Sunni traders and Sufi scholars brought Islam, while Europeans introduced Christianity through colonisation. Local rulers gradually absorbed foreign influences from the early centuries and Hindu and Buddhist kingdoms flourished. The Indonesian archipelago has been a valuable region for trade since at least the 7th century when Srivijaya and then later Majapahit traded with entities from mainland China and the Indian subcontinent. China, the United States, Japan, Singapore, and India are Indonesia's major trading partners. The country has abundant natural resources like oil and natural gas, coal, tin, copper, gold, and nickel, while agriculture mainly produces rice, palm oil, tea, coffee, cacao, medicinal plants, spices, and rubber. Despite its large population and densely populated regions, Indonesia has vast areas of wilderness that support a high level of biodiversity. Other neighbouring countries include Singapore, Vietnam, the Philippines, Australia, Palau, and India's Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The country shares land borders with Papua New Guinea, East Timor, and the eastern part of Malaysia. It has 34 provinces, of which five have special status.

The sovereign state is a presidential, constitutional republic with an elected legislature. The country's capital, Jakarta, is the second-most populous urban area in the world. Java, the world's most populous island, is home to more than half of the country's population. With over 267 million people, it is the world's 4th most populous country as well as the most populous Muslim-majority country. It is the world's largest island country, with more than seventeen thousand islands, and at 1,904,569 square kilometres (735,358 square miles), the 14th largest by land area and 7th in the combined sea and land area. Indonesia ( i / ˌ ɪ n d ə ˈ n iː ʒ ə / IN-də- NEE-zhə), officially the Republic of Indonesia ( Indonesian: Republik Indonesia Template:IPA-id), is a transcontinental country located mainly in Southeast Asia, between the Indian and Pacific oceans, with the island of Western New Guinea being located in Oceania.

Carita babad sunda singkat