The region we know as Indonesia is believed to have been home for early ancestors of humanity with fossilized remains of homo erectus, suggesting a timeframe of inhabitation of up to 2 million years. The Austronesian peoples, originally from Taiwan, began settling in Indonesia approximately 2000 BC and eventually pushed the indigenous Melanesians out towards the eastern islands. The Srivijaya naval kingdom became prominent in the seventh century AD followed by the Buddhist Sailendra and Hindu Mataram dynasties. As a result, Hinduism and Buddhism were widely adopted by the population. During the 13th century, Islam was brought to the islands via Islamic sea traders and over the following centuries was assimilated into the general population, eventually becoming the dominant religion.

With the advent of the European demand for spices, the Portuguese established a spice trade in the early 16th century. Later, the Netherlands established the East India Company to take greater advantage of the lucrative spice trade and became the dominant power in the region. The Dutch assimilated the area into its sovereign empire until the Japanese occupied the area during World War II. At the end of the war, there was a strong internal push for independence and after four years of conflict with the Dutch, Indonesia became an independent republic.

In the early years after independence, there were strong links with the communist parties of China and the Soviet Union. However, during the 1960’s, a right wing military government took control, and a routing of the population ensued. It is estimated that up to one million people, mostly communist party members or sympathisers, lost their lives. This government maintained a ‘guided democracy’ until the 1990’s with a gradual easing of restrictions on the populace largely due to growing international pressure, particularly from the United Nations. Recent political history of Indonesia reveals an increasingly more robust democracy pursuing a path of economic development and social reform. Education has been a major beneficiary of these measures with compulsory education extending from the original six years to nine years with marked improvement in literacy rates as a consequence.

Indonesia is a collection of peoples and has a history of being involved in regional territorial disputes. The area of Irian Jaya, now known as Papua has been added to the Indonesian republic but the islands of East Timor have gained independence from Indonesia after a long and bitter struggle.

Indonesia was hard hit by the Asian Financial Crisis during the 1990s and a succession of natural disasters, but has emerged intact, assisted by growing revenues from oil and gas.