What is Indonesia?

 What is Indonesia?

The Republic of Indonesia, abbreviated as RI or Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia that is crossed by the equator and is located between the continents of Asia and Australia and between the Pacific Ocean and the Indian Ocean. Indonesia is the largest archipelagic country in the world consisting of 13,466 islands, [5] an alternative name commonly used is Nusantara. [6] With a population of more than 237 million in 2010, [7] Indonesia is the fourth most populous country in the world and the largest Muslim country in the world, with more than 207 million people. [8] The form of government of Indonesia is a republic, with the House of Representatives, the Regional Representative Council and the President directly elected.
The national capital is Jakarta. Indonesia borders land with Malaysia on the island of Borneo, with Papua New Guinea on the island of Papua and with Timor Leste on the island of Timor. Other neighboring countries are Singapore, the Philippines, Australia and the united region of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in India.
The history of Indonesia is much influenced by other nations. The Indonesian archipelago became an important trading area since at least the 7th century, namely when the Srivijaya Kingdom in Palembang established religious and trade relations with China and India. Hindu and Buddhist kingdoms had grown in the early AD, followed by traders who brought Islam, as well as various European powers who fought each other to monopolize the Maluku spice trade during the era of ocean exploration. After being under Dutch colonialism, Indonesia, which was then called the Dutch East Indies declared its independence at the end of World War II. Furthermore, Indonesia gets various obstacles, threats and challenges from natural disasters, corruption, separatism, democratization processes and periods of rapid economic change.
From Sabang to Merauke, Indonesia consists of various ethnic groups, languages, and religions. Based on the national family (race), Indonesia consists of indigenous indigenous peoples namely Southern Mongoloid / Austronesian and Melanesia where Austronesian nations are the largest in number and inhabit the western part of Indonesia. More specifically, the Javanese are the largest ethnic group with a population reaching 41.7% of the total population of Indonesia. [9] Indonesia's national motto, "Bhinneka tunggal ika" ("Different but still one"), means the diversity that forms the country. Besides having a densely populated population and large area, Indonesia has a natural area that supports the second largest level of biodiversity in the world.
Indonesia was also a member of the United Nations and the only member who had left the United Nations, namely on January 7, 1965, and rejoined on September 28, 1966 and Indonesia was still declared a member of the 60th, the same membership since joining Indonesia on September 28, 1950. In addition to the United Nations, Indonesia is also a member of ASEAN, KAA, APEC, OKI, G-20 and will be a member of the OECD.

ata "Indonesia" comes from the ancient Greek Indos which means "Indian" and nesos which means "island". [10] Thus, the word Indonesia means the Indian archipelago, or islands in the Indies, which shows that this name was formed long before Indonesia became a sovereign country. [11] In 1850, George Windsor Earl, an English ethnologist, initially proposed the terms Indunesia and Malayunesia for the inhabitants of the "Indian Archipelago or the Malay Archipelago". [12] Earl's student James Richardson Logan uses the Indonesian word as a synonym for the Indian Islands. [13] However, Dutch academic writing in the Indies media did not use the Indonesian word, but the term Malay Archipelago (Maleische Archipel); Dutch East Indies (Nederlandsch Oost Indië), or Indies (Indië); Timur (de Oost); and even Insulinde (this term was introduced in 1860 in the novel Max Havelaar (1859), written by Multatuli, concerning criticism of Dutch colonialism). [6] Since 1900, the name Indonesia has become more common in the academic environment outside the Netherlands, and Indonesian nationalists use it for political expression. [6] Adolf Bastian from the University of Berlin promoted this name through an Indonesian book by die die Inseln des Malayischen Archipels, 1884-1894. The first Indonesian student to use it was Suwardi Suryaningrat (Ki Hajar Dewantara), namely when he founded a news agency in the Netherlands called Indonesisch Pers Bureau in.

Early history

The legacy of Homo erectus fossils, which anthropologists also nicknamed "Java Man", raises the suspicion that the Indonesian archipelago began inhabiting between two million and 500,000 years ago. [14] Austronesian nations, which make up the majority of the population at present, migrate to Southeast Asia from Taiwan. They arrived around 2000 BC, and caused the earlier Melanesians there to be pushed to areas far east of the islands. [15] Ideal conditions for agriculture, and mastery of rice cultivation methods since at least the 8th century BC, [16] led to many small towns, cities, and kingdoms developing well in the first century AD. In addition, Indonesia, which is located on international and inter-island sea trade routes, has been a shipping route between India and China for several centuries. [17] Indonesian history subsequently experienced a lot of influence from these trading activities. [18]

Since the 1st century Indonesian merchant ships have sailed far, even to Africa. A part of ship relief in Borobudur temple, k. 800 M.
Under the influence of Hinduism and Buddhism, several kingdoms were formed on the islands of Borneo, Sumatra, and Java from the 4th to the 14th centuries. Kutai, is the oldest kingdom in the archipelago which was founded in the 4th century in the upper reaches of the Mahakam river, East Kalimantan. In the western region of Java, in the 4th century to the 7th century AD, the kingdom of Tarumanegara was established. The Tarumanagara government was continued by the Sunda Kingdom from 669 AD to 1579 AD In the 7th century, the Malayu kingdom emerged based in Jambi, Sumatra. Srivijaya defeated Malayu and emerged as the most powerful maritime kingdom in the archipelago. His territories included Sumatra, Java, the Malay peninsula, while controlling trade in the Malacca Strait, Sunda Strait, and South China Sea. [19] Under the influence of Srivijaya, between the 8th and 10th centuries the Syailendra and Sanjaya dynasty succeeded in developing agricultural-based kingdoms in Java, with historical relics such as the Borobudur temple and Prambanan temple. At the end of the 13th century, Majapahit was established in the eastern part of Java. Under the leadership of mahapatih Gajah Mada, his power expanded to almost cover the present territory of Indonesia; and is often called the "Golden Age" in Indonesian history. [20]
The arrival of Arab and Persian traders through Gujarat, India, then brought Islam. In addition, Chinese sailors led by Admiral Cheng Ho (Zheng He) who were Muslim, also visited the region in the early 15th century. [21] These traders also spread Islam in several regions of the archipelago. Samudera Pasai which was founded in 1267, was the first Islamic kingdom in Indonesia.

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