Indonesia

Chapter 1: Outlook of Indonesia

The history of Indonesia has been shaped by its geographic position, its natural resources, a series of human migrations and contacts, wars and conquests, as well as by trade, economics and politics. Indonesia is an archipelagic country of 17,508 islands (6,000 inhabited) stretching along the equator in South East Asia.

1.1 History behind Indonesia

Early trade relations were established between South India and Indonesia. Sumatra was then named Swarna Dwipa of "the island of gold," Java was called Java Dwipa or "the rice island," and a Hindu kingdom of Crivijaya in Sumatra and Nalanda in South India were not confined to religious and cultural exchanges. They later developed diplomatic relations, and even covered a wide range of trade.

The influx of Indian settlers continued during the period from the first to the seventh century AD. Peacefully and gradually the Hindu religion spread throughout the archipelago. It was adopted by all layers of the people of Java, but limited to the upper classes on the other islands.

1.2 THE PERIOD OF ISLAMIC KINGDOMS

Muslim traders began spreading Islam in Indonesia in the eighth and ninth centuries. Muslim merchants from Gujarat and Persia began visiting Indonesia in the 13th Century and established trade links between this country and India and Persia. Along with trade, they propagated Islam among the Indonesian people particularly along the coastal areas of Java. According to those early accounts the Indonesian archipelago were famous among early Muslim sailors mainly due to its abundance of precious spice trade commodities such as nutmeg, cloves, galangal and many other spices.

The capital of the West Java Kingdom, Sunda Kelpa was the present capital city of Indonesia, Jakarta. In 1527 Sunda Kelapa was conquered by Falatehan, an Islamic troop commander of the sultanate of Demak. After his conquest the city was renamed Jaya Karta, meaning "the great city," this was the origin of the...