The Republic of Indonesia is located on the island of Sumatra and the western half of New Guinea and is made up of over 13,000 islands. Indonesia became an independent country on August 17, 1945, after more than three centuries of Dutch colonial rule.
In the early 1500s, the Portugese arrived in Indonesia and began to trade with the local kingdoms. The Dutch arrived in the early 1600s and soon began to dominate the trade. In 1811, the Dutch formally …