Indonesia

Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian and Pacific oceans. Comprising over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guinea, Indonesia is the world's largest archipelagic state and the 14th-largest country by area, at 1,904,569 square kilometres (735,358 square miles). Indonesia has significant areas of wilderness that support one of the world's highest levels of biodiversity. It shares land borders with Papua New Guinea, Timor-Leste, and Malaysia, as well as maritime borders with seven other countries, including Australia, Singapore, and the Philippines. The Indonesian archipelago has been inhabited since prehistoric times, with early human presence evidenced by fossils of Homo erectus and Homo sapiens, and megalithic sites. By the early second millennium, it had become a crossroads for international trade linking East and South Asia. Over the centuries, external influences—including Hinduism, Buddhism and later Islam—were absorbed into local societies, which introduced lasting cultural and religious influences. European powers later competed to monopolise trade in the Spice Islands of Maluku during the Age of Discovery, followed by three and a half centuries of Dutch colonial rule, before Indonesia proclaimed its independence after World War II. Since independence, Indonesia has grappled with numerous challenges including separatism, corruption, political upheaval and natural disasters, alongside democratisation and rapid economic growth. The country today is a presidential republic with an elected legislature and consists of 38 provinces, some of which enjoy greater autonomy than others. Home to over 280 million people, Indonesia ranks fourth in the world by population and has the largest Muslim population of any country.