Indonesia's History

Indonesia consists of 13,500 islands. Many of these islands are full of volcanoes, and some are still active. All of these volcanoes make the land in Indonesia very fertile especially in the south close to Java. There are over 300 ethnic groups in Indonesia and only ⅙ of the population speaks the national language at home. In their homes, people speak the regional language and they identify themselves as Balinese or Javanese-- not Indonesian. The government is still working on creating a national identity.

In the pre-colonial period, Indonesia was the center of trade because it had all the most precious spices such as cinnamon and cloves. Indonesia not only trades with other countries but it also traded internally, especially Java and Bali. The trade that went on inside the country was mostly agriculture. Inside Indonesia, Yogyakarta became the center of trade, philosophy, and culture. Islamisation started in the 13th century, but it was a very slow process. In the end, the Acehnese state became the strictest Islamic state in Indonesia because it was the closest to the middle east, but the states in the middle had a more relaxed type of Islam except for Bali that remained Hindu. The main states were Java, Bali, Maluca, and Acehnese. These states were always competing with each other.

The portuguese were the first europeans to come into Asia. Then came the Dutch and the British. There was a dispute and competition going on between the Dutch East India Company (abbreviated as VOC in Dutch) and the British. The VOC rushed into Yogyakarta and took over. Then, in 1756 the VOC took over Java, Ambon and all the islands in between. In 1796, the VOC went bankrupt and the Dutch government took over the company. Then, in 1911 the Dutch took control of Acehnese, Bali, and the rest of Indonesia. They reduced the practice of Islam and they made all the school secular. The Dutch prohibited Indonesia from trading with other countries; they were only allowed to trade inside their own country. They made all the farmers plant sugar, coffee, tea, and indigo at fixed prices. Java prospered from the money it made by selling these products. However, the Javanese did not own land anymore; they lived as tenants on government property. Also, the Dutch chopped down Sumatra’s forest to be able to grow tobacco, rubber, and later oil (SHELL). Suddenly there was a huge increase in Chinese migration because the British bought Hong Kong and forced China to open its ports. After just a short while of the Chinese being in Indonesia, they began to dominate the trade. The urban areas became twice as large as they were before. The Dutch introduced western education, but it was very unlikely for anyone to be accepted into these schools and universities. At this point the literacy rate was really low.

Educated people began to form political parties, but they were not organized well enough; they were sent to jail or exiled to Australia, but they forgot about one person. Sukarno was able to unite the Indonesian people with his speeches. He gave them the sense of nationalism that they were Indonesians. In 1934 Sukarno was exiled and the Japanese occupation began with little resistance from the Dutch. There was advantages and disadvantages from the Japanese occupation:       

Disadvantages	Advantages
They sent men outside of Indonesia to work for Japanese projects	They removed the Dutch from the administration and put in Indonesians
The rice and agriculture were managed poorly	They prohibited speaking Dutch and only allowed the speaking of Indonesian
Clothes were in low supply	They gave young people military training
	They freed Sukarno and other leaders
	Once they realized that they were going to lose the war, they wanted to make life difficult for the Dutch so they promoted independence

Revolution! Once the Japanese left, the Indonesians declared themselves independent, but the Dutch argued that they were still a colony. So, the Indonesians talked to the U.N to not give money for reconstruction to the Netherlands unless the Dutch gave Indonesia their independence. They also fought a Guerilla War against the Dutch in hope of independence. They also pressured the U.S. to cancel the Marshall Plan (a plan created to give money to countries that were badly destroyed during World War II) if the Dutch did not give Indonesia independence. Finally, in 1949 Indonesia gained Independence! Now that they got rid of the Dutch, they realized that there wasn’t any industry left due to the Japanese occupation and there was no food to feed the country. No government could satisfy the needs of all the people. So president after president came and went but slowly, but surely the industry began to grow again. It is still a work in progress.