Indonesia
Republic of Indonesia
In 1891, Eugène Dubois, a physician in the Royal Dutch East Indies Army, was looking for fossils. He was specifically looking for fossils of the "missing link" that would prove Darwin's theories. His efforts led to the discovery of the top half of a skull and later a femur. They were human-like though somewhat primitive. He dubbed his find Pithecanthropus Erectus, Ape Man Who Walked Upright, although this was later corrected to Homo Erectus, Upright Man. But the popular designtion is Java Man, after the island in the Dutch East Indies on which the remains were found.
From this evidence, it can be said that Indonesia,
which sprang from the ashes of the Dutch East Indies after the second world war, has been inhabited for perhaps 400,000 years by humanids and it is possible that Homo Erectus and Humans even shared the area briefly around 50,000 years ago.
In more recent times, after declaring independence from Dutch rule, the country has been struggling towards a form of democracy but has been plagued with economic disasters, accusations of human rights abuses and attempted coups. The peaceful resolution to an armed separatist crisis in Aceh was helped immensely by an earthquake in 2004 that, together with its tsunami, killed 130,000 indonesians and took all the fight out of the uprising.
Earthquakes, tsunamis and volcanos are a fact of life in Indonesia. There are 400 volcanos in total, 130 of them active. One of them is thought to have blown up around 70,000 BCE, causing a global winter and actually affecting the course of human evolution. More recently, Mount Tambora erupted in 1815 causing some 92,000 deaths and the Year Without a Summer. Later, Krakatoa (east of Java) blew its stack causing 36,000 deaths and is thought to have been the loudest noise in recorded history.
The Republic of Indonesia is composed of more than 17,000 islands, making it the world's largest island country. It is also the most populous Muslim country on earth. Also home to the Orangutan and the Komodo Dragon.
Let's go take a look.