History of Indonesia

The history of Indonesia covers the development of the Republic of Indonesia from prehistory to the present. The Republic of Indonesia consists of an archipelago of 17,508 islands, of which over 6,000 are inhabited. Up to the present day, the island region has been influenced and shaped by a number of governments, colonization and various crises such as natural disasters or civil wars .

Sources

The majority of the sources about the civilizations before the arrival of the Europeans are stone inscriptions from the islands of the archipelago and Chinese , Buddhist and Hindu records found on the Asian mainland. However, these are usually very sparse, which is why this part of the story is only imprecise can be reconstructed. Sometimes there are also different or different interpretable information or names from source to source. While this article attempts to present the facts that appear most likely, it should not be considered final or absolutely correct.

With the arrival of the Portuguese, the source situation improved a little, but remains incomplete and unsatisfactory. Only the VOC (see below) tried to document and archive historical events as precisely as possible, which leads to a much more comprehensive picture of Indonesia from the 17th century.

prehistory

Skull roof Sangiran II , original, 1.5 mya , Koenigswald collection in the Senckenberg Nature Museum

The present-day Indonesian population originally comes from Austronesian peoples who came to the country in several waves of immigration before the beginning of our era (see also: Human expansion ).

The discovery of the Java people in the area of Sangiran shows, however, that the island was inhabited by representatives of the genus Homo about 1.8 million years ago . The Java man was first classified as Pithecanthropus erectus , but later as part of the species Homo erectus . There are assumptions that Homo erectus already crossed the waterway, which is only 19 km wide in the south and 40 km in the north, with rafts 800,000 years ago.

In 2003 another, extremely small species of the genus Homo , called Homo floresiensis , was discovered, which was only about 3 feet (about 92 cm) tall and populated the island of Flores about 100,000 to about 50,000 years ago.

Early settlement

Indian scholars wrote about 200 BC. BC via a Hindu kingdom on the islands of Java and Sumatra , which shows the first settlement by peoples of the Asian mainland. Around AD 400, the Taruma kingdom conquered West Java. Then around 425, Buddhism reached the area.

Civilizations before the arrival of the first Europeans (up to around 1500)

The larger kingdoms in particular all built their power on military strength. Sumatra and Java and the surrounding islands, the centers of all the great pre-colonial kingdoms of the Indonesian archipelago, were largely characterized by distant and difficult-to-reach cities and a remote hinterland. This made it easier for smaller parts of the empire to strive for autonomy and revolts, and it made a centralized mode of government more difficult. In order to keep the larger empire together and not lose influence, remote areas were often given greater autonomy. At the same time attempts were made by a strong army to suppress the frequent revolts and the practice of a personality cult around the ruler to prevent complete independence from subregions. Also, instead of conquering the areas directly, the influence was often exerted through tribute payments, which is why it is usually difficult to determine which area was ruled by certain kingdoms and exactly how great the influence was.

Only the important kingdoms are to be presented here, since they are the only ones about which sufficient information is available due to the weak source situation.

Temporal overview

• Approx. 500 AD - Beginnings of the Buddhist Srivijaya empire (also Sri vijaya ) on Sumatra, which had its heyday in the second half of the 7th century and lasted until the 14th century
• 732 - first mention of the pirate king Sanjaya on Java, who founded the Sanjaya dynasty and the kingdom of Mataram
• 788 - after the Sanjaya predominated over Java, they are displaced from central and southern Java to the north of Java by the Sailendradynasty according to an inscription from 788
• 832 - According to an inscription from that year, the Sanjaya drove the Sailendra from Java again and are named as the sole ruler.
• 1006 - After a war between Srivijaya and the Sanjaya, the Sanjaya are completely defeated.
• 1019 - Airlangga , a son of the then King of Bali makes peace with Sri Vijaya and tries to restore the old kingdom under the name of Kahuripan, at least in East Java. Kahuripan later transforms peacefully into the kingdom of Kediri .
• 1222 - Kediri is defeated in 1221 by Ken Angrok, Lord of Tumapel, at the Battle of Ghent , who then proclaims the Kingdom of Singhasari in 1222.
• 1290 - Singhasari ousts Sri vijava from Java, who continue to lose power.
• 1293 - King Kertarajasa , who founded the Majapahit Kingdom in 1292, defeats Singhasari; Majapahit has its military and commercial heyday in the 14th century
• 1377 - The Majapahit conquered Palembang, the capital of the Srivijava
• 1478 - year of the fall of the Majapahit, who lost power and unity in the 15th century and with their end created the basis for new, smaller states.

Srivijaya

→ Main article: Srivijaya

The Buddhist Kingdom of Srivijaya (also Sri vijaya ) was an empire whose rulership at times extended over Sumatra, the Malay Peninsula and Java. There is very little evidence of the beginnings of Sri vijaya, various estimates range from AD 200 to 500. The empire lasted until the late 14th century.

Around 500 the beginnings of Srivijaya developed around today's Palembang on Sumatra, which was probably also the capital of the empire. Due to the favorable location of Palembang as a port or place of transshipment of goods for various goods between the Strait of Malacca and the Sunda Strait, Srivijaya was able to quickly become an important trading empire and thus increase its power. The empire also maintained good relations with China, which made trade and military conflicts easier.

