Indonesia

• Capital: Jakarta
• Dimensions: 1.912.988 km² 
• Population: approx. 230 million inhabitants
• Population density: 118 inhabitants per km²
• Religion: Muslims approx. 88 %, Christians approx. 8 %, Hindus approx. 2 %
• Official language: Indonesian
• Currency: Rupiah
• Form of government: Presidential Republic
• National holiday: 17 August (Independence Day)
• Climate: tropical, humid
• Unemployment: approx. 9,7 %

Dimensions of the country:

Indonesia consists of more than 17 000 islands covering an area of 1.912.988km². The country stretches over 1,875 km from the North to the South and over approx. 5000 km from the West to the East.  Indonesia borders on the Indian Ocean in its southwest. Neighboring countries in the north are Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines and Palau, Papua New Guinea and East Timor in the East and Australia in the South. 

Population:

Indonesia has a population of about 230 million people and is therefore the 4th most populated country in the world.  The yearly growth rate is approx. 2 % at the moment. More than half of the population live on the main island Java, which only covers 6.6 % of the total area of Indonesia.  There are about 30 larger ethnical groups in Indonesia. Among these are the following:

• Javanese (41,7 %)
• Sundanese (15,4 %)
• Malaiy (3,4 %)
• Madurese (3,3 %)
• Batak (3,0 %)
  Minangkabau (2,7 %)
• Betawi (2,5 %)
• Bugi (2,5 %)

The biggest minorities are Indonesians of Chinese (approx. 4 million) , Indian and Arabian descend.

Religion:

About  88 % of the population is Muslim, 8% Christians, 8 % Christen, 2 % Hindu, 1 % Buddhists and about 1 % believe in natural religions. 

Official language:

The official language in Indonesia is Indonesia (Bahasa Indonesia). For a lot of people it is, however, only the second language as there are hundreds of regional languages. Indonesian belongs to the most spoken languages in the world with more than 200 million speakers.

Climate:

Indonesia is shaped by two tropical seasons. Dry season is from April to October, the rain season from October to April.  In Indonesia's western part there is rain all year round, while the eastern part is rather dry. Average yearly temperatures are between 25 ° and  27°C and do not vary much. Nevertheless, there can be variations in temperature of  6 ° to 12 °C within 24 hours.

History:

- The island of Java was already populated about 1.8 million years ago. Indonesia's population mostly descends from Mongolian-Caucasian peoples. 

- 5th century: First Buddhist influences

- Since 7th century: Buddhist kingdom of Srivijava on Sumatra.

- Since 8th century: Buddhist Sailendra dynasty

- Since 15th century: Increase of Arabian traders and begin of conversion to the Islam in large parts of Indonesia.

- 1498: Vasco da Gama discovers the sea route to India which led to the European advance into the Indonesian area.

- 1602: Founding of the United Dutch East Indian Company. Begin of the colonial rule of the Dutch in Indonesia.

- 1799: The Dutch government takes over the colony.

- 1908: Colony takes over the whole of the Indonesian group of islands. 

- March 1942: Japan occupies Indonesia

- March 1943: Indonesia declares independence

- 15 August 1945: Japan surrenders

- 17 August 1945: Indonesia is declared independent. Achmed Sukarno becomes first president.

- 1947/48 Dutch-Indonesian War.

- 27 December 1949:  Handover of sovereignty to the Republic of Indonesia.

- 17 August 1950 :Change of the federal state into a centralized state.

- 1965: After an unsuccessful military coup, nationalist general Haji Mohamed Suharto orders a massacre on Communists. One million people are said to have been murdered. 

-  1967: Suharto becomes president.

- 1998: Economic crisis and first violent protests in Jakarta which led to president Suharto to resign. 

- 1999: Abdurrahman Wahid becomes the first freely elected president of Indonesia.

- 2001: Megawati Sukarnoputri, the daughter of the nation's founder Sukarno, takes over the presidency.

- 12 October 2002: Islamic terror act on the island Bali.

- 2004: Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono wins the first direct presidential election.

Political situation:

- 27 December 1949: final independence of Indonesia

- 1998: extensive reforms.

- The unicameral parliament consists of 500 delegates who are elected for 5 years.

- Since 2004 the highest legislative institution is a bicameral parliament and the president is directly elected by the people.

- Indonesia has multi-party system with a large amount of political parties. 

- Former general Susilo Banbamg Yudhoyono (Democratic Party) wins the run-off election against the president Megawati Sukarnoputri.

- Indonesia is divided into 30 provinces and 2 special regions and the capital district Jakarta. The foundation of new provinces is currently being planned.

Economy:

Almost half of Indonesian's population works in the agricultural sector. Among the agricultural products are palm oil, rice, peanuts, cacao and coffee. one fourth of the Indonesian population lives below the poverty line. 

A lot of major companies in Indonesia belong to state despite the economic system having free market structures.

The country has a lot of natural resources and a lot of multinational companies make use of that fact. The biggest Goldmine is situated in West Papua. Next to gold, liquefied natural gas, copper, wood, clothes and minerals are being exported.

Tourism is also an important income sector. Most tourists come from Australia, the USA and Europe. However, the amount of tourists has decreased in the last few years due to terror bombings and terrorism warnings.

Problems:

• Corruption
• Poverty
• Terrorism
• Exploitation of natural resources / Pollution
• Natural disasters