Java has a bigger inhabitants than Russia.
And this isn’t only a story of “there are many individuals in Asia”. Java has an even bigger inhabitants than Japan! Even by Asian requirements, Java is simply extraordinarily densely populated.
Java’s inhabitants density is 1,100 individuals per sq. km.
That is 3x the density of Japan or the Philippines, 7x that of China, 30x that of the US. It’s almost the density of Houston, Texas. For a complete island! With volcanoes!
Even weirder: Its neighboring islands in Indonesia aren’t that densely populated.
In comparison with its massive neighboring islands, it’s 8x extra densely populated than Sumatra and 30x greater than Borneo
!
Why!? What made this island so particular?
Is it as a result of it has superb flatlands? No!
Java is stuffed with volcanoes!
And Sumatra, Borneo, and West Papua all have a lot bigger flat plains!
So mainly 55% of Indonesians are crowded in a small volcanic island.
If you zoom in, you’ll be able to see that the Javanese dwell all over the place however on the volcanoes!
Examine with Sumatra. Barely any mild as compared.
Sumatra has flat terrain and rivers, whereas Java has volcanoes, and but Java is the one island bursting with individuals. Why?
You’d think about there are articles written on the subject available on the Web
. That’s what I believed early on. However all of the solutions have been superficial, none of them have been detailed, and most appeared fishy. Listed below are the extra widespread explanations:
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“Java has many volcanoes and… one thing one thing fertile land. Extra meals, extra individuals.”
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“Java’s location is strategically good, and that gave it a giant benefit traditionally.”
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“The Dutch… one thing one thing colonial interval.”
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“Indonesians migrated en masse from different islands to Java.”
And some extra.
So which one is it?
Indonesia has a LOT of volcanoes.
It is because Indonesia belongs to the Ring of Hearth, the area across the Pacific Ocean that has a lot of tectonic exercise that causes volcanoes and earthquakes from New Zealand to Japan, Mexico to Chile.
So this could be the story:
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There’s a lot of individuals across the ring of fireside: Indonesia, the Philippines, Japan, Mexico…
This is smart in principle, however I’ve at all times had questions on this.
First, you’ll be able to have fertile terrain, however it’s not like lava is consistently renewing the land. These volcanoes are energetic, however they’re not masking the soil each few years with a brand new layer of lava. They erupt each few tons of, 1000’s, or hundreds of thousands of years, and once they do, they don’t cowl the areas the place they’re. Wouldn’t intensive agriculture exhaust them, the way in which farmers should fallow floor after some harvests to let it construct up its vitamins once more?
Extra importantly, if this volcano factor have been true, shouldn’t all of the volcanic areas be fertile and maintain a giant inhabitants? We’ve seen this isn’t true: Sure, Java, the Philippines, and Japan have loads of volcanoes and massive populations. However the Indonesian islands of Sumatra and the north of Sulawesi even have plenty of volcanoes, and have smaller populations. Similar for Papua New Guinea and New Zealand. Let’s overlap the inhabitants density map we had earlier than with the volcanoes map:
What you see is that the volcano principle in all probability has one thing to it, however it may possibly’t be all the story. There are too many locations the place it doesn’t match!
Possibly the people have had a huge impact too?
Is Java on a key buying and selling route?
Not in comparison with the way more vital Sumatra, which sits on one of the vital vital transport routes on the planet, the Strait of Malacca.
Singapore sits on the pointy southern finish of Malaysia, and sees all of the site visitors passing there, whereas the island of Sumatra, on the Indonesian aspect, sees little or no of it.
So commerce has not translated into a giant inhabitants. Is there a historic purpose why Java is so populous? You’d think about that it has an extended historical past of civilization than different lands within the area to justify this large inhabitants, however that’s not the case.
The Srivijaya Empire was the primary to pop up, primarily based in Sumatra, not Java.
However their heart of energy was on Sumatra, not Java.
The Srivijaya would later unfold to different islands, together with Java across the 12 months 1000.
Over time, Java would develop in significance. The Javanese Singhasari emerged from there and expanded all the way in which to the Asian Continent.
They’d later be succeeded by the Majapahit round 1300.
No native empires appeared after that. Native kingdoms would battle one another for hegemony, with an growing presence of Muslim kingdoms on the coasts, by way of the affect of commerce.