Chinese sources dated around the year 600 mention two empires in Sumatra: one in Jambi and one in Palembang, with Jambi perhaps the more important kingdom as it was more closely related to China at the time. Jambi was taken over by Srivijaya as early as 686, of which the pilgrim monk Yi Jing bears witness.

Soon the realm of the kingdom expanded: according to the inscription of Kota Kapur from the year 683, Srivijaya conquered southern Sumatra as far as Lampung and was thus able to control trade and customs duties on the Straits of Malacca , the South China Sea and the Karimata Straits to raise. It also conquered the Malay Peninsula and, like in Thailand and Cambodia, left several temples there.

From 730 there were conflicts with the king Sanjaya and his successor until 775 peace was made. The relationship with the then strengthened Sailendras was deepened through a marriage.

In 990 Sailendra unsuccessfully attacked the capital Srivijaya. Thereupon the king Chulamanivarmadeva sent a messenger to China who asked for troops to defend against the Sailendra. Probably Srivijaya then conquered the empire of the Sailendra in 1006 and later came to terms with the kingdom of Kediri, which was emerging in and around West Java.

From the 11th century onwards, Sri Vijaya's influence decreased. Despite the former friendly relationship, Srivijaya was defeated in a sea war by the Indian kingdom of Chola under Rajendra Chola I for no apparent reason in the course of a far-reaching war expedition that began around 1025 . However, Rajendra Chola I did not try to incorporate Sri Vijaya into his kingdom and it is believed that Chola only made tribute demands.

From the 13th century the kingdom was in constant conflict with Singhasari , who conquered large parts of Srivijaya from 1275 to 1295, and were later responsible for the downfall together with Majapahit . Since it was relatively easy to achieve complete autonomy for the peripheral areas of the weakened empire, more and more small kingdoms based on agriculture were formed on the territory of Srivijaya. In addition, after Muslim grave inscriptions found in Sumatra in 1082, Islam found its way into Sumatra society at the end of the 11th century. This favored the establishment of Muslim kingdoms, especially in the 15th century, of which pasai , beginning in the late 13th century, was probably the first in the Indonesian area.

The growing loss of power meant that Srivijaya had to pay tribute briefly to the Cambodian kingdom of Khmer and later to the kingdom of Sukhothai around the time of the conversion of Pasai . Srivijaya was under the sovereignty of the Majapahit in the 14th century, who put an end to the kingdom in 1377 with the conquest of the center of Palembang. The last inscription dates back to 1374 and names Ananggavarman as the crown prince.

In 1414, Parameswara , the last prince of the Srivijaya, converted to Islam and founded the Sultanate of Malacca on the Malay Peninsula.

The Sailendra and Sanjaya dynasties

→ Main article : Sailendra

The Borobudur Buddhist stupa

A stone inscription from 732 describes the rule of the Shaivism- oriented pirate king Sanjaya on Java, who was in power until 746 or 760 and thus founded the Sanjaya dynasty and the kingdom of Mataram. According to an inscription from the year 788, the Sanjaya king Panangkaran was pushed back from central and southern Java to the north by the emerging Sailendra, who probably existed since 625. Presumably both dynasties shared Java and were thus in competition with each other. However, the Sailendra were predominant and also active in Sumatra and along the coast of Cambodia and Vietnam . It can be assumed that they waged war together against Champa in 774 and 787 .

According to her orientation towards Mahayana Buddhism, Sailendra maintained good relations with the equally Buddhist empire Srivijaya , whose ruler was allied with Sailendra through a marriage alliance. There was regular cultural contact with the Indian centers of Buddhism. They built the temple complex of Borobudur , which is located 50 kilometers from the Hindu temple complex of Prambanan .

In the first half of the 9th century the Sanjaya regained strength. In an inscription from 832 the king Patapan is named as the sole ruler of Java, who drove the presumably last ruling descendant of the Sailendra Samaratunga from the island.

The now powerful kingdom of Mataram was concentrated in an area in central Java, the area that now surrounds the city-state and sultanate of Yogyakarta . Due to controversial causes - for example an eruption of the Gunung Merapi volcano or a power struggle is discussed - the center of the empire was moved from central Java to an area around Mpu Sindok (East Java) soon after the last inscription from 928 .

The kingdoms of Kahuripan and Kediri

Mataram probably collapsed in 1006 under King Dharmawangsa after a war against Sri Vijaya and sank into chaos. Airlangga , a son of the then King of Bali Dharma Udayana Warmadewa and a member of Dharmawangsa, East Java, took over in 1019 . He made peace with Sri Vijaya and tried to restore the ancient kingdom under the name of Kahuripan . In 1030 the new regent married the daughter of the Sri Vijaya king Sangrama Vijayottungavarman. Around 1045 Airlannga split Kahuripan into two kingdoms for his two sons, Jangala and Kediri, who fight each other after his death.

Kediri himself collected spices as tributes from rich people in the south of Kalimantan (part of the island of Borneo) and the Moluccas , a group of islands also known as the Spice Islands at the time of colonization . These spices were then transported by Indian and Southeast Asian merchants via the spice route to Chinese and Mediterranean markets and sold there.

From 1117 to 1130 Kamesvara , sometimes also called Bamesvara I , ruled over Kediri, who married a princess of the Jangala Empire during his tenure and thus reunited the Kahuripan Empire, once founded by Airlangga, under the name of Kediri. The kingdom, weakened by a dispute between the government and the priests, was defeated in 1221 by Ken Angrok, Lord of Tumapel, at the Battle of Ghent , who then proclaimed the Kingdom of Singhasari in 1222 .

