Nusantara: Difference between revisions

'''Nusantara''', officially the '''Confederation of Nusantara''', is a transcontinental country primarily located in [[Southeast Asia]] between the [[Indian ocean|Indian]] and [[Pacific ocean|Pacific]] oceans. Comprising over [[Islands of Nusantara|17,000 islands]], Nusantara is the world's largest archipelagic state and the [[List of countries and dependencies by area|12th-largest country]] by land area at 2,410,489 square kilometers (930,695 square miles). The [[Nusantaran archipelago]] is made up of five main islands—[[Sumatra]], [[Java]], [[Borneo]], [[Sulawesi]], and [[New Guinea]]—as well as two island chains: the [[Maluku Islands|Moluccas]] and the [[Lesser Sunda Islands|Lesser Sundas]]. The country shares maritime borders with [[Wikipedia:Australia|Australia]], [[Malaya]], the [[Wikipedia:Philippines|Philippines]], and the [[Wikipedia:Solomon Islands|Solomon Islands]]. With a population of 308 million, Nusantara is the [[List of countries and dependencies by population|4th most populous country]].

The region was inhabited since the [[Wikipedia:Pleistocene|Pleistocene]], while modern humans arrived much later around 50,000 years ago, followed by waves of migration of [[Wikipedia:Austronesian peoples|Austronesian peoples]] from [[Wikipedia:Taiwan|Taiwan]] from 4,000 to 2,000 BC. Being at the crossroads of India and China, the region became an important link for global trade which gave rise to prominent thalassocracies such as [[Wikipedia:Srivijaya|Srivijaya]] and [[Wikipedia:Majapahit|Majapahit]], and facilitating the spread of [[Hinduism]], [[Buddhism]], and [[Islam]]. Threatened by encroaching European powers in the region, a [[defensive alliance]] was formed between local monarchies to ward off European aggression. During the [[Wikipedia:Napoleonic wars|Napoleonic wars]], the alliance successfully expelled the European empires in a [[war from 1815 to 1819]]. The [[Treaty of Singapore]] signed the following year formally established Nusantara as a unified federal state.

Decades of controversy regarding the role of religion in government culminated in the Nusantaran Civil War from 1860 to 1865, in which 11 western Mandalas seceded to form the Islamic State of Nusantara, ending in a Confederation victory. Emerging from the war a more centralized state, Nusantara pursued rapid industrialization, modernization, and colonial expansion. The discovery and monopolization of sorcery in 1912, cemented Nusantara's status as a great power. Its rapid adoption reignited Islamist-Nationalist tensions, leading to decades of political violence. By 1967, extreme political polarization gave rise to the Genura party, bringing the nation into World War 2 as an Axis power. Following the pandoric bombings of Jakarta and Palembang in 1975, Nusantara surrendered and came under allied occupation until 1980. The subsequent post-war era saw rapid economic growth, democratic restoration, and the continued development of sorcery.