Indonesia - General introduction
Précis'd from Wikipedia
The Republic of Indonesia, is an island nation in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of ~17,504 islands, ~6,000 of which are inhabited, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guinea. Indonesia is the world's largest archipelagic state and the 14th-largest country by area. It extends 5,120 kilometres from east to west and 1,760 kilometres from north to south. 81% of the area encompassed by these dimensions is the water between the islands. With around 280 million people, Indonesia is the world's fourth-most populous country and the most populous Muslim-majority country (86.7% of the population). Java, the world's most populous island, is home to more than half of the country's population.
Indonesia is a presidential republic with an elected legislature. It has 38 provinces, of which nine have special status. The country's capital, Jakarta, is the world's second-most populous urban area. Despite its large population and densely populated regions, Indonesia has vast areas of wilderness that support one of the world's highest levels of biodiversity.
The Indonesian archipelago has been a valuable region for trade since at least the seventh century, when the Srivijaya Kingdom formed trade links with China. Indonesian history has been influenced by foreign powers drawn to its natural resources. Under Indian influence, Hindu and Buddhist kingdoms flourished from the early centuries CE. Muslim traders later brought Islam, and European powers fought one another to monopolise trade in the Spice Islands of Maluku during the Age of Discovery. Following three and a half centuries of Dutch colonialism, Indonesia secured its independence after World War II. Indonesia's history has since been turbulent, with challenges posed by natural disasters, corruption, separatism, a democratisation process, and periods of rapid economic change
Indonesia lies along the equator, and its climate tends to be relatively even year-round. It has two seasons, wet (Nov-Apr) and dry (May-Oct) with no extremes of summer or winter. The climate is dominated by the tropical rainforest climate found on every large island.
Humidity is quite high, at between 70 and 90%. Winds are moderate and generally predictable, with monsoons usually blowing in from the south and east in June through October and from the northwest in November through March.
Tectonically, most of Indonesia's area is highly unstable; it is a place of numerous volcanoes and frequent earthquakes. It lies on the Pacific Ring of Fire, where the Indo-Australian Plate and the Pacific Plate are pushed under the Eurasian plate. Of the 400 volcanoes, around 130 are active, mostly on Java. This volcanic activity has also resulted in fertile soils, a factor in historically sustaining the high population densities of Java and Bali.
A massive supervolcano erupted at present-day Lake Toba around 70,000 BCE. It is believed to have caused a global volcanic winter. The 1815 eruption of Mount Tambora caused 92,000 deaths and created an umbrella of volcanic ash that spread and blanketed parts of the archipelago and made much of the Northern Hemisphere without summer in 1816. The 1883 eruption of Krakatoa produced the loudest sound in recorded history and caused 36,000 deaths due to the eruption itself and the resulting tsunamis.
Indonesia's size, tropical climate, and archipelagic geography support one of the world's highest levels of biodiversity. It is one of the 17 megadiverse countries identified by Conservation International. Indonesia is second only to Australia in terms of total endemic species, with 36% of its 1,531 species of bird and 39% of its 515 species of mammal being endemic. Its flora and fauna are a mixture of Asian and Australasian species. British naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace described a dividing line (Wallace Line) between the distribution of Indonesia's Asian and Australasian species. It runs roughly north–south along the edge of the Sunda Shelf, between Kalimantan and Sulawesi, and along the deep Lombok Strait, between Lombok and Bali. Flora and fauna on the west of the line are generally Asian, while east from Lombok is increasingly Australian until the tipping point at the Weber Line.
Indonesia's large and growing population and rapid industrialisation present serious environmental issues. They are often given a lower priority due to high poverty levels and weak, under-resourced governance. Problems include the destruction of peatlands, large-scale illegal deforestation, over-exploitation of marine resources, air pollution, garbage management, and reliable water and wastewater services. These issues contribute to Indonesia's low ranking (number 116 out of 180 countries) in the 2020 Environmental Performance Index. Indonesia has one of the world's fastest deforestation rates. In 2020, forests covered approximately 49.1% of the country's land area, down from 87% in 1950. Most recently, this has been driven by the palm oil industry.
Indonesia is an ethnically diverse country, with around 1,300 distinct native ethnic groups. Most Indonesians are descended from Austronesian peoples while those in eastern Indonesia (the Maluku Islands, Western New Guinea and the eastern part of the Lesser Sunda Islands) are of Melanesian origin. A sense of Indonesian nationhood exists alongside strong regional identities. The country's official language is Indonesian, this was promoted by nationalists in the 1920s and achieved official status in 1945 under the name Bahasa Indonesia. Most Indonesians also speak at least one of more than 700 local languages.