The kingdoms of Singhasari and Majapahit

→ Main article : Majapahit

The Kingdom of Singhasari , initially settled in East Java, managed to oust Srivijaya from Java in 1290. The growing influence caused Kublai Khan , a grandson of Genghis Khan , to send messengers to collect tribute. After the tribute was refused by the then king Kertanagara, he sent forces to Singhasari. When they arrived on the coast of Java in 1293, a revolution had already taken place in 1292, in which Kertanagara was killed and Jayakatwang took power. The son-in-law of Kertanagara, Kertarajasa, then withdrew and founded the Kingdom of Majapahit around the capital Majapahit, today's Trowulan , which is about 55 kilometers southeast of Surabaya . When the Mongol army arrived, Kertarajasa allied itself with them against Jayakatwang and, after Jayakatwang was defeated, defeated the Mongols in a surprise attack.

Most of the information about the Majapahit based on inscriptions in altjavanisch , the 1365 written altjavanischen text Desawarnana or Nagarakertagama , the Central Javanese text Para Raton , were found by the later copies on Bali, and Chinese records.

The kingdom flourished in the 14th century under King Hayam Wuruk , during whose tenure Desawarnana was written. It expanded rapidly, including the core territory of Srivijaya (especially in Java and parts of Sumatra). In addition, many widely dispersed states in Sumatra, eastern Indonesia, Kalimantan (the Indonesian part of Borneo) and the Malay peninsula of Majapahit were subordinate. It maintained trade relations with the regions with the vassal states as well as political relations for example with Cambodia or Vietnam.

At the beginning of the 15th century the sources began to become more uncertain and it seems that Majapahit's influence is tending to decrease. So there was likely an unsuccessful civil war in 1405 and 1406, a controversial mid-century succession, and a major rebellion. This was led by a prince, but did not bring about a change of power. From the beginning of the century, the Sultanate of Malacca on the Malay Peninsula developed into the most powerful and expanding trading empire, which in the late middle of the century controlled the important centers of the Malay Peninsula and the central south coast of Sumatra.

The exact end of Majapahit is unclear, the only thing that is certain is that internal conflicts and threats from outside increased again at the end of the 15th century, and so the kingdom fell. Javanese chronicles usually give 1478/1479 as the specific point in time, estimates also extend to 1520. A large part of the royal family, the court, the priests and the craftsmen went to Bali after the collapse of Majapahit .

This paved the way for the emergence of smaller Javanese empires, for example Banten formed in the western part of Java and Demak in the east at the end of the 15th and early 16th centuries .

Role of Islam until the end of the 15th century

→ Main article : Islam in Indonesia

Islam was involved in Indonesian societies from around the 12th century through merchants who brought the new religion with them much earlier on their travels. The first Islamic kingdom in what is now Indonesian territory existed before 1211, the date of death of the first known sultan (the title of Islamic ruler), who was buried on northern Sumatra. In 1297 the king of Pasai , a little-explored kingdom also in northern Sumatra, converted to Islam.

Several small, insignificant kingdoms emerged, the history of which remains largely in the dark. What is certain, however, is that from the 15th century, smaller Islamic states emerged again and their influence (in this century still at a low level) and number rose steadily. One of the reasons for the increasing spread of Islam is the increasing trade - also with Muslims.

Kingdoms, Sultanates and the Conquests of the Portuguese in the 16th Century

The arrival of the first Europeans and the strongly advancing Islamization had a significant influence on the development of societies and kingdoms from the 16th century onwards. While the Europeans were militarily slightly superior to the great Indonesian kingdoms, they had comparatively little success in spreading Christianity among the population. In the 16th century, however, powerful and influential sultanates such as Aceh in North Sumatra, the Sultanate of Malacca in Central Java or the rival sultanates of the spice islands Ternate and Tidore were created or developed . Only Bali has remained dominated by Hinduism to this day.

With the circumnavigation of the Cape of Good Hope by Bartolomëu Diaz in 1487 and the discovery of India by Vasco da Gama in 1497, Portugal became the first European power to penetrate deep into the Indian Ocean. The seafarers noticed the enormous wealth of many states, which arose primarily through the production and trade of spices. Since it was not possible to sell their own goods in this area, the Portuguese royal family, together with Portuguese trading companies, pursued the goal of bringing all trade in Southeast Asia under their control. This should be achieved by conquering strategically important trading points through military clashes. The control and monopoly of the associated trade in India , the guarantee of being the sole buyer of the spices, would also have meant partial supremacy in Europe, as many of the spices that were sold in Europe were grown on the Moluccas (the spice islands in what is now East Indonesia).

The conquests took on great proportions , especially under Afonso de Albuquerque († 1515), who arrived in India in 1503. Many strategic points west of Indonesia were conquered until in 1511 he was able to take the Sultanate of Malacca, an enormously rich and central trading empire in a very important location on the Strait of Malacca . The city, which had been converted into a fortress, remained in the hands of Portugal until 1641, despite a number of massive attempts at invasion by various kingdoms. The hoped-for control of trade could not be achieved through this alone. Many merchants bypassed the Straits of Malacca and turned to other ports. This enabled the development and increase in importance of other ports and thus also trading empires on Sumatra and Java.

