Ancient Indonesia

In 7th century AD, Hindu-Buddhist kingdom Sriwijaya rose in Sumatra as the first Indonesian commercial sea power capable to control most of the trade in Southeast Asia. this was because they were located in the Strait of Melaka. The Mataram and Sailendra dynasty was in its halcyon years. While trade gave Sriwijaya’s its wealth, kingdoms from the island of Java such as Mataram had far more human work at their agrarian societies. At the end of the 1900’s, the Mataram kingdom mysteriously disappeared. The nucleus shifted from Central to East Java and it was also, a time when Hinduism and Buddhism were syncretized and when Javanese culture began to develop.

Colonial Indonesia

In the early 1500’s the Portuguese arrived in Indonesia, with a huge demand in Europe for spices such as nutmeg, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, and mace. The Portuguese therefore decided to take over the central source of spice, the Moluccas. Following up, In 1511 they captured Melaka, a port city. They also captured the Moluccas. However, in the early 1600’s Dutch stole everything the Portuguese. In 1602 the Dutch East India Company was founded in order to manage trade with Indonesia. In 1641 they retook Melaka. However, by 1600 they had withdrawn from Indonesia. Moreover, during 1700, the Dutch East India Company fell into deep debt. In 1806 the Dutch and British declared war for Indonesia. The British easily conquered all the Dutch territories in Indonesia. During their reign, the British abolished slavery. However, in 1816 the British gave the Dutch Indonesia again.

Many Indonesians opposed the return of the mean Dutch. Despite, the Dutch eventually won and regained control. The Javanese war began in 1829. Yet, the war soon ended with the Dutch winning a quick victory in 1830. The Kultuurstelsel, meaning cultural system was soon introduced by the Dutch. Also, Indonesian farmers were forced to put aside 20% of their land to grow crops for export. Indonesians were forced to grow spices popular in Europe such as indigo, tea, pepper, cinnamon, and sugar. Luckily, In the early 1900s, the Indonesians were treated better. Ethical Policy was introduced. This meant more money maximizing well-being.

However the new policy had almost no change on the lives of most Indonesians. It did however mean fuel the clamoring for independence. Then, In 1942 the Japanese invaded Indonesia. At first the Indonesians thought of the Japanese as liberating heroes, but they soon found out the Japanese were brutal and they greedy. On 17th of August, Sukarno declared Indonesian independence. He became the first president and Hatta became vice-president. However, the Dutch were not in favor of Indonesian independence. In November, the Indonesians and Dutch signed the Linggajati pact. The Dutch honored the new government, but only did so in Java, they said the rest of present-day Indonesia was theirs. However, after a failed attempt, during 1948, the Dutch tried to reclaim Indonesia. However, by this time the Indonesians were skilled in guerilla warfare and were backed up by the US. Soon later the Dutch withdrew. At last, on November 2nd, 1949 the Dutch finally recognized Indonesian as its own country.