Whereas Muslim affect grew on the west of the archipelago, European affect began growing within the east. By the mid-1500s, the Portuguese popped in, however as a small nation targeted on spices, it didn’t attempt to conquer way more than what was obligatory to maximise commerce. Spices have been extra widespread within the smaller islands in the course of Indonesia, known as the Moluccas, now Maluku islands (between Sulawesi, Timor, and New Guinea).
As different European nations realized about Portugal’s spices, they acquired into the enterprise too. At the moment, the native kingdoms have been too robust for a set of buying and selling ships coming from far-flung European nations to be simply subdued.
Over the next many years, the Netherlands would slowly conquer the entire area, preventing with native kingdoms, and on the European aspect first with the Portuguese, after which with the British.
Till it gained its independence within the wake of World Warfare II.
So Java shouldn’t be on crucial commerce route of the neighborhood, and it acquired settled late. It didn’t have probably the most useful spices. The place of the island shouldn’t be way more strategically related than that of Sumatra, Borneo, or Sulawesi. This lack of uniquely useful strategic place continues to be true right this moment, which is why the government recently decided to move the capital to Borneo. It will probably’t be due to some strategic place or historic purpose from historical instances. What about migrations? Was there a coverage sooner or later to push individuals into Java? No, the other.
For the reason that early 1800s, there have been insurance policies to resettle Javanese individuals on different islands. They have been began by the Dutch authorities, however proceed to at the present time.
About 25% of Sumatra’s inhabitants settled there because of this coverage
! Immigrants from Java additionally account for 16% of Kalimantan’s inhabitants (reminder: that is the Indonesian aspect of the Borneo island).
Migrations didn’t push Java to be populous. If something, they’d the other impact. Possibly we will discover different explanations by comparative inhabitants growths.
Earlier than 1800, Indonesia’s inhabitants was smaller than these of nations like France, Germany, or Japan, and about the identical as within the UK. Its progress then accelerated dramatically and handed them. Out of the pattern on the graph above, solely the US was smaller than Indonesia and have become larger—primarily resulting from European immigration. So did Indonesia develop uniquely quick beginning within the 1800? Not likely.
The populations of neighbors like Malaysia, Thailand, or the Philippines have grown a lot quicker than Indonesia’s since 1800. Primarily based on these two graphs, we will conclude that:
Is that this additionally true of all of Indonesia’s islands? No!
Java was already populous in 1800, and solely grew extra so throughout that century, growing its share of the Indonesian inhabitants. Because of this Java was rising quicker than the entire of Indonesia, so it was in all probability rising as quick as different fast-growing Southeast Asian nations.
Because of this Java was extra populous than different Indonesian islands earlier than 1800, and saved rising quicker than them after 1800, reaching 80% of all of the Indonesian inhabitants on the finish of the 1900s. Regardless of transmigration, Java’s inhabitants saved rising. No matter precipitated Java to be populous is a power that was true earlier than 1800 and has saved going to at the present time
Our greatest conundrum continues to be intact: Why is Java a lot extra populous than Sumatra?
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It will probably’t solely be the volcanoes: Each islands have roughly the identical quantity.
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It will probably’t be for historic causes: Sumatra is healthier positioned for world commerce, and has an extended historical past. Java’s strategic place shouldn’t be significantly better inside Indonesia, in comparison with Sumatra, Sulawesi, Borneo, or different smaller islands.
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It will probably’t be migration, as a result of if something, individuals have been pushed out of Java and into Sumatra.
If Java has one thing occurring for it, it should be such a robust power that it overpowers all the pieces else. Since persons are produced by meals, let’s return to that: What might trigger Java’s meals manufacturing to be a lot increased than Sumatra’s?
The one approach you’ll be able to maintain so many individuals in such a small space and towards historical past is when you’ve got some large benefit to provide meals regionally. Certainly, Java is a meals manufacturing machine. A lot of the island is both volcanoes, cities, or farmland.
It’s principally rice, which is sweet, as a result of rice is likely one of the most calorie-intensive staples there may be, along with corn. And since rice wants many individuals to reap it, it is smart to have many kids per family, since they are often fed and assist in the harvest.
What’s the manufacturing in different elements of Indonesia?
Ah.