Events on the Spice Islands

Immediately after the conquest of Malacca, the Portuguese adventurer António de Abreu was commissioned to sail eastwards and search for the spice islands that produced them. In 1512 he arrived on Ambon and after brief armed conflicts established himself as a local leader. He was the first European to sail the Lesser Sunda Islands and advance to the Banda Islands . He also came close to the island of New Guinea , which is still further east, but it was only discovered as such by Jorge de Meneses in 1526 .

During this period, there were two important and rival kingdoms in the Spice Islands: Tidore and Ternate , whose names corresponded to those of the islands themselves. Ternate persuaded the Portuguese to support it, so that the latter established a base there in 1522, which was to become the center of Portuguese activities in the archipelago. In 1521, through the mediation of the remaining troops of the circumnavigator Ferdinand Magellan , Tidore entered into a loose alliance with Spain. The Spaniards then arrived in the Indonesian archipelago in 1525 by means of a new expedition and with the same objective as the Portuguese before them. They reached Sulawesi and the spice island Halmahera and built a fort on Tidore, in rivalry with the Portuguese fortifications on Ternate. However, the Spaniards could at no time in the Indonesian region compete with the influence of Portugal, or later Holland (see below).

In the Treaty of Tordesillas of 1494, the newly discovered areas were for the first time divided between the dominant sea powers Portugal and Spain. With the discovery of the Spice Islands , which both powers claimed, parts later had to be renegotiated, which was finally sealed in the Treaty of Saragossa in 1529 . The dividing line between the spheres of interest ran near the 145th degree of longitude, west of the Moluccas.

In 1575 the Portuguese were expelled from Ternate, and although they killed the Sultan of Ternate, Hairun , in the ensuing battles , they moved their center to Ambon. Ternate then developed into an Islamic, expanding trading empire by 1606.

The Portuguese also operated on Solor , an island off Sulawesi, and on Java , where they founded their own settlement in 1522, with the aim of securing the spice trade, near the fishing village Sunda Kelapa on the west Javanese north coast, in what is now Jakarta .

The Dominicans and Jesuits were also active in the archipelago. The Dominicans formed bases on Java, Solor and Ambon, among others, of which the one on Solor was burned down by the local residents in 1563 and later rebuilt. Due to the Portuguese and the activity of the missions, the number of Christians around 1590 was an estimated 60,000.

Indian civilizations in the 16th century

At that time there were a large number of small and a few large kingdoms, most of which were connected through trade relations or had military conflicts with one another. In the following, the militarily stronger kingdoms of the archipelago that existed in the 16th century will be described.

Aceh

The Sultanate of Aceh arose in the 15th century in northern Sumatra in the area of ​​what is now the Indonesian province of the same name. From around 1520 onwards, Aceh gained in importance by expanding through the conquest of further areas in northern and eastern Sumatra and after some time controlled all important seaports there.

After the conquest of Malacca by the Portuguese in 1511, when the expelled rulers created the new Sultanate of Johor on the Malay Peninsula, a constant conflict broke out between Portuguese Malacca, Johor and Aceh. The two Islamic kingdoms were the main enemies of the Portuguese, while peace and trade treaties were concluded with Johor for a short period of time. In the further course of the 16th century, neither Aceh nor any of the other adversaries were able to defend significant territorial gains over a long period of time.

Demak

Demak was probably founded by a foreign Muslim on the north coast of Java in the last quarter of the 15th century. From 1527 to 1550 there were several successful wars of aggression against empires in East Java, in which, among other things, Kediri was conquered. It can be assumed that the sultans Demaks were seen by later Javanese chroniclers as the direct successors of the Majapahit kings due to the growing power over parts of the former Majapahit empire.

After these conquests, no further major territorial expansions followed, and due to the loose cohesion of the Sultanate itself, there was a great deal of insecurity within its own state.

Banten

The origin of this non-Islamic kingdom is believed to be in the Hindu state of Sunda, which existed in West Java in the 10th century in what is now the province of Banten . At the beginning of the 16th century, Banten was subordinate to the Kingdom of Pajajaran , but was able to increase its wealth and influence through the trade in pepper, the main crop in the area, to such an extent that its ties to Demak became less. Banten also benefited from the changed trade structures after the Portuguese conquest of Malacca.

Around 1523/24 Demak conquered Banten and appointed a vassal ruler. During the reign of Hasanuddin (circa 1552-1570) Lampung in South Sumatra was conquered and in about 1579 his successor defeated the last major Hindu-Buddhist kingdom of Pajajaran. Banten experienced its heyday in the middle of the 17th century.

Sultanate of Malacca

In the second half of the 16th century , political centers emerged in the areas that correspond to today's Yogyakarta province and the Surakarta region in central Java , from which the kingdoms of Mataram and Pajang emerged. The area around today's Mataram region, also in Central Java, was probably conquered by Kyai Gedhe Pamanahan in the 1570s with the support of Pajang . In its initial phase, the kingdom was based on Islam and other Javanese religions.

His son Panembahan Senapati Ingalaga , who was Sultan of Mataram from 1584 to 1601, quickly enlarged the empire by submitting first Pajang, then Demak in 1588, Madiun in 1590 or 1591 and Kediri in 1591. In 1597 Senapati also tried to conquer Banten, but remained unsuccessful. At that time, the greatest rival for supremacy on Java was the Islamic kingdom of Surubaya , which itself was defeated in 1625 after many armed conflicts.

