page_title: History of Indonesia
section_title: Indonesian National Awakening
hierarchical_section_title: History of Indonesia / The emergence of Indonesia / Indonesian National Awakening
caption_attribution_description: Soekarno, the first President of Indonesia.
context_page_description: The history of Indonesia has been shaped by its geographic position, its natural resources, a series of human migrations and contacts, wars and conquests, as well as by trade, economics and politics. Indonesia is an archipelagic country of 17,000 to 18,000 islands stretching along the equator in South East Asia. The country's strategic sea-lane position fostered inter-island and international trade; trade has since fundamentally shaped Indonesian history. The area of Indonesia is populated by peoples of various migrations, creating a diversity of cultures, ethnicities, and languages. The archipelago's landforms and climate significantly influenced agriculture and trade, and the formation of states. The boundaries of the state of Indonesia represent the 20th century borders of the Dutch East Indies.
  Fossilised remains of Homo erectus and his tools, popularly known as the "Java Man", suggest the Indonesian archipelago was inhabited by at least 1.5 million years ago. Austronesian people, who form the majority of the modern population, are thought to have originally been from Taiwan and arrived in Indonesia around 2000 BCE.
context_section_description: In October 1908, the first nationalist movement was formed, Budi Utomo. On 10 September 1912, the first nationalist mass movement was formed: Sarekat Islam. By December 1912, Sarekat Islam had 93,000 members. The Dutch responded after the First World War with repressive measures. The nationalist leaders came from a small group of young professionals and students, some of whom had been educated in the Netherlands. In the post–World War I era, the Indonesian communists who were associated with the Third International started to usurp the nationalist movement. The repression of the nationalist movement led to many arrests, including Indonesia's first president, Sukarno (1901–70), who was imprisoned for political activities on 29 December 1929. Also arrested was Mohammad Hatta, first Vice-President of Indonesia. Additionally, Sutan Sjahrir, who later became the first Prime Minister of Indonesia, was arrested on this date.
  In 1914 the exiled Dutch socialist Henk Sneevliet founded the Indies Social Democratic Association. Initially a small forum of Dutch socialists, it would later evolve into the Communist Party of Indonesia (PKI) in 1924. In the post–World War I era, the Dutch strongly repressed all attempts at change. This repression led to a growth of the PKI. By December 1924, the PKI had a membership of 1,140. One year later in 1925, the PKI had grown to 3,000 members. From 1926 to 1927, there was a PKI-led revolt against Dutch colonialism and the harsh repression of strikes of urban workers. However, the strikes and the revolt was put down by the Dutch with some 13,000 nationalists and communists leaders were arrested. Some 4,500 were given prison sentences.
  Sukarno was released from prison in December 1931  but was re-arrested on 1 August 1933.
caption: Sukarno, Indonesian Nationalist leader, and later, first president of Indonesia.
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