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Dutch colonists extend their control over the archipelago, creating the Dutch East Indies.
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Japan invades the Dutch East Indies.
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 Indonesia proclaims independence and begins to fight against Dutch colonial rule. The Dutch respond by sending troops into the country, which battle forces led by the nationalist leader Achmed Sukarno for the next four years. Under pressure from the United Nations, a settlement is reached with the Dutch granting full independence to Indonesia.
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 The Dutch officially grant independence to the Republic of Indonesia. Sukarno becomes President.
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 Malaysia is founded by the British without consulting Indonesia. Sukarno sends troops against Malaysia.
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 Sukarno, at a public rally, tells the U.S. Ambassador to "go to hell with your aid."
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 Indonesia withdraws from the United Nations to protest the UN's acceptance of Malaysia.
Sukarno promotes an anti-imperialist alliance with Beijing and other Asian communist regimes.
Six senior Indonesian generals are killed in an anti-Sukarno coup. Questions remain about the true character of the attempted coup -- some see it as an attempt by the Communist Party to seize control of the country, while others suspect the plot was designed by the armed forces to take control of the nation.
 General Suharto takes emergency control of the army and arrests the rebel leaders. He orders the army to organize a total purge of the Communist Party from Indonesia. During the next two years, between 500,000 and three million people accused of Communist sympathies are killed.
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 Suharto assumes emergency powers from Sukarno. During the following months, he ends hostilities with Malaysia, reenters the United Nations, and establishes close ties with the United States.
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 Suharto is unanimously elected President of Indonesia.
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Portugal grants East Timor independence.
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Asian economic crisis begins and quickly spreads to Indonesia. The value of the Indonesian currency plummets by 80 percent, banks and businesses close, and millions of workers lose their jobs. The cost of food and basic necessities skyrockets.
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 Suharto responds to the growing economic and social unrest by cracking down, and on May 12, 1998, four university students are shot dead after a nonviolent protest. Within a week, antigovernment rioting breaks out in Indonesia's six largest cities, and more than a thousand people occupy the legislature in Jakarta, calling for a new government. Under extreme pressure, Suharto resigns from the presidency after 32 years. Vice President B. J. Habibie takes over as President.
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Hundreds of thousands cheer and celebrate in the streets as Suharto delivers his resignation, handing control of the government to his Vice President, B. J. Habibie.
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 Election is held for the People's Consultative Assembly. This is the first free election in Indonesia in 44 years.
 Eighty percent of the population of East Timor votes for independence in a UN-sponsored referendum. Almost immediately, pro-Indonesian militias rampage, killing thousands and devastating major cities.
 Abdurrahman Wahid is elected President by the Assembly. Ethnic violence breaks out in Maluku.
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 Suharto is charged with corruption. Some claim he drained between $500 million and $15 billion from state-run foundations. His lawyers claim that Suharto has suffered two strokes and is unable to testify. His case will be dismissed a year later, when a judge rules that Suharto is too ill to stand trial.
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 Wahid is accused of corruption and incompetence and removed from the presidency.
 Magawati Sukarnoputri becomes President of indonesia.
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 Tommy Suharto, son of former President Suharto, is charged with planning the murder of an Indonesian Supreme Court judge.
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