Indonesia

Where the name comes from

Indonesia combines Greek Indos, “Indian”, and nēsos, “island”, a name coined in the nineteenth century for the islands Europeans called the East Indies.

First people

Early humans lived on Java more than a million years ago, and Austronesian voyagers later joined older peoples across an archipelago of kingdoms and sultanates.^1,2

Known for

Indonesia is known for Borobudur, the world’s largest Buddhist temple, and for Komodo dragons, the largest living lizards.³

Outside contact

The Dutch East India Company ruled from Batavia from 1619.²

The modern country

The national movement chose Indonesian as its language of unity in 1928. After Japanese occupation in 1942–1945, independence was proclaimed in 1945 and accepted by the Netherlands in 1949.^4,5