INDONESIA’S HISTORY
Indonesia is one of the most fascinating and diverse maritime nations on earth. It has 13,466 islands, making up an incredible 33,999KM of coastline. It is also quite enormous withy the nation spanning 3,275 miles from East to West and 1,373 miles from North to South.
The Indonesian archipelago was and still is a major trade region since the 7th century. Hindu rulers Srivijaya and then later Majapahit came ruled the west of the country and traded with China and India. Hindu and Buddhist kingdoms flourished until Muslim traders brought Islam to the archipelago. European powers brought Christianity but the various religions co-existed in harmony.
The eventual successful colonial power were the Dutch. Their rule was lost to the Japanese soon after 1941 and most of Indonesia was then ruled by the Japanese Empire. When in 1945, the Japanese were pushed out by British and US forces, the Dutch took over again. The re-colonisation of Indonesia did not go down well, and in 1945 Sukarno and Hatta declared independence. It took until December 1949 for this to come to fruition in Jakarta. independence however, did not bring paradise, with a series of benevolent dictatorships. More recently however, a democratisation process has taken place and there has been rapid economic development.
The most important thing to remember when booking your Indonesian Dive Holiday, is that all throughout its colourful history, Indonesia has remained a tourist destination and a global dive destination of note. With so many islands – there has been little saturation and crowding. Indonesia remains one of the world’s top dive destinations for diversity and harmony.
