Indonesia, Republic of, country in Southeast Asia, constituting most of the Malay Archipelago. The country’s total area is 1,904,443 sq km (735,310 sq mi). Jakarta is the capital and largest city.  

Land and Resources  
Indonesia is located south and east of mainland Asia and north and west of Australia. About half of the country’s nearly 13,700 islands are inhabited; all are located in the Indian and Pacific oceans. The main islands are Java, Sumatra, and Sulawesi. The country shares the island of Borneo with Malaysia and Brunei; Indonesia’s portion is called Kalimantan. Indonesia also shares the island of New Guinea with Papua New Guinea; Indonesia occupies the western half of the island, known as Irian Jaya (formerly West Irian). Indonesia administers all of Timor Island, although its claim to East Timor is not recognized by the international community.  

A stretch of mostly open water divides the major islands of Indonesia into two unequal strings. In the south are the long, narrow islands of Sumatra, Java, Timor, and others. On these southern islands, a chain of volcanic mountains extends from Sumatra in the west to Timor in the east. In the north are the islands of Sulawesi, the Moluccas, and New Guinea. Each of the major northern islands has a central mountain mass, with plains around the coasts. Because of Indonesia’s location near the equator and its island geography, the climate along coastal areas is hot and humid year-round. Temperatures in upland areas tend to be cooler. Indonesia has two monsoon seasons: a wet season from November to March and a dry season from June to October. Between monsoons, the weather is more moderate.  

Indonesia has some 400 volcanoes, of which about 130 are active and 70 have erupted in historical times. Much of the northeastern coast of Sumatra and the coasts of Kalimantan and Irian Jaya are low and swampy with extensive mangrove forests. In stark contrast, the coastlines along the southern edges of Sumatra, Java, and some of the smaller islands of eastern Indonesia are exposed to the swells that roll in from the Indian Ocean. These areas contain some of the world’s best surfing beaches, attracting large numbers of tourists. Tourists are also attracted to the country’s coral reefs and atolls.  

Tropical rain forests prevail in the northern lowlands of Indonesia. Tall tropical hardwoods dominate the forests and provide good harvests of timber, resin, vegetable oil, and illipe nuts. Mangrove trees and nipa palm dominate the forests of the southern lowlands. The hill forests consist of oak and chestnut trees and mountain plants. Orangutans live in the forests of Sumatra and Kalimantan, and wild oxen are in Kalimantan and parts of Java. Proboscis monkeys can be found in Kalimantan, and elephants, tapir, and black gibbons inhabit Sumatra. Irian Jaya is home to the large, land-based cassowary bird and to many species of colorful birds of paradise. The Komodo dragon, of Komodo and Rinca islands, is the world’s largest lizard, growing to 3 m (10 ft) in length.  

Indonesia has significant deposits of oil and natural gas, most of which are concentrated along the eastern coast of Sumatra and in and around Kalimantan. Tin, bauxite, copper, nickel, and coal are the country’s major mineral resources. The seas surrounding Indonesia yield abundant saltwater fish, pearls, shells, and agar (a substance extracted from seaweed).  

The People of Indonesia  
Indonesia’s population is 209,774,138 (1997 estimate), making it the world’s fourth most populous country after China, India, and the United States. Well over half of Indonesia’s people live on Java. The next most populous islands are Sumatra, Sulawesi, and Kalimantan.  

The Javanese, who live mainly in central and eastern Java, are the largest ethnic group, constituting 45 percent of Indonesia’s population. On the western end of Java are the Sundanese, who make up 14 percent of the population. Other significant ethnic groups include the Madurese, who hail from Madura, off the northeast coast of Java, and make up 7 percent of the population; and the ethnic Malay, who are dispersed throughout several areas, and also make up 7 percent of the population. About 300 languages and dialects are spoken in Indonesia, but Bahasa Indonesia is the official and most widely spoken tongue. Other languages include Javanese, Sundanese, Acehnese, Batak, Minangkabau, Malay, Minahasan, Sasak, Sumbawan, and Malay dialects.  