The arrival of the Dutch and the time of the Dutch East India Company (VOC): 1600–1800

At the end of the 16th century, other European powers also wanted to participate in the spice trade. The Dutch navigator Cornelis Houtman reached Bantam on June 27, 1596 on the west coast of Java with his fleet , traveled on to Mandura and was finally able to buy some barrels with peppercorns on Bali in 1597 . On June 5, 1602, the English landed under James Lancaster for the first time at Aceh in the north of the island of Sumatra . Their expedition continued via Bantam to the Moluccas.

At the beginning of 1602, the Dutch gradually managed to establish themselves as rulers in the region. They gradually displaced the Portuguese to the east, who only kept the eastern part of the island of Timor ( Portuguese Timor ). The Dutch controlled the area for almost 350 years. Exceptions are short periods between 1811 and 1816, when the British Empire conquered large parts of the Indonesian islands after the Anglo-Dutch War . During the Second World War the archipelago was occupied by Japan . During their reign, the Dutch developed the Dutch East Indies into one of their most valuable possessions in the world.

The seal of the Amsterdam Chamber of the Dutch East India Company (VOC)

In the 16th and 17th centuries, Dutch East Indies were not controlled directly by the Dutch government, but by a public company, the Dutch East India Company (VOC). In 1602, the Dutch parliament guaranteed the company a trade monopoly between the South African Cape of Good Hope and the Strait of Magellan on the southern tip of South America . In the same year the first expedition to the Moluccas started . After the Portuguese conquered Ambon in February 1605, the VOC secured the main growing area for cloves . Frederick de Houtman became the island's first governor. The Spaniards conquered Ternate in 1606, but could only hold out until the Dutch landed in 1607, which led to the split of the island.

The first governor general of the Dutch East Indies became in 1610 Pieter Both . The following year the VOC established a branch in Jayakarta , today's Jakarta, until Jan Pieterszoon Coen finally took possession of the city in 1619 and founded Batavia . With the conquest of the Banda Islands in the early 1620s, Coen gave them the monopoly over the nutmeg . The city of Palembang , on the east coast of Sumatra, fell into their hands in 1659. Two years later, the Dutch drove the remaining Portuguese from Makassar and, together with the Allied Bugis, destroyed the port city in 1667 , the last place from which trade was still carried out outside their control. After the internal disputes over power in Bantam, which were resolved with the help of Dutch mercenaries in favor of Sultan Hajis, he fulfilled the conditions of the VOC. He expelled all foreigners from the sultanate and left the company to trade in pepper . At the end of the 17th century she also imported tea and coffee plants from India and had plantations established on Java.

The basic aim of the VOC was to maintain the monopoly on the spice trade in the Malay Archipelago , which they enforced with threats of violence against the inhabitants of the spice-producing islands and other foreign traders. For example, if the residents of the Banda Islands traded with the British despite the ban, the company had almost the entire population deported and replaced them with VOC workers and slaves. During that time, the VOC became deeply involved in the politics of the Islamic states on Java and participated in some armed conflicts with the leaders of Mataram and Banten.

Dutch colonial rule in the 19th century

After the dissolution of the United Trade Company in 1799, the Netherlands took over the colony. During the time when Napoleon I ruled the Netherlands, the Dutch colonies in Southeast Asia had been occupied by the British. In 1816 the Dutch regained control of the Indonesian island kingdom, but had to renounce Ceylon and the Cape in the Treaty of London .

Between 1825 and 1830 there was a popular uprising in Java against Dutch colonial rule. Over 200,000 Javanese and 8,000 Europeans are killed in the fighting.

After 1816, like the English before them, the Dutch first took a lease from the local farmers: in every village, the headmaster had to ensure that an amount of money was delivered that corresponded to two fifths of the value of the local rice harvest. Governor General Johannes van den Bosch arranged for a new system to be introduced around 1830, the so-called cultuurstelsel . Instead of paying rent, the farmers should now make a fifth of their land available to grow crops specified by the government on this land. Part of this system was that they used their labor 66 days a year for the benefit of the government. In practice, the burdens for the farmers often went far beyond the official requirements. The goods were shipped to Europe and sold there for a profit. The Dutch writer and former colonial official Eduard Douwes Dekker criticized this system in his book Max Havelaar , published in 1860 under the pseudonym Multatuli .

In 1870 the cultuurstelsel was finally abolished after a decision in the parliament of the Dutch motherland. From then on it was possible for Dutch private individuals to lease land from local farmers in order to create plantations on it.

See also: List of Governors General of the Dutch East Indies .

Dutch East Indies until World War II

Japanese occupation

By 1908, the Netherlands had extended their sphere of influence, starting from Java, to the entire Indonesian archipelago . Most recently, the province of Aceh (Atjeh) in northern Sumatra was subdued after a war lasting over thirty years. There the Royal Dutch Company began with the oil production , which soon replaced the agricultural production of Java as the main source of income for the colony. However, this remained the cultural center of Dutch India, and the Dutch colonial administration was much less present on the other islands. As part of the "ethical politics", a small indigenous elite, mostly of Javanese origin, emerged who were able to gain a higher education in the colony or in the Netherlands and to work in the administration. It became the nucleus of the independence movement. With the establishment of the Sarekat Islam ("Islamic Association"), the first anti-colonial mass movement emerged in 1912, and it intensified during the First World War. The colonial power reacted in 1919 by setting up the Volksraad as a representative body, which could only be elected by a tiny minority of the locals. In 1926 the Communist Party of Indonesia (PKI) called for a revolutionary war of liberation. The uprising failed because of the superior Dutch colonial power. After the PKI was broken up, the Partai Nasional Indonesia , founded by Sukarno (1901–1970), took up the fight against the Dutch; Indonesian nationalism became the dominant ideology of the anti-colonial movement over Islamic and socialist endeavors . The creation of the language Bahasa Indonesia , which was to become the basis of a common national consciousness in the multi-ethnic state, also contributed to this.

