurahan_).

**Indonesian provinces and their capitals – listed by region**
<small>
(Indonesian name in parentheses if different from English)</small>
<small>
 are provinces with Special Status</small>

**Sumatra**
- Aceh<sup>*</sup> – Banda Aceh
- North Sumatra (_Sumatera Utara_) – Medan
- West Sumatra (_Sumatera Barat_) – Padang
- Riau – Pekanbaru
- Riau Islands (_Kepulauan Riau_) – Tanjung Pinang
- Jambi – Jambi (city)
- South Sumatra (_Sumatera Selatan_) – Palembang
- Bangka Belitung Islands (_Kepulauan Bangka-Belitung_) – Pangkal Pinang
- Bengkulu – Bengkulu (city)
- Lampung – Bandar Lampung
**Java**
- Special Territory of Jakarta<sup>*</sup> (_Daerah Khusus Jakarta_)  – Jakarta
- Banten – Serang
- West Java (_Jawa Barat_) – Bandung
- Central Java (_Jawa Tengah_) – Semarang
- Yogyakarta Special Region<sup>*</sup> (_Daerah Istimewa Yogyakarta_) – Yogyakarta (city)
- East Java (_Jawa Timur_) – Surabaya
**Lesser Sunda Islands**
- Bali – Denpasar
- West Nusa Tenggara (_Nusa Tenggara Barat_) – Mataram
- East Nusa Tenggara (_Nusa Tenggara Timur_) – Kupang

**Kalimantan**
- West Kalimantan (_Kalimantan Barat_) – Pontianak
- Central Kalimantan (_Kalimantan Tengah_) – Palangkaraya
- South Kalimantan (_Kalimantan Selatan_) – Banjarbaru
- East Kalimantan (_Kalimantan Timur_) – Samarinda
- Special Territory of Nusantara Capital City<sup>*</sup> (_Daerah Khusus Ibu Kota Nusantara_)  – Nusantara
- North Kalimantan (_Kalimantan Utara_) –Tanjung Selor
**Sulawesi**
- North Sulawesi (_Sulawesi Utara_) – Manado
- Gorontalo – Gorontalo (city)
- Central Sulawesi (_Sulawesi Tengah_) – Palu
- West Sulawesi (_Sulawesi Barat_) – Mamuju
- South Sulawesi (_Sulawesi Selatan_) – Makassar
- Southeast Sulawesi (_Sulawesi Tenggara_) – Kendari
**Maluku Islands**
- Maluku – Ambon
- North Maluku (_Maluku Utara_) – Sofifi
**Western New Guinea**
- Southwest Papua<sup>*</sup> (_Papua Barat Daya_) – Sorong
- West Papua<sup>*</sup> (_Papua Barat_) – Manokwari
- Central Papua<sup>*</sup> (_Papua Tengah_) – Nabire
- Papua<sup>*</sup> – Jayapura
- Highland Papua<sup>*</sup> (_Papua Pegunungan_) – Jayawijaya
- South Papua<sup>*</sup> (_Papua Selatan_) – Salor

## People and culture

There are people of many different cultural groups living in Indonesia, has more than 700 ethnic groups. It is affected by Indians, Chinese people, Arabs, Malays and Europeans. There are many dances in Indonesia too, like the Piring and Payung dances of West Sumatra, the Gandrung dance of Java and the Saman dance of Aceh. The Javan hawk-eagle is the national bird. Indonesia is a popular destination to travel to experience the new culture and beautiful land scape.

## Infobox (country)

- **conventional long name**: Republic of Indonesia
- **common name**: Indonesia
- **image flag**: Flag of Indonesia.svg
- **image coat**: National emblem of Indonesia Garuda Pancasila.svg
- **symbol type**: National Emblem
- **image map**: Indonesia (orthographic projection).svg
- **national motto**: _Bhinneka Tunggal Ika_<small>
Unity in Diversity</small>
**Ideology, National ideology:** Pancasila (politics), Pancasila
- **national anthem**:

_Indonesia Raya_
"Great Indonesia"
- **official languages**: Indonesian language, Indonesian (national and official language)
- **recognized languages**: Over 700 native languages and international languages (English language, English, Arabic language, Arabic, etc.)
- **capital**: Jakarta
- **largest city**: Jakarta
- **demonym**: Indonesians, Indonesian
- **ethnic groups**: Javanese 40.6%
Sundanese 15%
Madurese 3.3%
Minangkabau 2.7%
Betawi 2.4%
Bugis 2.4%
Banten 2%
Banjar 1.7%
other 29.9%
- **ethnic groups year**: 2000
- **government type**: Unitary state, Unitary Presidential system, presidential Constitutional republic, constitutional republic
- **leader title1**: President of Indonesia, President
- **leader name1**: Prabowo Subianto
- **leader title2**: Vice President of Indonesia, Vice President
- **leader name2**: Gibran Rakabuming Raka
- **leader title3**: List of Speakers of the People's Representative Council, House Speaker
- **leader name3**: Puan Maharani
- **leader title4**: Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Indonesia, Chief Justice
- **leader name4**: Sunarto (judge), Sunarto
- **legislature**: People's Consultative Assembly
- **upper house**: Regional Representative Council
- **lower house**: People's Representative Council
- **area rank**: 15th
- **area km2**: 1,904,569
- **area sq mi**: 735,355
- **area label**: Land area, Land
- **area label2**: Water area, Water (%)
- **area data2**: 4.85
- **population estimate**: 237,424,363
- **population estimate rank**: 4th
- **population estimate year**: 2011
- **population census**: 237,424,363
- **population census year**: 2011
- **population density km2**: 123.76
- **population density sq mi**: 323.05
- **population density rank**: 84th
- **gdp ppp year**: 2011
- **gdp ppp**: $1.126 trillion
- **gdp ppp rank**: 15th
- **gdp ppp per capita**: $4,744
- **gdp ppp per capita rank**: 122nd
- **gdp nominal year**: 2011
- **gdp nominal**: $834.331 billion
- **gdp nominal rank**: 17th
- **gdp nominal per capita**: $3,514
- **gdp nominal per capita rank**: 107th
- **hdi year**: 2011
- **hdi**: 0.617
- **hdi change**: increase
- **hdi rank**: 124th
- **gini**: 36.8
- **gini year**: 1999
- **sovereignty type**: Independence
- **sovereignty note**: from the Netherlands
- **established event2**: Proclamation of Indonesian Independence, Declared
- **established date2**: 17 August 1945
- **established event3**: Dutch–Indonesian Round Table Conference, Acknowledged
- **established date3**: 27 December 1949
- **currency**: Indonesian rupiah, Rupiah
- **currency code**: IDR
- **time zone**: various
- **utc offset**: +7 to +9
- **drives on**: Left
- **cctld**: .id
- **calling code**: +62