Kingdoms and principalities of Indonesia

In the way running to present the History of Indonesia, one calls usually " royaume" entities which, if one took for criterion the size of the territory, could not always be qualified thus in the European context.

Extending on some 5.000 kilometers from west in is, the archipelago Indonesia N is largest of the world. The sea thus inevitably influenced the history of Indonesia. The winds of the Mousson very early supported the maritime relations inside the archipelago and with the remainder of maritime Asia. Hot and abundant rains produce a rich person vegetation. At the beginning of the Christian era, wood and the spice S of Java and islands of the East, the resins of the Equatorial forests of Sumatra and Borneo were as known far as in India and in the Middle East. These international commercial relations however did not lead to the formation of kingdoms with vast territories. The many estuaries of Sumatra and Borneo allowed the establishment of communities for which the relations with their neighbors were more important than those with remote regions. In the same way in Java, where a fertile volcanic ground sprinkled many river allowed the rise of a Riziculture thrives, of the communities one been able to develop in separate valleys from/to each other by the mountain and the forest. These coastal and bordering communities gradually evolved/moved in hierarchical companies. However, none of them became sufficiently important to dominate its neighbors and to occupy their territories. The relations with the outside world was a means of acquiring elements, materials, techniques and symbolic systems, allowing the elites these communities to increase their richness and their prestige, therefore their capacity. On the basis of indonésiennes source, written as well as oral, the historians estimate that the origin of the coastal kingdoms of the west of the archipelago indonésien are explained by the capacity of eminent individuals to benefit from the commercial exchanges with foreigners.

The first kingdom indonésien attested by the epigraphy (primarily in the form of inscriptions on stone or copper plates commemorating or reporting a particular event) is Tarumanagara in the west of the island of Java. Its existence is attested by inscription that one dates from Ve century after J. - C. Its territory was located at the east of current the Jakarta, around the mouth of the river Citarum, " the river of the indigo" , which thus bears still the name of the old kingdom. The extent of its territory was not to exceed half of a French department. The prosperity of Tarumanagara, " country of the indigo" , rested on the export of this invaluable dyeing, made possible by its position with the mouth of a river, in a flat ground, vis-a-vis the sea of Java, i.e. open on the outside world and the international business.

The books of history of the schoolboys indonésiens explain why formerly, Indonésiens had two large kingdoms, Sriwijaya and Majapahit, which occupied not only the territory of current Indonesia, but also the Malayan Péninsule and the Filipino.

The logic of the network

Inscriptions as old men Malayan gone back to 683 to 686 and coming from the island from Bangka and the town of Palembang in the southern from Sumatra speak about a kadatuan of Sriwijaya. Kadatuan is formed on the word Malayan datu whose initial direction is " chef". With the head of the kadatuan a Dapunta Hyang is, which one translated by " roi". Sriwijaya, which was with the site of the current town of Palembang, was what one can call a city-State, like today Singapore. Its own territory was to hardly have the extent of the current city. One gives, for his population, of the estimates from 30.000 to 50.000 inhabitants.

Descriptions that make of them Arab accounts of travellers and Chinese annals describe it like the most powerful kingdom of Southeast Asia. It was thus believed a long time that Sriwijaya was a " empire" who controlled vast territories. The nationalists indonésiens seized some to give an identity and a pride to the Indigènes of the the Indies Dutchwomen dominated by Europeans. The prestige of Sriwijaya was such as not only Indonésiens, but as the Malaysian ones and even the Inhabitants of Thailand wanted to show as the capital of Sriwijaya was on their territory. Even the Filipinos explain that their country was formerly vassal of Sriwijaya. Certain Indians quite simply present Sriwijaya like part of the history of their country.

The misunderstanding comes from the prospect taken. The power of Sriwijaya rested on its capacity to control the traffic of the Détroit of Malacca, one of the great ways of the international business of the time, by which passed from the boats which connected the Moluques and China to the east, in India, in the Middle East and the Eastern coast of Africa in the west. Coming from Moluques or China, the boats were necessarily presented for Sriwijaya and made stopover there. At the time indeed, the south-eastern coast of Sumatra was much more in withdrawal that today, and current Palembang was less far from the sea.