1 Dutch-Indian guilder banknote. Printed in 1942, but only came into circulation in 1945 after the end of the Japanese occupation

In late 1941, the Japanese army began to occupy the Indonesian islands . They improved their strategic position and secured essential reserves of raw materials. From bases on the Indonesian islands, they bombed the Australian cities of Darwin and Broome . In March 1942 the Dutch capitulated. The occupation gave the anti-colonial movement further impetus and, while still under Japanese occupation, Indonesia declared itself independent from the Netherlands in March 1943. Most Indonesians had welcomed the Japanese as liberators from the yoke of the Europeans; But the joy soon subsided when the Japanese established a regime of terror and arbitrariness. The rule of the Japanese ended on August 15, 1945 with their surrender . By 1949, 1,038 war criminals had been tried in 448 trials .

The War of Independence 1945–1949

→ Main article : Indonesian War of Independence

On August 17, 1945 called Sukarno and Mohammad Hatta Indonesia's independence from (State Name: Indonesia ). In a constitution from 1945 the right to vote was granted to women and men, but this introduction of the right to vote for women happened in a politically confusing situation with unclear power relations.

The influence of the Republic of Indonesia initially extended to the islands of Java, Madura and part of Sumatra . The remaining islands were mostly controlled by the Dutch. In the Indonesian War of Independence (1947/48) the Netherlands conquered almost the entire area, but continued to fight against an Indonesian guerrilla and above all lost the sympathy of the world public. Under American pressure, the Netherlands had to start negotiations (again) with the Republic of Indonesia in August 1949. The transfer of sovereignty was signed in Amsterdam on December 27, 1949 , but the Dutch part of New Guinea ( Western New Guinea ) remained under Dutch administration for the time being.

Early years of independence

Sukarno (around 1949)

In 1955 elections were held for the first time. In the new parliament after 1955 there were only a few women, 18 out of 257 MPs. There were no women in the government. In the following period there was little progress in terms of the proportion of women in parliament.

A “ Dutch-Indonesian Union ” should initially continue to exist between the two countries; the Dutch wanted to continue to exert influence in this way, the Indonesians wanted at most to see it as a loose association for cultural and economic exchange. On February 15, 1956, Indonesia officially resigned the union. In 1962/63, the Dutch had to gradually transfer their last colonial property to their former island empire, West Papua or West Irish ( New York Agreement , May 1, 1963).

Indonesia was only granted independence on the condition that Indonesia should be a federation of several states ( negara ). The Netherlands tried to exert influence over some sub-states. An attempted coup led by the Dutchman Raymond Westerling gave President Sukarno the pretext as early as 1950 to transform the country into the unified state desired by the nationalists of the republic (officially on the anniversary of the revolution, August 17, 1950). Indonesian troops occupied Ambon , the capital of the Christian-Melanesian republic of Maluku Selatan , in November and the entire territory of this state by 1955.

In September 1963, the merger of the Malay Federation with Singapore , Sabah and Sarawak to form the new state of Malaysia led to serious tensions with Indonesia, which started Konfrontasi . Up until 1966 there was repeated fighting on Borneo . Malaysia was supported with troops from Great Britain and Australia .

The increasing arbitrary rule of the Sukarno regime provoked an attempted coup on September 30, 1965 (G30S / PKI) . This was blamed on the Communist Party, which has a large number of members. After it had failed in a counter-coup by right-wing members of the army, the massacre in Indonesia 1965-1966 , in which between 100,000 and a million people were killed, mainly actual or alleged supporters of the Communist Party of Indonesia (PKI) and Chinese. This is considered to be one of the largest politically motivated mass murders in recent history. To date, the processes have not been adequately investigated, so precise information on the number of victims is not possible.

On January 1st, 1966 a currency reform was carried out: 1000 old rupiah = one new rupiah = 100 new sen.

Military coup: Suharto takes power

Suharto

On March 11, 1966, the forced commander of Kostrad - brigades Suharto President Sukarno (* 1901) the mandate to form a government; before that, paratroopers had placed him under house arrest. Sukarno, elected for life, announced his resignation on February 22, 1967, after which he remained under house arrest until his death in June 1970. The background is unclear. Even when Suharto became "executive president" on March 12, 1967, Sukarno remained the nominal head of state for the time being. It was not until March 27, 1968 that Suharto formally took over the office of President.

In 1969 Western New Guinea (Irian Barat) was named by the Act of Free Choice , a referendum manipulated with the support of the UN, an Indonesian province and was given the name "Irian Jaya". The founder of the state Sukarno died on June 21, 1970. From August 5, 1973, ongoing social tensions erupted in racial conflicts directed against the Chinese minority.

