The Dutch began to colonize Indonesia in the early 17th century; the islands were occupied by Japan from 1942 to 1945. Indonesia declared its independence after Japan's surrender, but it required four years of intermittent negotiations, recurring hostilities, and UN mediation before the Netherlands agreed to relinquish its colony.

Indonesia is the world's largest archipelagic state and home to the world's largest Muslim population.

Current issues include: alleviating poverty, preventing terrorism, consolidating democracy after four decades of authoritarianism, implementing financial sector reforms, stemming corruption, holding the military and police accountable for human rights violations, and controlling avian influenza.

In 2005, Indonesia reached a historic peace agreement with armed separatists in Aceh, which led to democratic elections in December 2006. Indonesia continues to face a low intensity separatist guerilla movement in Papua.

Capital: Jakarta

Currency: Indonesian rupiah (IDR)

Indonesia is located between the Indian Ocean and Pacific Ocean, south of Malaysia and Singapore and the Philippines, north of Australia and East Timor, and west of New Guinea

The country is comprised of 93,000 square kilometers of water and 1,826,440 square kilometers of land, for a total area of 1,919,440 square kilometers -- slightly less than three times the size of Texas.

Indonesia has a tropical climate -- hot and humid over most of the country, and more moderate in the highlands.

Indonesia's natural resources include petroleum, tin, natural gas, nickel, timber, bauxite, copper, fertile soils, coal, gold, and silver.

The archipelago of Indonesia is comprised of 17,508 islands (6,000 inhabited). Straddling the equator, it maintains a strategic location astride or along major sea lanes from the Indian Ocean to the Pacific Ocean.

Indonesia is comprised of a polyglot of ethnic groups, including:

• Javanese 40.6%
• Sundanese 15%
• Madurese 3.3%
• Minangkabau 2.7%
• Betawi 2.4%
• Bugis 2.4%
• Banten 2%
• Banjar 1.7%

The country is predominently Muslim (86.1%), with 5.7% Protestant, 3% Roman Catholic, and 1.8% Hindu.

Bahasa Indonesia (a modified form of Malay) is the official language of Indonesia. Other spoken languages include English, Dutch, and other local dialects (such as Javanese).

The flag of Indonesia has two equal horizontal bands of red (top) and white.

This flag is similar to the flag of Monaco, which is shorter.

It is also similar to the flag of Poland, which is white (top) and red.