Since the mid-19th century, Indonesia has been an independent country. This Southeast Asian nation is made up of more than 13,000 islands, and its population is more than 260 million.
The first Europeans to explore Indonesia were the Portuguese in the early 16th century. They were followed by the Spanish, the Dutch, and the British. In the early 1800s, the British and the Dutch began to compete for control of the region.
In 1824, the Dutch established the Dutch East …