Indonesia by Giovanni Aquila

Indonesia is a large country that spans a great distance east to west of 3,200 miles but a much narrower distance of 1,100 from north to south.1 It is the largest country in Southeast Asia and it has many islands. While the country spans a great distance from east to west, it is limited in it’s latitude from Rondo island at 6.075 N, 95.112 E to Panama Island which is the most southern part of Asia at 11.00388 S, 122.8725 E. Due to the limited latitude not far from the equator, the climate tends to be warm and humid with significant precipitation because it is in the Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone.

While there are a few small deserts, they are the exception. Cold places are difficult to find and are at extreme altitudes of 8000 feet or higher.

The population is the fourth largest in the world behind the United States and ahead of Pakistan at 274 million persons.2 Indonesia has various ethnic groups with the Javanese being the most populous at approximately 40%.3 There is no one very dominant religion, but Muslims make up the largest religion at approximately 86-88%. There is one official language recognized at the national level, but more at some regional levels. Depending on the source of information there are more than 700 languages spoken and there is substantial risk that some of them will be lost to history.

   The recent history of Indonesia is one of independence shortly after WW II when the Japanese occupied the country. In 1974 Indonesia formed diplomatic relations with Denmark with which it has a long history. The Dutch historically traded extensively with Indonesia (and others) using the concept of a basic multinational corporation. Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie which is associated with the VOC symbol or logo. The company consisted of a bunch of formerly rival trading partners which are known in English as the Dutch East India Company from the early 17th century until the last day of the 19th century at which point it was bankrupted approximately 1602-1799.

The logo is a symbol of colonial power and ambition. The venture was a huge success based on an agreement to have a monopoly on Asia trade for 21 years. By some estimates it was the largest company to have ever existed. However, it was not limited to trading between Europe and Indonesia but rather was highly vertically integrated; involving trade over most of the world, but especially inter-Asia trade. The concept of a multinational corporation is not unlike today where a company like Exxon Mobile Corporation has tentacles all over the world but retains a headquarters in the US. There was a substantial relationship with the Dutch, which persists to a large extent today but not in a continuous fashion.

The lens which I applied is through religion. The people of Indonesia may have come (in large part) from Taiwan approximately 4000 years before common era (BCE). The Dutch influence did not result in the kind of conversion of native people as took place in the Americas for example, and that is due to some extent based on tolerance. It makes sense that a country with a large bilingual population and in addition a country with a large number of total languages, will be multicultural. There is a high proportion of Muslim population beginning from about the 1300s onward and there were influences from India with both Hindu and Buddhists Kingdoms from the 700s onward.

The country certainly has a lack of development compared to the most modern nations, but significant progress is made in most years with robust economic growth. Moreover the economy is diverse and will likely continue to increase the amount of wealth it generates due to having a combination of resources, capital, and talent. It was and still remains as an outlier from the 1997-1998 Asian crisis which involved currencies and credit bubbles where it was affected more than most other involved countries.

On the social development area there are problems with education and stunting which is a term for lack of height of the young people. This problem manifests itself in a failure to develop human capital. I was unaware of the concept being a problem in the 21st century, but it relates to a significant extent where the parents are lesser educated and they in turn fail to provide the necessities for their youth to physically allow their bodies to thrive. Stunting results in the citizens being permanently shorter than they should be when they mature into adults.

(754 words)

**References**

**1**How big is the size of Indonesia?. (2022, March 25). In *Quora A place to share knowledge and better understand the world*. Retrieved March 25, 2022, from www.google.com.

2Population by Country. (2022, March 25). In *https://www.worldometers.info/*. Retrieved March 27, 2022, from www.google.com.

3Languages of Indonesia. (n.d.). In *Wikipedia the free encyclopedia*. Retrieved March 27, 2022, from www.google.com.