| Indonesia,
officially called the Republic of Indonesia (Indonesian: Republik Indonesia), is
an interesting nation of many islands consisting of more than 18,000 islands located in the
South East Asian Archipelago. It is the world's largest archipelagic
nation. It is bordered by the nations of Papua New Guinea, East Timor,
Singapore, Australia and Malaysia. Indonesia (from Greek: indus = India
nesos = islands) is home in excess of more than 200 million people, and thus is the
most populous Muslim-majority nation in the world and the fourth most densely
populous overall. The area now comprising the archipelago of Indonesia,
specifically Java, was inhabited by Homo erectus - the Java Man -
approximately 500,000 years ago, while the island of Flores was home to a
newly discovered species of hominid, Homo floresiensis. This region was an
invaluable trade route to China, thriving in the spice trade. Regional
Hindu kingdoms expanded religious and cultural influence of Hinduism as
well as Buddhism. In the middle ages the islands were under the
influence of Islam. Thus the region was colonized by the Netherlands as the
Dutch East Indies. The people across many islands rebelled in the early
20th century against Dutch control. Following a brief occupation by
Imperial Japan during World War II, nationalists declared independence in
1945, and a new united and very independent Indonesian was recognized in 1949.
Indonesia is a unitary state, and was governed by Sukarno, leader of the
national freedom struggle, and military dictator Suharto for most of its
recent history. Democracy was then restored following the revolution of 1998.
Although the national language is Indonesian (called Bahasa Indonesia in
Indonesian) and the population is overwhelmingly Muslim, there are several
hundred diverse linguistic and ethnic groups across the country, as well
as other religious communities. Although Indonesia's economy is
progressive and regionally important, the problems of poverty, illiteracy,
political instability and even regional separatism remain major issues
hindering national development. |
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