Indonesia travel guide

Trade contracts with India, China and the mainland of Southeast Asia brought outside cultural and religious influences to Indonesia and on the island of Java amongst others, scores of exquisite religious monuments, such as Borobudur, the largest Buddhist monument in the world, were built in honour of this. A very powerful early Hindu-Javanese kingdom, the 14th century Majapahit Empire, once controlled and influenced much of what is now known as Indonesia, maintaining contacts with trading outposts as far away as the west coast of Papua New Guinea. Indian Muslim traders began spreading Islam in Indonesia in the eighth and ninth centuries and by the time Marco Polo visited North Sumatra at the end of the 13th century, the first Islamic states had already been established. Soon afterwards, rulers on Java's north coast adopted the new creed and conquered the Hindu-based Majapahit Empire in the Javanese hinterland. The faith gradually spread throughout archipelago, and Indonesia is today the world's largest Islamic nation.

Indonesia's abundant spices first brought Portuguese merchants to the key trading port of Malacca in 1511. Prized for their strong flavour, spices such as cloves, nutmeg and mace were believed to cure everything from the plague to venereal disease, and were literally worth their weight in gold. The Dutch eventually wrested control of the spice trade from the Portuguese, and the tenacious Dutch East India Company (known by initials VOC) established a spice monopoly, which lasted well into the 18th century. During the 19th century, the Dutch began sugar and coffee cultivation on Java, which was soon providing three quarters of the world’s supply of coffee.

By the turn of the 20th century, nationalist stirring, brought about by nearly three centuries of oppressive colonial rule, began to challenge the Dutch presence in Indonesia. A four-year guerilla war led by nationalists against the Dutch on Java after World War II, along with successful diplomatic movement abroad, helped bring about independence and the Republic of Indonesia was officially proclaimed on August 17th 1945, gaining sovereignty four years later. During the first two decades of independence, the republic was dominated by the early nationalist figure, Sukarno, before Suharto wrestled power from him in 1967. Indonesia's economy was sustained throughout the 1970s, almost exclusively by oil export, but the Asian financial crisis, which begin in mid-1997, paralysed the Indonesian economy with the rupiah losing 80 percent of its value against the US dollar at the peak of the turmoil. On May 21 1998, Suharto resigned after 32 years in power and was replaced by B.J. Habibie following bloody violence and riots. Indonesia held its first democratic election in October 1999, which put Abdurrahman 'Gus Dur' Wahid in the role of president.