Dutch colonialists were the masters of Indonesia until 1949
1670-1900 - Dutch colonists bring the whole of Indonesia under one government as the Dutch East Indies.
1928 - A youth conference pledges to work for "one nation, one language, one people" for Indonesia.
1942 - Japan invades Dutch East Indies.
1945 - The Japanese help independence leader Sukarno return from internal exile and declare independence.
1949 - The Dutch recognise Indonesian independence after four years of guerrilla warfare.
1950s - Maluku (Moluccas) declares independence from Indonesia and fights an unsuccessful separatist war
1962 - Western New Guinea, or West Papua,
held by the Netherlands, is placed under UN administration and
subsequently occupied by Indonesian forces. Opposition to Indonesian
rule erupts.
Sukarno: Indonesia's founding father
Suharto comes to power
1965 - Failed coup: In the aftermath,
hundreds of thousands of suspected Communists are killed in a purge of
leftists which descends into vigilantism.
1966 - Sukarno hands over emergency powers to General Suharto, who becomes president in March 1967.
1969 - West Papua formally incorporated into Indonesia, becoming Irian Jaya Province.
1975 - Portugal grants East Timor independence.
1976 - Indonesia invades East Timor and incorporates it as a province.
1997 - Asian economic crisis: Indonesian rupiah plummets in value.
1998 - Protests and rioting topple Suharto; B J Habibie becomes president.
East Timor independence vote
1999 - Ethnic violence breaks out in Maluku. Free elections are held in Indonesia.
East Timor votes for independence in UN-sponsored referendum,
after which anti-independence militia go on the rampage. East Timor
comes under UN administration. Abdurrahman Wahid (Gus Dur) becomes
president.
Continue reading the main story
15,000 died in 30-year separatist conflict
2000 - Two
financial scandals dog the Wahid administration: Buloggate (embezzled
funds from the state logistics agency), and Bruneigate (missing
humanitarian aid funds from the Sultan of Brunei). The corruption case
against former President Suharto collapses.
Irian Jaya separatists become more vocal in demanding a referendum.
2001 - Ethnic violence in Kalimantan as
indigenous Dayaks force out Madurese transmigrants. Mass political
demonstrations by Wahid's supporters and opponents. IMF stops further
loans citing lack of progress in tackling corruption.
Megawati sworn in
2001 July - Parliament dismisses President
Wahid over allegations of corruption and incompetence. Vice President
Megawati Sukarnoputri is sworn in as his replacement, even as Wahid
refuses to leave the presidential palace.
Continue reading the main story
Papua is a former Dutch colony placed under UN administration
in 1962. Indonesia unilaterally annexed it, but faces a pro-independence
insurgency.
2002 January -
Indonesia inaugurates human rights court which is expected to test
government's willingness to hold the military accountable for atrocities
in East Timor after the 1999 independence vote.
Irian Jaya province granted greater autonomy by Jakarta, allowed to adopt locally-preferred name of Papua.
2002 May - East Timor becomes independent.
2002 August - Constitutional changes are
seen as a step towards democracy. For the first time, voters will be
able to elect a president and vice president.
Bali attacks
2002 October - Bomb attack on the Kuta Beach nightclub district on Bali kills 202 people, most of them tourists.
Muslim Cleric Abu Bakar Ba'asyir is arrested shortly after
the bombings. He is accused of plotting to overthrow the government as
the alleged spiritual leader of Jemaah Islamiah (JI), the group thought
to be behind the Bali bombing.
Continue reading the main story
More than 200 people died in the 2002 Bali nightclub bombing
2002 December -
Government and separatist Free Aceh Movement (Gam) sign peace deal in
Geneva, aimed at ending 26 years of violence. The accord provides for
autonomy and free elections in the Muslim oil-rich province of Aceh; in
return the Gam must disarm.
2003 May - Peace talks between government
and Gam separatists break down; government mounts military offensive
against Gam rebels. Martial law is imposed.
2003 August - Car bomb explodes outside the Marriott Hotel in Jakarta, killing 14 people.
2003 August-October - Three Bali bombing
suspects are found guilty and sentenced to death for their roles in the
2002 attacks. A fourth suspect is given life imprisonment.
Abu Bakar Ba'asyir is cleared of treason but jailed for
subversion and immigration offences. The subversion charge is later
overturned.
2004 April - Parliamentary and local
elections: Golkar party of former President Suharto wins greatest share
of vote, with Megawati Sukarnoputri's PDI-P coming second.
2004 July - First-ever direct presidential
elections; first round narrows field to Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and
incumbent Megawati Sukarnoputri.
2004 September - Car bomb attack outside Australian embassy in Jakarta kills nine, injures more than 180.
Continue reading the main story
Giant waves left more than 220,000 dead, missing in 2004
Former general Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono wins second round of presidential elections, unseating incumbent Megawati Sukarnoputri.
2004 November - End of two-year process
under which 18 people were tried by Indonesian court for human rights
abuses in East Timor during 1999 crisis. Only one conviction - that of
militia leader Eurico Guterres - is left standing.
