Java (island)

:"Java" redirects here. {{otheruses2|Java}}

History

The island of Java is also famous for the Java man, a set of fossil remains of Homo erectus found near the Brantas river in East Java. Two million years ago, the rainfall in the Sunda and Digul plateaus were very heavy, and allowed heavy tropical vegetation to thrive. This in turn allowed many prehistoric cultures to emerge, as evidenced in many fossil findings in this region.

Related Topics:
Java man - Fossil - Homo erectus - East Java - Sunda - Digul

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Hindu and Buddhist kingdoms

Much evidence of Java's past kingdoms remain, such as the famous Buddhist Borobudur and Hindu Prambanan temples. Indeed, the Javanese culture, and language itself, was heavily influenced by the cultures and languages of the Indian subcontinent. In the sixth and seventh centuries many maritime kingdoms arose in Sumatra and Java which controlled the waters in the Straits of Malacca and flourished with the increasing sea trade between China and India and beyond. During this time, scholars from India and China visited these kingdoms to translate literary and religious texts.

Related Topics:
Kingdom - Buddhist - Borobudur - Hindu - Prambanan - Indian subcontinent - Straits of Malacca

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The most prominent of the Hindu kingdoms was the Majapahit kingdom based in East Java, from where it ruled a large part of what is now western Indonesia. The name of the Majapahit empire is still invoked by contemporary Indonesian leaders to promote unity and the legitimacy of the state. The remnants of the Majapahit kingdom shifted to Bali during the sixteenth century as Muslim kingdoms in the western part of the island gained influence.

Related Topics:
Majapahit - Bali - Muslim

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Muslim kingdoms and the Dutch colonization

The earliest Muslim evangelists were called the Wali Songo, the nine ambassadors. Several of them were of Chinese origin, leading to speculation of Zheng He's influence on the trade in the Straits of Malacca. Many of their tombs are still well-preserved, and often visited Ziarah for superstitious and religious reasons. Most of the brand of Islam that is adopted in Java is mixed with longstanding indigenous beliefs, and has a decidedly local flavor. For example, the legend of Nyi Roro Kidul was invented as a mix of the superstition common on the southern coast of Java and Islamic influences.

Related Topics:
Muslim - Evangelists - Wali Songo - Chinese - Zheng He - Ziarah - Islam - Nyi Roro Kidul

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The Dutch East India Company (VOC) established its trading and administrative headquarters in Batavia (now the capital city of Jakarta). This capital, along with other coastal cities such as Semarang and Surabaya, was the focus of Dutch attention during most of the colonial period. The VOC maintained control over the mountainous interior of the island through indigenous client states such as Mataram in central Java.

Related Topics:
Dutch East India Company - Semarang - Surabaya - Mataram

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The nineteenth century saw the Dutch government take over administration of the East Indies from the Dutch East India Company, and in the mid-nineteenth century they implemented the cultuurstelsel and cultuurprocenten policies, which caused widespread famine and poverty. A Dutch author Douwes Dekker wrote a novel Max Havelaar to protest these conditions, and in turn the political and social movement spurned by this protest resulted in the Ethical Policy, by which many Javanese elites were given a chance to earn Dutch education both in Java and in the Netherlands itself. It was from this elite that the most prominent nationalist leaders came. They formed the core of the new government when Indonesia became independent after World War II.

Related Topics:
Douwes Dekker - Max Havelaar - Ethical Policy - Nationalist - World War II

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Post independence

With the establishment of Jakarta as the capital, and the Javanese roots of the majority of Indonesian political figures, the island remains political and economically dominant over the rest of the country. While much of rural Java is very poor, the urban areas of Java are among the wealthiest, most highly developed regions in the country. Both presidents Sukarno and Suharto, who together ruled for the first forty-nine years of independence, were from Java.

Related Topics:
Sukarno - Suharto

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This political dominance has resulted in resentment on the part of some residents of other islands. The respected Indonesian author Pramoedya Ananta Toer once recommended that the Indonesian capital be moved outside the island of Java in order to free the Indonesian nationalist movement of its Java-centric character.

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