Sunda Islands

The Sunda Islands are a group of islands to the west of the Malay Archipelago. They are divided into two groups:

• Major Islands of the Probe:
  • Borneo;
  • Java;
  • Clebes;
  • Sumatra.
• Minor Islands of the Probe:
  • Bali;
  • Lombok;
  • Sumbawa;
  • Sumba;
  • Komodo;
  • Rinca;
  • Flowers;
  • Solor archipelago;
  • Timor;
  • Barat Daya Islands;
  • Tanimbar Islands;
  • Alor archipelago.

The territory is currently divided between Brunei, East Timor, Indonesia and Malaysia. Borneo, Sumatra, Java and Bali belong to the Indo-Malay ecoregion and the rest of the islands to Wallacea.

Geography

The Sunda Islands are part of the Malay Archipelago, which in the Ice Age, about 100 meters below water level, partially connected mountain ranges and formed a land bridge to the back of India, Sundaland.

The Sunda Islands are divided into very different Greater and Lesser Sunda Islands in an east-west direction. The Greater Sunda Islands consist of Sumatra to the west, facing the Malay Peninsula, bordering Java to the southeast, the main island of Indonesia, the world's third largest island Borneo (Kalimantan) to the north, and Sulawesi (formerly Celebes) to the east..

The Lesser Sunda Islands join the Greater Sunda Islands east of Java. Its main islands are Bali Lombok Sumbawa Flores and Timor. In between there are many other small islands.

All of the large Sunda Islands and most of the smaller ones are surrounded by a ring of even smaller to smaller islands. Sumatra, Java and the Lesser Sunda Islands together form the Sunda Arc.

Politically, most of the Sunda Islands belong to Indonesia. Most of northern Borneo belongs to Malaysia, with a small part forming the state of Brunei. Half of Timor forms the independent state of East Timor, which also includes two small islands.

The following seas, which are up to 600 km wide, lie in a ring around Borneo and Sulawesi between the islands: northwest of Borneo lies the South China Sea, to the south lies the Java Sea This is the Celebes Sea. To the east of Sulawesi are the Moluccan Sea and the Banda Sea. Other seas in the region are the Flores Sea, the Sawu Sea and to the south the Timor Sea.

Major Islands

Borneo (Malay: Pulau Borneo, Indonesian: Kalimantan) is the third largest island in the world and is located in Southeast Asia. It is located in the center of Insulindia. Administratively, the island is divided between Brunei, Malaysia and Indonesia. Indonesians refer to the island in the Indonesian language as Kalimantan. However, for people outside of Indonesia, Kalimantan is the area that Indonesia occupies on the island of Borneo. The Malaysian region in Borneo is called East Malaysia or Malaysian Borneo. The independent nation of Brunei occupies the rest of the island. Brunei is the richest nation on the island. Borneo is divided into several regions:

• The Kalimantan region of Indonesia.
• The states of Sabah (North Bank) and Sarawak, belonging to Malaysia.
• The independent sultanato of Brunéi.

Java (Indonesian: Jawa; Javanese: ꦗꦮ; Sundanese: ᮏᮝ) is an island in Indonesia. It has an approximate area of 132,000 km² and a population of 150 million inhabitants, making it the most populated island in the world, ahead of Honshū, in Japan. It concentrates the largest and most important cities of said country, including Jakarta, its capital.

If it were a country, it would occupy ninth place in the ranking of the most populated countries in the world, ahead of Russia and Mexico, and it would be the second in the world by density (1098 inhabitants/km²).

History

The region was characterized from the beginning by trade with India and China. Hinduism, Buddhism and Islam spread along trade routes. Several kingdoms such as Srivijaya and Majapahit emerged. At the beginning of the 16th century, the Portuguese were the first Europeans to arrive in the region, establishing their own trading posts and conquering cities. They were followed by the Spanish, English and Dutch. Most of the Sunda Islands became part of the Dutch East Indies, what are now territories of Malaysia and Brunei became British dominion, and the Portuguese were able to retain the Portuguese colony of Timor in 1975. Therefore, Much of the population is Christian, especially in the eastern part of the islands.

During the Pacific War, the Sunda Islands were occupied by the Japanese until 1945. After the war, decolonization began.