Tsunami; Aceh deal
2004 December - More than 220,000 people are
dead or missing in Indonesia alone after a powerful undersea earthquake
off Sumatra generates massive tidal waves. The waves devastate Indian
Ocean communities as far afield as Thailand, India, Sri Lanka and
Somalia.
2005 March - Court finds Muslim cleric Abu
Bakar Ba'asyir guilty of conspiracy over 2002 Bali bombings, sentences
him to two-and-a-half years in jail. He is freed in June 2006.
A powerful earthquake off Sumatra kills at least 1,000
people, many of them on the island of Nias. The quake triggers tsunami
alerts around the Indian Ocean.
Continue reading the main story
A year on, Tsunami survivors rebuild
2005 August -
Government and Free Aceh Movement separatists sign a peace deal
providing for rebel disarmament and the withdrawal of government
soldiers from the province. Rebels begin handing in weapons in
September; government completes troop pull-out in December.
2005 September - Airliner crashes on
take-off from Sumatran city of Medan, killing more than 100 passengers
and around 50 people on the ground.
2005 October - Three suicide bombings on the resort island of Bali kill 23 people, including the bombers
2006 January - East Timorese report accuses
Indonesia of widespread atrocities during its 24-year occupation,
holding it responsible for the deaths of more than 100,000 people.
2006 February-March - Deadly protests at a
major US-owned gold and copper mine in Papua province follow attempts to
remove illegal prospectors from the site.
2006 May - A powerful earthquake kills thousands of people on Java.
2006 July - A tsunami, triggered by a large undersea earthquake, kills more than 500 people on Java.
Aceh elections
2006 December - First direct elections held
in Aceh province, consolidating the August 2005 peace accord. Former
separatist rebel leader Irwandi Yusuf elected governor.
Aceh's special autonomy status allows the partial practice of Islamic laws
2007 June - Police capture the alleged head of
the militant group Jemaah Islamiah (JI), Zarkasih, and the leader of
the group's military wing, Abu Dujana.
2007 December - Alleged JI leader Zarkasih goes on trial in Jakarta.
2008 January - Former President Suharto dies.
2008 July - Final report by joint
Indonesian-East Timorese Truth Commission blames Indonesia for the human
rights violations in the run-up to East Timor's independence in 1999
and urges it to apologise. President Yudhoyono expresses "deep regret"
but stops short of an apology.
2008 November - Three Islamic militants convicted of carrying out the 2002 Bali bombings are executed.
2009 July - President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono wins re-election.
Twin suicide bomb attacks on the JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels in Jakarta kill nine people and injure scores of others.
Pressure mounts on militants
2009 September - Police shoot dead
Indonesia's most-wanted Islamist militant Noordin Mohammad Top, thought
to be responsible for a series of deadly attacks across the archipelago.
Former President Suharto died in 2008. He led Indonesia for 32 years until 1998
2010 February-March - Several suspected
militants are arrested in series of raids on alleged training camps of
groups thought to be linked to Jemaah Islamiah (JI) in Aceh province.
Fourteen men are charged with plotting to launch terrorist attacks.
2010 March - Police shoot dead Dulmatin - an
alleged leading member of JI and the last main suspect in the 2002 Bali
bombings still at large - during a raid on a Jakarta internet cafe.
2010 October - Indonesia admits that men seen torturing Papuan villagers in a video are members of the military.
President Yudhoyono calls off a state visit to the Netherlands because of a threatened bid by separatists to have him arrested.
2010 November - US President Barack Obama
visits, hailing Indonesia as an example of how a developing nation can
embrace democracy and diversity.
2011 February - Two churches are set alight in central Java during a protest by hundreds of Muslims about blasphemy.
Buddhist temple of Borobudur - Indonesia's most visited tourist attraction
Three members of the Ahmadiyah sect, a minority Muslim group, are bludgeoned to death in a mob attack in West Java.
2011 June - Radical cleric Abu Bakar Ba'asyir gets 15-year jail sentence for backing an Islamist militant training camp.
2011 December - Pay deal ends acrimonious
three-month strike by 8,000 workers at copper and gold mine owned by US
company Freeport-McMoran in the restive eastern province of Papua.
Dutch government apologises for massacre of at least 150
people in the village of Rawagede, on the island of Java, in 1947,
during Indonesia's war of independence.
2012 March - Court sentences Islamist
militant Pepi Fernando to 18 years in prison for a parcel-bombing
campaign targeting Muslim leaders and police.
2012 June - Jakarta court sentences
bombmaker Umar Patek to 20 years in prison for his role in the 2002 Bali
attacks. He was extradited from Pakistan in 2011. The sentencing brings
to an end the 10-year investigation into the bombings.
2013 February - Eight soldiers are shot dead in two separate attacks by armed men in Papua province.
2013 June - Parliament approves a major petrol and diesel price hike to cut the ballooning fuel subsidy, sparking violent protests.
2013 September - Via its ambassador in
Jakarta, the Netherlands publicly apologises for summary executions
carried out by the Dutch army in the 1940s.
.jpg)