On June 6, 1975, Indonesian troops occupied the Portuguese enclave Oe-Cusse Ambeno in West Timor , and in October of the same year also border areas of the Portuguese Timor colony . The "Revolutionary Front for the Independence of East Timor " ( FRETILIN ) proclaimed the independence of the former colony of Portuguese Timor on November 28, 1975.

In the Netherlands, on December 2, 1975, extremist members of the 35,000 Ambonese (South Moluccas) living there attacked a train and on December 4, the Indonesian Consulate General in Amsterdam and took hostages with the aim of the Dutch government advocating for the Ambonese in Indonesia begins. Four hostages were shot. The Dutch government (Prime Minister Joop den Uyl , PvdA) remained firm, the Ambonese gave up on December 19th.

Head of State Suharto ordered the military invasion of East Timor on December 7, 1975. In the weeks that followed, 60,000 people were killed, 10% of the population. East Timor was incorporated into the Indonesian State Association on June 17, 1976. The ASNLF resistance movement was founded in Sumatra . On November 24, 1981, the UN General Assembly demanded the right of self-determination for East Timor.

With the genocides of the East Timorese, the Papuans in West New Guinea and the Chinese minority, as well as the mass murder of communists, Indonesia became, in the words of the historian Gunnar Heinsohn , “one of the leading democide nations in the second half of the 20th century” .

In 1997 the Asian crisis rocked the region and had dire consequences for the economy, society and the regime of Suharto. The Indonesian rupiah , the country's currency, saw a sharp decline in value. The government in Jakarta had to undergo a thorough examination of international economic institutions, mainly the World Bank , the IMF and the USA, which investigated misappropriation of funds and the foreclosure of individual economic sectors. In December of that year, Suharto had to sign an agreement with the IMF in which he undertook to implement austerity measures that provided for cuts in government subsidies . In return, the country received billions in financial aid.

1998 riots and further developments

The spending cuts approved by President Suharto led to a severe loss of confidence among the local population. The prices of goods such as gasoline and rice, and fees for public services such as education, rose dramatically. The situation was made worse by the widespread corruption in the country.

In March 1998 the seventh re-election by parliament was due. Parliament granted him a new term in office because of the need for leadership during the crisis.

When the government raised the price of gasoline, public transport and electricity on May 5 that year, protests broke out across the country. Students at various universities in Indonesia also joined the protests.

More than a thousand people rioted in the city of Medan , setting fire to Chinese vehicles and shops, while the shops of Muslim businessmen were mostly spared. The riots lasted for three days. More than 1000 buildings were destroyed.

Suharto's resignation on May 21, 1998

The violence peaked on May 12-14, 1998 in Jakarta. The riots began again after peaceful student demonstrations. The military initially tolerated these as long as they remained on the premises of the respective universities. However, on May 12, four students were shot dead during peaceful protests on the Trisakti University campus. It is believed that the shooters were members of the armed forces. Immediately afterwards and at the funeral service the following day, there were massive attacks. Whole districts of Jakarta were looted within three days. Shops, banks, cars and homes were all destroyed by arson attacks. Chinese neighborhoods were particularly hard hit. The Indonesian state human rights commission Komnas HAM later drew the following balance: 1,188 fatalities, 101 injured as well as 40 shopping centers, 2,479 shops and 1,604 houses that were looted and burned down. 1119 cars, 1026 apartments and 382 offices were demolished or set on fire. Only a small number of the dead belonged to the Chinese minority. Many others were looters who were trapped in the houses that were already on fire.

Members of Suharto's own Golkar party and senior military officials weakened his position so much that he resigned on May 21 of that year. His deputy Bacharuddin Jusuf Habibie initially took over the political leadership of the country.

After General Suharto was disempowered (1998–1999), Bacharuddin Jusuf Habibie (* 1936), who had been Vice President until then, took over the office of President.

On January 19, 1999, violence broke out between Muslims and Christians in Ambon , capital of Maluku Province . On the same day, a bomb attack was carried out on the main mosque in Jakarta, which was packed with 600 worshipers (3 injured). A day later, Abdurrahman Wahid (1940–2009) became the first freely elected president. The last Indonesian soldiers left East Timor on October 31, 1999 after the country was reduced to rubble and an international peacekeeping force landed in Dili in September .

A bomb exploded in front of the residence of the Philippine ambassador in Jakarta on August 1, 2000 (2 dead, 23 injured) On September 13, 2002, a car bomb detonated in the underground car park of the Jakarta Stock Exchange (15 dead, 27 injured). On December 24th, 15 bomb attacks were carried out on Christian churches (16 dead, more than 100 injured). The religious battles in Ambon had meanwhile spread to the entire Moluccas Islands and Sulawesi ; Since May 2000, Muslim militias from Java have targeted Christian villages there.

On January 1, 2001, Irian Jaya was granted internal autonomy. In July of the same year Megawati Sukarnoputri , daughter of the founder of the state Sukarno, became the new president. Two bombs exploded in a busy shopping mall in Jakarta on September 23 (several injured).

On May 20, 2002, East Timor gained independence (República Democrática de Timor-Leste). On October 12, 2002, an Islamist terrorist attack was carried out on the tourist island of Bali (202 dead and more than 300 injured).

Martial law was imposed in the independence-striving province of Aceh (Atjeh) in the far north of the island of Sumatra on May 18, 2003. The result was a major offensive with 40,000 soldiers. More than 1,000 people died and 20,000 were on the run.