The Republic of Indonesia, is an island nation in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of ~17,504 islands, ~6,000 of which are inhabited, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guinea. Indonesia is the world's largest archipelagic state and the 14th-largest country by area. It extends 5,120 kilometres from east to west and 1,760 kilometres from north to south. 81% of the area encompassed by these dimensions is the water between the islands. With around 280 million people, Indonesia is the world's fourth-most populous country and the most populous Muslim-majority country (86.7% of the population). Java, the world's most populous island, is home to more than half of the country's population.
Indonesia is a presidential republic with an elected legislature. It has 38 provinces, of which nine have special status. The country's capital, Jakarta, is the world's second-most populous urban area. Despite its large population and densely populated regions, Indonesia has vast areas of wilderness that support one of the world's highest levels of biodiversity.
The Indonesian archipelago has been a valuable region for trade since at least the seventh century, when the Srivijaya Kingdom formed trade links with China. Indonesian history has been influenced by foreign powers drawn to its natural resources. Under Indian influence, Hindu and Buddhist kingdoms flourished from the early centuries CE. Muslim traders later brought Islam, and European powers fought one another to monopolise trade in the Spice Islands of Maluku during the Age of Discovery. Following three and a half centuries of Dutch colonialism, Indonesia secured its independence after World War II. Indonesia's history has since been turbulent, with challenges posed by natural disasters, corruption, separatism, a democratisation process, and periods of rapid economic change
Indonesia lies along the equator, and its climate tends to be relatively even year-round. It has two seasons, wet (Nov-Apr) and dry (May-Oct) with no extremes of summer or winter. The climate is dominated by the tropical rainforest climate found on every large island.
Humidity is quite high, at between 70 and 90%. Winds are moderate and generally predictable, with monsoons usually blowing in from the south and east in June through October and from the northwest in November through March.
Tectonically, most of Indonesia's area is highly unstable; it is a place of numerous volcanoes and frequent earthquakes. It lies on the Pacific Ring of Fire, where the Indo-Australian Plate and the Pacific Plate are pushed under the Eurasian plate. Of the 400 volcanoes, around 130 are active, mostly on Java. This volcanic activity has also resulted in fertile soils, a factor in historically sustaining the high population densities of Java and Bali.
A massive supervolcano erupted at present-day Lake Toba around 70,000 BCE. It is believed to have caused a global volcanic winter. The 1815 eruption of Mount Tambora caused 92,000 deaths and created an umbrella of volcanic ash that spread and blanketed parts of the archipelago and made much of the Northern Hemisphere without summer in 1816. The 1883 eruption of Krakatoa produced the loudest sound in recorded history and caused 36,000 deaths due to the eruption itself and the resulting tsunamis.
Indonesia's size, tropical climate, and archipelagic geography support one of the world's highest levels of biodiversity. It is one of the 17 megadiverse countries identified by Conservation International. Indonesia is second only to Australia in terms of total endemic species, with 36% of its 1,531 species of bird and 39% of its 515 species of mammal being endemic. Its flora and fauna are a mixture of Asian and Australasian species. British naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace described a dividing line (Wallace Line) between the distribution of Indonesia's Asian and Australasian species. It runs roughly north–south along the edge of the Sunda Shelf, between Kalimantan and Sulawesi, and along the deep Lombok Strait, between Lombok and Bali. Flora and fauna on the west of the line are generally Asian, while east from Lombok is increasingly Australian until the tipping point at the Weber Line.
Indonesia's large and growing population and rapid industrialisation present serious environmental issues. They are often given a lower priority due to high poverty levels and weak, under-resourced governance. Problems include the destruction of peatlands, large-scale illegal deforestation, over-exploitation of marine resources, air pollution, garbage management, and reliable water and wastewater services. These issues contribute to Indonesia's low ranking (number 116 out of 180 countries) in the 2020 Environmental Performance Index. Indonesia has one of the world's fastest deforestation rates. In 2020, forests covered approximately 49.1% of the country's land area, down from 87% in 1950. Most recently, this has been driven by the palm oil industry.
Indonesia is an ethnically diverse country, with around 1,300 distinct native ethnic groups. Most Indonesians are descended from Austronesian peoples while those in eastern Indonesia (the Maluku Islands, Western New Guinea and the eastern part of the Lesser Sunda Islands) are of Melanesian origin. A sense of Indonesian nationhood exists alongside strong regional identities. The country's official language is Indonesian, this was promoted by nationalists in the 1920s and achieved official status in 1945 under the name Bahasa Indonesia. Most Indonesians also speak at least one of more than 700 local languages.