MAPS OF HISTORY · HISTORY OF · Indonesia

ONE LAND · 3 ATLASES

Indonesia, on the map of history

What was Indonesia before it was Indonesia? Below, every era of this land in the Maps of History collection — who ruled it, what it was called, and when control changed — each line linked to the dated map that shows it. Modern borders stand in as an honest approximation; every atlas says so on the map itself.

Dutch East Indies · The Great War, 1914–1918

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Indonesia · The War Room — WW2, 1936–1945

The Dutch East Indies — the oil prize the Pacific war was fought for (Ch. 7). Japanese occupation broke Dutch authority forever; nationalist leader Sukarno declared independence two days after Japan’s surrender, starting a four-year war the Netherlands lost.

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Indonesia · The Cold War, 1945–1991

Host of Bandung (1955), where the Third World named itself (Ch. 8). Sukarno’s balancing act ended in 1965–66 with an army takeover and the massacre of perhaps half a million alleged communists — one of the era’s worst atrocities, abetted with Western lists and approval, and long left off maps. Suharto’s Indonesia stayed Western-aligned for three decades.

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