The former Stadhuis of Batavia, the seat of Governor General of VOC. The building now serves as Jakarta History Museum, Jakarta Old Town area.

Dutch Batavia in the 17th Century, built in what is now North Jakarta

The Jakarta area was part of the fourth century Indianized kingdom of Tarumanagara. In AD 39, King Purnawarman established Sunda Pura as a new capital city for the kingdom, located at the northern coast of Java.^[3] Purnawarman left seven memorial stones across the area with inscriptions bearing his name, including the present-day Banten and West Java provinces.^[4] After the power of Tarumanagara declined, its territories, including Sunda Pura, became part of the Kingdom of Sunda. The harbour area was renamed Sunda Kalapa as written in a Hindu monk’s lontar manuscripts.^[5] By the fourteenth century, Sunda Kelapa became a major trading port for the kingdom. The first European fleet, four Portuguese ships from Malacca, arrived in 1513 when the Portuguese were looking for a route for spices, especially black pepper.^[6]

The Kingdom of Sunda made a peace agreement with Portugal by allowing the Portuguese to build a port in 1522 in order to defend against the rising power of the Sultanate of Demak from central Java.^[7] In 1527, Fatahillah, a Sumatran Malay warrior from Demak attacked Kingdom of Sunda and succeeded in conquering the harbour on June 22, 1527, after which Sunda Kelapa was renamed Jayakarta.^[7]

The Castle of Batavia, seen from West Kali Besar by Andries Beeckman circa 1656-58

Through the relationship with Prince Jayawikarta from the Sultanate of Banten, Dutch ships arrived in Jayakarta in 1596. In 1602, the British East India Company’s first voyage, commanded by Sir James Lancaster, arrived in Aceh and sailed on to Banten where they were allowed to build a trading post. This site became the center of British trade in Indonesia until 1682.^[8]

Jayawikarta is thought to have made trading connections with the English merchants, rivals of the Dutch, by allowing them to build houses directly across from the Dutch buildings in 1615.^[9] When relations between Prince Jayawikarta and the Dutch deteriorated, Jayawikarta’s soldiers attacked the Dutch fortress. Prince Jayakarta’s army and the British were defeated by the Dutch, in part owing to the timely arrival of Jan Pieterszoon Coen (J.P. Coen). The Dutch burned the English fort, and forced the English to retreat on their ships. The victory consolidated Dutch power and in 1619 they renamed the city “Batavia.”

Batavia c.1870

Commercial opportunities in the capital of the Dutch colony attracted Indonesian and especially Chinese immigrants, the increasing numbers creating burdens on the city. Tensions grew as the colonial government tried to restrict Chinese migration through deportations. On 9 October 1740, 5,000 Chinese were massacred and the following year, Chinese inhabitants were moved to Glodok outside the city walls.^[10] The city began to move further south as epidemics in 1835 and 1870 encouraged more people to move far south of the port. The Koningsplein, now Merdeka Square was completed in 1818, the housing park of Menteng was started in 1913,^[11] and Kebayoran Baru was the last Dutch-built residential area.^[10] By 1930 Batavia had more than 500,000 inhabitants,^[12] including 37,067 Europeans.^[13]

The Japanese renamed the city “Jakarta” during their World War II occupation of Indonesia. Following World War II, Indonesian Republicans withdrew from allied-occupied Jakarta during their fight for Indonesian independence and established their capital in Yogyakarta. In 1950, once independence was secured, Jakarta was once again made the national capital.^[10] Indonesia’s founding president, Sukarno, envisaged Jakarta as a great international city. He instigated large government-funded projects undertaken with openly nationalistic and modernist architecture.^[14][15] Projects in Jakarta included a clover-leaf highway, a major boulevard (Jalan MH Thamrin-Sudirman), monuments such as The National Monument, major hotels, shopping centre, and a new parliament building.

In October 1965, Jakarta was the site of an abortive coup attempt which saw 6 top generals killed, and ultimately resulted in the downfall of Sukarno and the start of Suharto’s “New Order. A propaganda monument stands at the place where the general’s bodies were dumped. In 1966, Jakarta was declared a “special capital city district” (daerah khusus ibukota), thus gaining a status approximately equivalent to that of a state or province.^[16] Lieutenant General Ali Sadikin served as Governor from the mid-60’s commencement of the “New Order” through to 1977; he rehabilitated roads and bridges, encouraged the arts, built several hospitals, and a large number of new schools. He also cleared out slum dwellers for new development projects—some for the benefit of the Suharto family^[17][18]—and tried to eliminate rickshaws and ban street vendors. He began control of migration to the city in order to stem the overcrowding and poverty.^[19] Foreign investment contributed to a real estate boom which changed the face of the city.^[20]

The boom ended with the 1997/98 East Asian Economic crisis putting Jakarta at the center of violence, protest, and political maneuvering. Long-time president, Suharto, began to lose his grip on power. Tensions reached a peak in the Jakarta riots of May 1998, when four students were shot dead at Trisakti University by security forces; four days of riots and violence ensued that killed an estimated 1,200, and destroyed or damaged 6,000 buildings.^[21] The Jakarta riots targeted Chinese Indonesians.^[22] Suharto resigned as president, and Jakarta has remained the focal point of democratic change in Indonesia.^[23] Jemaah Islamiah-connected bombings have occurred in the city since 2000 on an almost annual basis,^[10] although the 2009 bombing of two international hotels was the first since 2005.^[24]

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