On August 5, 2003, a suicide bomber blew himself up in front of the Marriott Hotel in Jakarta (12 dead, 150 injured). On January 10, 2004, a bomb exploded in a café on Palopo Island , killing four people. A bomb attack on the Australian embassy in the capital Jakarta on September 9th left 11 dead and over 150 injured.

In 2004, the indirect election of the state president was abolished, so that on July 5th there were direct presidential elections for the first time, in which no candidate achieved the required absolute majority. In the runoff election on September 20, the challenger and former general Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono triumphed against the previous incumbent Megawati Sukarnoputri .

President Joko Widodo

In another terrorist attack on Bali on October 1, 2005 at around 7 p.m. local time, three bombs exploded in Jimbaran and Kuta within a few minutes . 23 people were killed in the explosions, including three suicide bombers.

In the parliamentary elections on April 8, 2009, President Yudhoyono's party tripled its share of the vote and became the strongest party with 21%. Incumbent Yudhoyono was able to prevail in the second direct presidential election on July 8, 2009 against his two challengers, his former Vice President Jusuf Kalla and his predecessor Megawati Sukarnoputri, in the first ballot. In the presidential election on July 9, 2014 , Joko Widodo , the PDI-P candidate , won . Widodo took office as President on October 20, 2014.

A combined bomb attack on the two hotels Ritz-Carlton and JW Marriott in Jakarta on July 17, 2009 left seven dead and around 50 injured. On September 17, the alleged mastermind, Noordin Mohammad Top , who is believed to be behind the attacks in 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2005, was shot and killed in a raid after an intensive nationwide search.

In September 2019 there were demonstrations against a planned law, called RKUHP for short , which is intended to tighten criminal law and, among other things, provides for prison sentences of up to six months for sexual intercourse outside of marriage. It is the largest student protests since the 1998 mass demonstrations.

See also

• History of East Timor

literature

• Steven Drakeley: The history of Indonesia . Greenwood Press, Westport 2005, ISBN 0-313-33114-6 .
• Hans Dieter Kubitscheck, Ingrid Wessel : History of Indonesia. From ancient times to the present . Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1981.
• Franz Magnis-Suseno : Garuda on the rise. Modern Indonesia . Dietz, Bonn 2015, ISBN 978-3-8012-0464-8 .
• Merle Calvin Ricklefs: A history of modern Indonesia since c. 1200 . Stanford University Press, Stanford, 4th ed. 2008, ISBN 978-0-8047-6130-7 .
• Fritz Schulze: Brief history of Indonesia. From the island kingdoms to the modern state . CH Beck, Munich 2015, ISBN 978-3-406-68152-3 .
• Adrian Vickers: A history of modern Indonesia . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. 2nd edition 2013, ISBN 978-1-107-62445-0 .

Web links

Commons : History of Indonesia  - Collection of Pictures, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Friedemann Schrenk : The early days of man. The way to Homo sapiens. CH Beck, 1997, p. 82
2. ↑ Nilakanta Sastri, KA (1935): The CōĻas (pp. 211-217)
3. ^ Jad Adams: Women and the Vote. A world history. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2014, ISBN 978-0-19-870684-7 , page 411.
4. ↑ June Hannam, Mitzi Auchterlonie, Katherine Holden: International Encyclopedia of Women's Suffrage. ABC-Clio, Santa Barbara, Denver, Oxford 2000, ISBN 1-57607-064-6 , p. 140.
5. ^ Mart Martin: The Almanac of Women and Minorities in World Politics. Westview Press Boulder, Colorado, 2000, p. 181.
6. ^ Susan Blackburn: Women's Suffrage and Democracy in Indonesia. In: Louise Edwards, Mina Roces (Ed.): Women's Suffrage in Asia. Routledge Shorton New York, 2004, pp. 79-1059, p. 80.
7. ^ ^{A b} Susan Blackburn: Women's Suffrage and democracy in Indonesia. In: Louise Edwards, Mina Roces (Ed.): Women's Suffrage in Asia. Routledge Shorton New York, 2004, pp. 79-1059, p. 92.
8. ↑ ^{a b} June Hannam, Mitzi Auchterlonie, Katherine Holden: International Encyclopedia of Women's Suffrage. ABC-Clio, Santa Barbara, Denver, Oxford 2000, ISBN 1-57607-064-6 , p. 140.
9. ↑ According to another source, there were female MPs for the first time in July 1971, namely 33 women: Mart Martin: The Almanac of Women and Minorities in World Politics. Westview Press Boulder, Colorado, 2000, p. 183.
10. ↑ spiegel.de March 21, 1966: [1]
11. ↑ spiegel.de June 29, 1970: Oil in the base
12. ↑ A / RES / 36/50. In: un.org . November 24, 1981, accessed December 29, 2018 . 
13. ↑ Gunnar Heinsohn : Lexicon of Genocides . Reinbek 1998, p. 184 f.
14. ↑ "All of this happened during the seventies and eighties (emphasis added: Cethegus ) with the knowledge or even the express consent of the various US governments." Barack Obama: Dare to hope. Thoughts on returning to the American Dream , Munich 2007, p. 353
15. ↑ For further development cf. the Indonesian page of the WG Peace Research , accessed on September 7, 2011
16. ^ Zora Rahman: Protests in Indonesia: Women insist on self-determination. In: de.qantara.de. October 29, 2019, accessed November 9, 2019 .