Almost 90 percent of the people follow a form of Islam, making Indonesia the largest Islamic country in the world. Christians—mostly Protestants—represent about 10 percent of the population. Buddhists account for about 1 percent of the population. Hinduism is now significant only on Bali. Compulsory education includes elementary schooling and three years of lower secondary schooling. Besides Jakarta, principal cities include Surabaya, Bandung, Medan, Palembang, and Ujungpandang.  

Economy  
Before Indonesia gained independence in 1945, the country’s economy was oriented toward providing raw materials such as sugar and rubber for the Netherlands. To survive, most people relied on subsistence agriculture, primarily the production of rice. After independence, economic mismanagement was prevalent, but beginning in the 1960s economic restructuring became a priority. Since then, agriculture’s part in the economy has shrunk, and services and manufacturing have grown.  

Some 17 percent of all land is under cultivation, mostly on Java. Along with rice, sugar, and rubber, important crops are tobacco, cassava, maize, sweet potatoes, coconuts, sugarcane, soybeans, peanuts, tea, and coffee. Indonesia’s manufactures range from traditional crafts to aerospace products. The main products include food and beverages, tobacco products, textiles and garments, motor vehicle parts, and electrical appliances. Services—in restaurants and hotels, insurance, business services, and the like—are an important part of Indonesia’s economy. Tourism is growing.  

Mineral products include tin, bauxite, nickel, copper, coal, manganese, and iron ore. Hardwoods make up almost all of the timber harvested in Indonesia; more than four-fifths of this harvest is used for fuel. Industrial woods produced in large quantities include teak, ebony, bamboo, and rattan. Indonesia is also the world’s leading exporter of plywood. In fishing, the chief catches are shrimp and prawns, scad, carp, Indian mackerel, goldstripe sardinella, milkfish, anchovies, and skipjack tuna. The rupiah is the official monetary unit of Indonesia (2342 rupiah equal U.S.$1; 1996).  

Government  
Indonesia’s president is both chief executive and head of state. The president is elected to a five-year term by a national body called the People’s Consultative Assembly (MPR). The president is responsible for appointing a cabinet to carry out the administrative duties of the government. The MPR, which is in session at least once every five years, elects the president and vice president and approves the broad guidelines of government policy. In the mid-1990s its 1000 members were the 500 members of the House of Representatives, 253 representatives from various political organizations, 147 regional representatives, and 100 representatives from professional groups. The remaining legislative power is vested in the House of Representatives (DPR). The DPR approves all statutes and has the right to submit draft bills for ratification by the president. The DPR comprises 425 directly elected members and 75 members selected from the armed forces and appointed by the president.  

History  
Fossil remains of Homo erectus, an ancestor of modern man (Homo sapiens), have been found in the Solo and Brantas river valleys in the central part of the republic. These fossils are known as Java man and are estimated to be about 500,000 years old.  

Throughout history the peoples of Southeast Asia migrated extensively, giving the Indonesian archipelago a mix of more than 100 ethnic groups and languages. Within this mix there has been a wide cultural gap between the coastal peoples, who developed irrigated wet-rice cultivation, and the inland peoples, who depended on shifting, slash-and-burn agriculture. Over the years, three distinct types of Indonesian societies evolved. On the coast were the trade-oriented, deeply Islamic coastal peoples. Farther inland, Hindu-influenced, wet-rice cultivators developed. Even farther inland, typically in remote mountainous regions, were tribal groups who practiced shifting cultivation and indigenous religious beliefs.  

Trade between Indonesia and India’s Bay of Bengal most likely began in the 1st and 2nd centuries AD. By the beginning of the 7th century, several important kingdoms existed on Java. The greatest maritime empire was Sri Vijaya, a Mahayana Buddhist kingdom on Sumatra’s southeast coast. A series of major kingdoms rose and fell until 1293, when Vijaya (ruled 1293-1309) founded Majapahit, the greatest Javanese empire.  

Islam arrived with overseas merchants, initially from southern India and Gujarat in western India. The new religion spread slowly until the 15th-century rise of the sultanate of Malacca, on peninsular Malaysia’s western coast. As Malacca's power grew, Majapahit's influence lessened, eventually disappearing in the early 16th century. In 1511, Malacca was captured by the Portuguese, who then dominated the region.  

