Culture and history info

Sumatra, Indonesian Sumatera, Indonesian island, the second largest (after Borneo) of the Greater Sunda Islands, in the Malay Archipelago. It is separated in the northeast from the Malay Peninsula by the Strait of Malacca and in the south from Java by the Sunda Strait.

In the 11th century the influence of the Srivijaya empire, based in the southern city of Palembang, reached most of Sumatra as well as other islands and mainland regions. Srivijaya’s capital fell to the Javanese Majapahit empire in 1377, and the kingdom never recovered in Sumatra.

The European powers—first the Portuguese, then the Dutch and English—traded with, warred against, and established forts among the coastal Sumatran principalities beginning in the 16th century. Anglo-Dutch treaties in 1824 and 1871 revoked English claims in Sumatra, and, through economic exploitation and administrative skills, the Dutch slowly opened the interior to their authority throughout the 19th century. The northern region of Aceh was brought only grudgingly under Dutch control in the early 20th century after 30 years of fighting.

During World War II Sumatra was occupied by Japan (1942–45), and in 1950 the island became part of the Republic of Indonesia. Since then Sumatrans have at times expressed dissatisfaction with the central government over financial and political issues, often in the form of insurrections and other regional movements. Notable has been the situation in Aceh, where armed conflict has broken out periodically since 1990 between Acehnese separatists and Indonesian forces.

The island experienced a major natural disaster in late 2004 when the great Indian Ocean tsunami (spawned by a severe earthquake off the coast of Aceh) inundated low-lying areas along the northwest coast and adjacent islands and caused widespread death and destruction.

The high Barisan Mountains run northwest-southeast for some 1,000 miles (1,600 km), reaching an elevation of 12,467 feet (3,800 metres) at Mount Kerinci. Eastward, flat alluvial lands are drained by many rivers; the Hari River, navigable for 300 miles (480 km), is the longest. Lake Toba, with an area of about 440 square miles (1,140 square km), is the largest of many mountain lakes.