The control of Sriwijaya rested on its capacity to impose the stopover on the boats. The epigraphy mentions punitive forwardings against of other regions of the area, to undoubtedly point out their obligations towards Sriwijaya to them. But Sriwijaya did not manage these regions. Those constituted a network whose Sriwijaya was the center.

This model is found with Majapahit, a kingdom of the is of Java whose clean territory was the average valley of the Brantas river, in the south-west of the current city of Surabaya. A poem epic writes in 1365, the Nagarakertagama , enumerates a hundred " tributary regions " kingdom. Put on the chart, these regions recover indeed approximately the territory of Indonesia. It was actually about Comptoir S which traded with Majapahit. The kingdom made sure that these regions did not make trade for their own account while sending to it of the dignitaries of the clergy Shiva ite, the bhujanga . But it did not manage these territories, which had their own kings and princes. Here still, there were a network of kingdoms and principalities whose Majapahit was the center.

The territory of Majapahit would occupy to hardly him also half of a French department. However, the king gave territories in Apanage to members of his family, who managed to them Fief as if they were the sovereign. The kingdom thus controlled a territory which extended from the Western half of Java Is until the center of Java, which perhaps represented a quarter of the island. This control also rested him on a logic of network.

Little before 1400, prince of Palembang (name which Sriwijaya took), refusing the suzerainty of Majapahit, take refuge on the west coast of the Malayan Péninsule, where it founds Malacca. This port quickly becomes a stopover for the boats which borrow the strait. Trade between China and Moluques on the one hand, and India and the Middle East on the other hand, are dominated by Moslem merchants. The first sovereign of Malacca converts with Islam. The city thrives and becomes the most important port of Southeast Asia. After its catch by Portuguese in 1511, this prosperity, that still could describe the Worse Portuguese Tomé, which lived there of 1512 to 1515, quickly will disappear. The Portuguese do not manage indeed to be integrated in the network which had allowed the fortune of Malacca.

One can say that, in addition to the christianization of the east of the archipelago indonésien, the principal consequence of the catch of Malacca by the Portuguese was the rupture of Asian network trading in the area. While imposing on the XVIIe century their monopoly on the production and the trade of the spices, the Dutchmen definitively will destroy this logic of network, which they replaced by the centralized administration of a vast territory which is called today the Republic of Indonesia. One knows the difficulties of the latter of maintaining a design centralized of the capacity. The laws of 1999 bearing autonomy of the areas are perhaps a more realistic manner to take account of an old reality.

Formation of the kingdoms

Java

The epigraphy of the 8th century in the center of Java reveals the competitions between raka or lords of which each one succeeded has to join together under his authority a certain number of wanua or villages ( wanua , in the language Bugis of the south of the island of Célèbes, indicates the various principalities which start to be formed as from the 15th century, and in the Polynesian languages, vanua wants to say " terre"). These raka endeavors to increase their prestige by pious foundations. An inscription gone back to 778 reports the foundation thus, by a sovereign Sailendra, of a temple associated with a monastery. In return, the Buddhist religious communities or hindouists (both cohabited in the center of Java) gratifiaient them of titles symbolic systems like Maharaja .

Some of these raka had the means of building imposing monuments like Buddhist Borobudur or Prambanan shivaite.

The unification of these small seigniories in a more important entity starts only at the 9th century. One thus knows by an inscription gone back to 732 after J. - C. that it that a raka , i.e. " seigneur" , of Mataram of the name of Sanjaya set up a monument to honor Shiva.

Célèbes

The first kingdoms Bugis are founded in XIIIe century.

Moslem kingdoms

The Sultanat of Passed in the north of Sumatra is the first attested Moslem kingdom of Indonesia. Its first king, Malik have-Salih, dies in 1297.

Princely States of the Indies Dutchwomen

During XVIIe and XVIIIe centuries, the VOC (Company Dutchwoman of the Eastern Indies) gradually will impose its sovereignty in various States of the east of the archipelago as well as Java.

The VOC is put in bankruptcy in 1799 and the government of the Netherlands takes again its credits. With the Napoleonean Wars, the Dutch expansionism colonial marks time. It begins again after the signature of the Traité anglo-Dutch of 1814 between the United Kingdom and the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The XIXe century is a succession of military actions, of which in particular the Guerre of Java, the Guerre of Padri and the Guerre of Aceh.

