Indonesia Overview Nations // Southeast Asia

OVERVIEW Indonesia is the world's largest archipelago nation, home to over 17,000 islands and a coastline second in length only to that of Canada. Indonesia achieved independence from the Netherlands in 1949, following a little-publicized but bitterly fought civil war. Under its first president, Sukarno, Indonesia moved left (looking toward China). But when the Army crushed an attempted coup in 1965 – killing hundreds of thousands as suspected communists – Sukarno was deposed...