Our series on Administrative Divisions takes us to Indonesia, the World's fourth most populous country and the second most populous non federal country after China.
Indonesia was created in 1949 on the basis of the former Dutch East Indies. World War II saw Japanese occupation and the rise of an independence movement that led to a full scale revolution that reached full independence from the Netherlands.
There were 12 provinces initially, but that number grew significantly to reach 34 in 2011. Some regions of the country have had separatist ambitions, such as Aceh in the East and the Southern Moluccas in the East. The Western half of the island of New Guinea, which was also under Dutch control in colonial times, joined Indonesia as a single province in 1962. It was split into two provinces in 2003. Finally, the former Portuguese Timor (the Eastern half of the island of Timor in the Lesser Sunda Islands) was annexed in 1976 but regained independence in 2002 after three years of UN supervision.
More on Indonesia
Indonesia in 2022
