The islands in Indonesia were formed in the Miocene Era (12 million years BC), Palaecene Era (70 million years BC), Eocene Era (30 million years BC) and Oligacene Era (25 million years BC). With the arrival of people from Asia, Indonesia was believed to have existed in the Pleistocene Era (4 million years BC).

The islands were formed due to strong tectonic alterations in Australia and The Pacific. Therfore, this makes Indonesia to be one of the countries that often changes its geological area in the world. The mountains in the Indonesian islands number more than 400 volcanoes, of which 100 are still active. Indonesia suffers vibrations 3 times per day, earthquares occurs once a day, and a minimum of one volcano erupting per year.

Majapahit Kingdom 

Ancient Indonesia saw the reign of hundreds of ancient kingdoms all over the archipelago. This gave birth to various traditional customs, arts, and culture, as well as historical sites and relics. For instance, by the Seventh Century, the powerful Buddhist Kingdom of Sriwijaya was expanding and it was during that period the spectacular Borobudur sanctuary was built in Central Java.

In the thirteenth Century, the Hindu empire of Majapahit was at the height of its rule, which united the whole of Indonesia and parts of the Malay Peninsula and ruled for two centuries. The remnants of the kingdom can be seen today through monuments such as PrambananTemple, the Penataran temple complex in East Java and many others.

The great empire fell after two centuries, leaving Indonesia back to separate, small kingdoms, which were easy prey for European invasions.Due to Indonesia’s abundance in spices such as cloves, nutmeg and mace which were thought to cure all sorts of diseases and was worth as much as gold, the Portuguese arrived in 1509 in pursuit of the spices and in 1511 established trading post, which they controlled from the strategic commercial center of Malacca strait. Then, in the middle of 16th century, Dutch took over the occupation for about 350 years.

The riches of Indonesian natural resources were brought over to Europe and traded for national funding. The Dutch East Indies, as it was known at the time, fell under British rule for the period of 1811-1816. Lastly, Japanese took over for three and a half years, until Indonesia proclaimed its independence at August 17th, 1945.

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