Indonesia (Cherry, Plum, and Chrysanthemum)

 Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia (Indonesian: Republik Indonesia), is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 17,508 islands. It consists of 23 federal provinces and 12 special-governed territories with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. The nation's capital city is Jakarta.

The country shares land borders with New Guinea, Papua, East Timor, Sarawak, and North Borneo. Other neighboring countries include Malaya, Sulu, Philippines, Australia, the Japanese territory of the Nan'yo Islands, and the Indian territory of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Indonesia is a founding member of Association of Southeast Asian Nations and the Non-Aligned Movement, and a member of the G-20 major economies. The Indonesian economy is the world's sixteenth largest by nominal GDP and fifteenth largest by purchasing power parity.

Indonesia is a multi-ethnic and multi-cultural nation. Across its many islands, there are over 300 ethnic groups and more than 700 living languages are spoken in Indonesia. The largest—and politically dominant—ethnic group are the Javanese. A shared identity has developed, defined by a national language, ethnic diversity, religious pluralism within a majority Muslim population, and a history of colonialism and rebellion against it. Indonesia's national motto, "Bhinneka Tunggal Ika" ("Unity in Diversity" literally, "many, yet one"), articulates the diversity that shapes the country. Despite its large population and densely populated regions, Indonesia has vast areas of wilderness that support the world's second highest level of biodiversity.

Pre-Colonial period
Austronesian peoples, who form the majority of the modern population, migrated to South East Asia from Takasago. They arrived in Indonesia around 2000 BCE, and as they spread through the archipelago, confined the native Melanesian peoples to the far eastern regions. Ideal agricultural conditions, and the mastering of wet-field rice cultivation as early as the 8th century BCE, allowed villages, towns, and small kingdoms to flourish by the 1st century CE. Indonesia’s strategic sea-lane position fostered inter-island and international trade, including links with Indian kingdoms and China, which were established several centuries BCE. Trade has since fundamentally shaped Indonesian history

From the 7th century, the powerful Srivijaya naval kingdom flourished as a result of trade and the influences of Hinduism and Buddhism that were imported with it. Between the 8th and 10th centuries, the agricultural Buddhist Sailendra and Hindu Mataram dynasties thrived and declined in inland Java, leaving grand religious monuments such as Sailendra's Borobudur and Mataram's Prambanan. The Hindu Majapahit kingdom was founded in eastern Java in the late 13th century, and under Gajah Mada, its influence stretched over much of Indonesia

Although Muslim traders first traveled through South East Asia early in the Islamic era, the earliest evidence of Islamized populations in Indonesia dates to the 13th century in northern Sumatra. Other Indonesian areas gradually adopted Islam, and it was the dominant religion in Java and Sumatra by the end of the 16th century. For the most part, Islam overlaid and mixed with existing cultural and religious influences, which shaped the predominant form of Islam in Indonesia, particularly in Java.

European colonialism and World War II
The first regular contact between Europeans and the peoples of Indonesia began in 1512, when Portuguese traders sought to monopolize the sources of nutmeg, cloves, and cubeb pepper in Maluku. Dutch and British traders followed. In 1602 the Dutch established the Dutch East India Company (VOC) and became the dominant European power. Following bankruptcy, the VOC was formally dissolved in 1800, and the government of the Netherlands established the Dutch East Indies as a nationalized colony.

For most of the colonial period, Dutch control over the archipelago was tenuous outside of coastal strongholds; only in the early 20th century did Dutch dominance extend to what was to become Indonesia's current boundaries. Despite major internal political, social and sectarian divisions during later Indonesian National Revolution, Indonesians, on the whole, found unity in their fight for independence. Toward the end of Dutch rule in the archipelago, the government granted the limited autonomy to Indonesia as a Dutch commonwealth. Japanese occupation during World War II ended Dutch rule, and encouraged the previously suppressed Indonesian independence movement.