In the early 17th century the Dutch East India Company began competing for the archipelago's trade. Batavia (now Jakarta) was established as Dutch headquarters, and in 1641 the Dutch captured Malacca. The Dutch East India Company soon gained a monopoly and effective political control over the region. The company went bankrupt and dissolved in 1799, and the Dutch government assumed control of its holdings. The Dutch slowly extended their control of Java to other nearby islands.  

At the beginning of the 20th century the Dutch introduced their Ethical Policy. Under this policy, agriculture and limited health and educational services were developed, and railways, roads, and interisland shipping expanded. Eventually two new social elements arose: a few Western-educated Indonesians and a smaller group of Indonesian entrepreneurs. They began to compete with a predominantly Chinese commercial class. These Indonesian groups grew increasingly resentful of the colonial structure.  

In the 1920s the Indonesian nationalist movement was headed by leaders who were not primarily Muslim, notably Sukarno, an advocate of complete independence who founded the Indonesian Nationalist Party (PNI). During World War II (1939-1945) the Japanese invaded and occupied Indonesia. In 1944, despite having enslaved thousands of Indonesians, the Japanese promised Indonesia eventual independence in order to muster support against anticipated Allied attacks.  

In 1945, after Japan's surrender, Sukarno and Muhammad Hatta proclaimed the independence of the Republic of Indonesia and were selected as its president and vice president. Subsequently, the Dutch launched attacks against the new republic. They encountered republican guerrilla resistance and pressure from the international community, and in 1949 the Dutch transferred sovereignty over Indonesia, except West Irian, to the federal Republic of the United States of Indonesia (RUSI).  

In August 1950 the Unitary State of Indonesia replaced the RUSI. In the late 1950s President Sukarno implemented changes that gave him wider government authority. As a consequence, the outer islanders grew increasingly resentful of the central government. Several rebellions took place, but all were put down. West Irian was turned over to Indonesia in 1963. Under Sukarno’s rule, Indonesia experienced economic decline. Both the army and the Communists (PKI) increased their power, and tension mounted between the two groups.  

The situation culminated in a coup attempt in 1965, but the usurpers were suppressed by General Suharto. He took control of the army and increasingly exerted power over the state, easing Sukarno out of effective power by March 1966. Although the identity and motives of the coup’s instigators remain controversial, the army alleged that the Communist PKI was responsible. In response to the coup attempt, army units and many Muslim groups began massacring Communists and their supporters. Between 300,000 and 1 million people were killed in the Communist crackdown. The government also arrested hundreds of thousands of people accused of involvement in the coup attempt.  

Suharto officially became president in 1968. Elections were held in 1971, but they were tightly controlled by the government. The government-backed Golkar party secured most of the seats in the House of Representatives, as it would in each of the elections held at five-year intervals thereafter. Similarly, the People’s Consultative Assembly routinely returned Suharto to the presidency, unopposed, at five-year intervals.  

Over the past few decades, Indonesia has experienced growing economic and social inequalities, particularly among the rural Javanese. By the mid-1990s a large slice of Indonesia’s wealth was concentrated in the hands of the president’s family members and their associates. The economic inequalities have been exacerbated by the growth of the population, and in the 1990s resulted in rioting in several Indonesian towns.  

Since the 1970s, several parts of Indonesia have also faced severe political instability. In 1975 Portugal withdrew from its colony of East Timor, located in the southeastern part of the Indonesian archipelago. A leftist group promptly declared independence, and Indonesia responded by invading and then annexing East Timor. Conflict has continued in the area. In 1996 Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo and Jose Ramos Horta, two Timorese dissidents, were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts to resolve the conflict. In late 1997 a collapse in Asian financial markets caused widespread antigovernment demonstrations. A legislative assembly appointed Suharto to a seventh term as president in March 1998. However, Suharto yielded to continued public pressure and resigned in May, ceding power to Bacharuddin Jusuf Habibie, who had served as his vice president.