Within the the Indies Dutchwomen which are constituted, the kingdoms and principalities Indigène S do not enjoy the local autonomy of the princely States of the British Indies. The capacity of their sovereigns is primarily symbolic system and protocolar.

The Republic of Indonesia

The independence of Indonesia is proclaimed on August 17th, 1945. As of September, the four courses of Java Center: Kraton and Mangkunegaran de Surakarta, kraton and Pakualaman de Yogyakarta, proclaims their support for the young republic. In the other islands, much of princes in front of their richness with the Dutchmen are reticent. However in the southern of Célèbes the majority of the princes Bugis and Makassar accept the authority of the governor named by Jakarta, Dr. Sam Ratulangie. The majority of the kings Bali be born also join the republic. In the east of Sumatra, armed groups attack the royal families and princely Malayan and batak.

In 1946, the South East Asia Command of the Alliés, which had unloaded little time after the Japanese capitulation, returns to the Dutchmen the authority on old the the Indies Dutchwomen except Java and Sumatra. The latter consider the creation of a federation of States in the territories which they occupy. They create successively a Negara Indonesia Timur (" State of Indonesia orientale") with like capital Denpasar in Bali, a " special territory of Kalimantan occidental" with the sultan Abdul Hamid II of Pontianak, a " State de Sumatra oriental" , a " State of Madura " , a " State of the Pasundan " Western Java with like chairs the count Wiranatakusumah, a " State de Sumatra of Sud" , a " State of Java Is " , on the whole 15 States and territories.

After two " actions of police" Dutchwomen against the Republic of Indonesia, of which the territory at a given time is reduced to the center of Java, a cease-fire is finally imposed by the the United Nations in 1949.

The Republic of the United States of Indonesia

A conference known as of the " Count Ronde" is held with $the Hague in the Netherlands from August in November 1949. December 14th, the Republic of Indonesia signs with the representatives of 15 States and territories created by the Dutchmen, the République of the United States of Indonesia. December 27th, 1949, the Kingdom of the Netherlands formally transfers sovereignty from the territory of old the the Indies Dutchwomen, other than the Western New Guinea, with a " Republic of the United States d' Indonésie" (RUSI) constituted by the Republic of Indonesia itself and the 15 states created by the Dutchmen.

In January 1950, a Dutch officer with the head of 800 men occupies Bandung, capital of the state of Pasundan. Leaders are stopped and dissolved Pasundan. The sultan Hamid de Pontianak is also stopped and the state of dissolved Western Kalimantan. The other states decide to voluntarily dissolve in their turn, except for Eastern Sumatra and Eastern Indonesia. August 17th, 1950 is announced the replacement of the RUSI by the Negara Kesatuan Republik Indonesia (" unit State of the Republic of Indonésie").

Indonesia today

In Java, the colonial administration had transformed the princely States into residenties or provinces, which gathered old the Kabupaten or Comté S. It was in particular the case of the residenties of Banten, Cirebon, Surakarta and Yogyakarta. Others residenties corresponded to old Javanese provinces.

The Republic of Indonesia will remove the residenties , or will transform some of them into provinces, keeping the kabupaten which become departments.

Apart from Java, the old princely States in general became of the kabupaten .

Since the resignation of the president Soeharto in 1998, a movement tries to make revive these old princely States. In 2001 for example, the bupati (prefect) of Kutai Kertanegara re-established the sultanate of the same name. In 2004, a new sultan was established with Pontianak, capital of the province of Western Kalimantan in the island of Borneo. Hassan di Tiro, directing independence movement GAM, even spoke to make reappear the sultanate of Aceh.

Certain princes try to play a political role. In 1999, the sultan of Ternate in the Moluques tried to be made appoint governor of the province of the Moluques of North recently created. In 2003, the prince of Mempawah to Western Kalimantan presented himself to the elections of prefect.

However, of the personalities like the sultan of Bima in the island of Sumbawa or the prince of Kupang in the west of Timor always continued to be respected like local figures, even national like the sultan of Yogyakarta.

Principal current kingdoms and principalities

The table below gives the names of some kingdoms and principalities of which there exists still a representative of the royal family or princely.

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