Brief History of Indonesia

The History of Indonesia was started by the presence of many kingdoms spreading all around the archipelago. The two most well-known kingdoms which laid a great importance in the History of Indonesia were Sriwijaya and Majapahit. The Sriwijaya kingdom was located on Sumatera and ruled from the 7th to 14th century. While Majapahit kingdom was located on the eastern Java and it was the first kingdom that was able to unite all main islands in the archipelago, such as Java, Borneo (Kalimantan),Sumatera, Bali and also some parts of the Malay Peninsula.

The History of Indonesia cannot be separated from the Europe colonization. Marco Polo was passing though the Indonesian Archipelago in the late 1200s, but the first to arrive and land on Indonesia were the Portuguese. They landed near to the place that is now called as Jakarta in 1522. The Portuguese colonization didn’t last very long, and by the end of 16th century the Dutch took over the power. The Dutch colonization in Indonesia (especially in Java) was more secured in 1619, when they won the razing of an English competing fort. The Dutch colonization was lasting for the next 350 years

The History of Indonesia was then followed by the arising of many Nationalist groups in the early 1900s. These Nationalist movements were tackled by the Dutch immediately. The Nationalist group’s leaders were arrested and exiled in order to put down the spirit. Not long after that the World War II happened, and the Japanese defeated the Dutch conquering most parts of Indonesia islands. After the World War II ended, Soekarno and Hatta were forced by the youth to immediately taking an advantage of the power un-occupancy in Indonesia. They then declared the Independence of the Republic Indonesia on August 17th, 1945, and they are known as the founding fathers of Indonesia. The Independence declaration was not admitted by the Dutch until December 27th, 1949. Following the Dutch admittance, the 1950 constitution was established as an attempt to implement the Liberal democracy that had 2 parliament chambers. The first Indonesian election was then conducted in 1955.

Sukarno’s tribute to independence and unity — National Monument, Jakarta

Soekarno disbanded the parliament and cabinet himself in 1959. He then assigned himself as a PM and created a parliament under his autocratic rule called as a Guided Democracy. Soekarno was disappointed with the West policies and decided to make an alignment with Moscow. He then established a new Communist party, and assigned Dr Subandrio as the deputy PM and intelligence chief. During the implementation of the Guided Democaracy, the government faced many striking problems. The hardest ones were the revolution attempted by the communist, the rebellion of the anti-communist that was backed up by CIA in West Sumatera and North Sulawesi, and also the 7th Fleet offshore.

There new era of the History of Indonesia was then continued in 1965, when Dr. Subandrio constructed a document that was supposedly taken from the British Embassy. The document contained a detailed plan of a military coup d’état. Because of this threatening document, the Presidential guard under Colonel Untung conducted prevention attempt by killing the officers involved and announced that Dr. Subandrio supported by some other leftist Indonesian leaders had established a Revolutionary Council as an attempt to take over the governmental power. Then, General Soeharto was assigned to put down any rebellion attempt under Dr’ Subandrio and was successfully done within a single day only. After that Soekarno was slided, and the power was seized by Soeharto himself. He then proclaimed a new era of governmental system known as a New Order (Order Baru). Under Soeharto command, the anti-communist movements were initiated. The result led to the death of around 500,000 – 2,000.000 people.

Soeharto ruled Indonesia from 1966 to 1997. During his government, Indonesia experienced an economic growth and stability. However, any opposing movement confronting the government policies would be slaughtered. The country’s wealth was also enjoyed by small corrupt elite only. Coming to the year of 1997 when the Asian economic crisis happened, the Reformation movement was burning up because the Indonesian rupiah felt resulting in the decrease purchasing ability of the ordinary Indonesians twice as much as before. Because of this rebellion, Soeharto was brought down and the new democratic system took place.

The Indonesian Independence Declaration declared that West Papua was included in the Indonesian archipelago, but the Dutch was not admitted it until 1960s. It led to an army conflict. An attempt for a peace was conducted under the UN representation, and finally a referendum was established stating that West Papua was a part of Indonesia. West Papua was then renamed as Irian Jaya containing an abbreviation that stands for Ikut (part of) Republic of Indonesia, Anti Netherlands.

The East Timor as the former of the Portuguese colony was seized into Indonesian in 1975, but it was resisted by the East Timor army. The armed resistance led to the civil war for over decades, but on August 30th 1999, there was a provincial referendum for independence that was supported by the majority of East Timor people. The Indonesian government reluctantly accepted the referendum, and eventually, East Timor declared its independence in 2002.

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