AnIllustrated History of Indonesia describes the history of Indonesia from prehistoric times up to the present day. The narrative is an amalgam of Indonesia's ownoriginal traditions, most of Asia's great faiths and civilisations and 450-oddyears of Western colonialism. Its turbulent passage since independence hasproduced a country with enormous potential for the future. Ray Canoy examineshow today's reasonably strong state has emerged from this history to mediatebetween an extremely diverse array of cultures, ethnic groups and socioeconomicactors across the world's largest archipelago.The first chapters follow Indonesians from the prehistoricAustronesian-speaking population waves that settled the islands, on to theHindu-Buddhist high cultures that gave its early political centres a lastingheritage. Later chapters then describe the trade-driven advents of Islam andthe West, the Dutch colonial experience, the post-colonial struggles betweendemocracy and autocracy in the Sukarno and Suharto eras, and finally thecountry's ongoing efforts to find a path after dictatorship to decentralisedgrowth and pluralism in the twenty-first century.Alongside the main text, the book features boxed panels onspecific topics of interest, bespoke maps and a detailed timeline. Togetherthese offer the reader a chance to engage with Indonesia's past, from thepost-glacial birth of the archipelago to today's emerging post-Western globalorder.