There’s a heavy overlap between rice-producing areas and inhabitants densities throughout islands, and it doesn’t appear to be volcanoes are the one factor occurring right here.
Java produces 75% of Indonesia’s rice (for 57% of the inhabitants). Sumatra solely produces 15%, and Sulawesi 10%
. Why is there no extra rice in Sumatra? It should be linked to the fertility of the fields, proper?
My expertise in agriculture is near zero. Undeterred, I spent an inordinate period of time maps of soil fertility in Indonesia, so that you don’t should. I then in contrast the fertility of various soils, which was fairly arduous since I couldn’t discover available knowledge. So I requested ChatGPT to present me a hand. The outcomes match the instinct, however given my shallow expertise, my confidence on the part beneath is medium-low.
Relying on the map of Indonesian soils you look at, you get totally different phrases for the soil. However their fertility is constant throughout maps:
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In Java, almost all of the soil could be very fertile. A very good chunk of it’s andosols, which comes from the volcanoes, which suggests it’s younger soil that hasn’t misplaced its vitamins by way of hundreds of thousands of years of leaching. Meaning it may possibly help a lot of crops for a very long time. It additionally has luvisols and nitosols, each of that are fertile
.
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In the meantime, soil in Borneo is usually acrisol
, which isn’t fertile in any respect. It corresponds to the pink areas. You additionally discover oxisols, equally not fertile.
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In Sumatra, you discover quite a lot of acrisols too in pink. There are additionally oxisols, not fertile in any respect. The purple half is dystric histosols, which is consistently moist and filled with peat, and never fertile in any respect both. Curiously, the principle metropolis of Medan is positioned on andosols. Outdoors of Medan, the best inhabitants density on the island can typically be discovered close to the volcanic space, on the west coast.
What we’re discovering is that, certainly, the volcanic soil is among the many greatest on the planet for agriculture. What I didn’t understand early when researching this early on is that it’s so good that it may possibly maintain over a century of excessive agricultural manufacturing, feeding actually over 100 million individuals now, and stay fertile. Not solely that, but additionally it’s not simply lava that makes it productive. Ash does that too. And since there’s quite a lot of ash falling on Java on a regular basis, possibly this helps keep the fertility.
In Sumatra, the volcanic areas are additionally andosols, and in addition moderately fertile, with a large inhabitants. However Sumatra has quite a lot of land that isn’t fertile in any respect—these acrisols, utisols, and oxisols. Why?
First, let’s perceive the volcano half.
There are many tectonic plates pushing towards one another within the area.
In Java and Sumatra, the oceanic plate is subduing beneath the islands, creating volcanoes and earthquakes, but additionally mountains.
In Java, almost all mountains are volcanoes, however not in Sumatra. However mountains are inferior to volcanoes for soil fertility, so the Sumatran mountain vary shouldn’t be as fertile because the Javanese volcanoes.
Extra importantly, the remainder of the Sumatra island shouldn’t be volcanic! And neither is Borneo. Each are in the course of the tectonic plate. Borneo doesn’t have active volcanoes. Its mountain vary was fashioned tons of of hundreds of thousands of years in the past, which suggests the soil has been eroded and leached of vitamins for a very long time.
And Sumatra and Borneo are each on the equator, which creates a really particular kind of atmosphere. A number of solar is sweet for vegetation. The warmth additionally creates evaporation, which then interprets into rain. Numerous it. It might leach the soil of its vitamins if it weren’t for the truth that vegetation and timber develop so quick. So what occurs is that vegetation develop, die, and earlier than they will convert into soil, their vitamins are consumed by different vegetation, or washed away. In any case, no vitamins are mounted on the land, and consequently it’s fairly poor for agriculture. It really works for plantations which are primarily based on timber—and this is the reason Borneo and Sumatra collectively produce greater than half of all of the palm oil on the planet: Bushes can develop there and keep away from erosion, however you’ll be able to’t harvest full vegetation.
And the waters are shallow between Java, Sumatra, and Borneo, which signifies that in lowland areas, water simply by no means leaves, and even comes from the ocean. This occurs within the jap a part of Sumatra, which makes it inconceivable for crops to be grown except the areas are drained.
Enjoyable reality: The land between these islands is so flat that just some tens of 1000’s of years in the past, as Homo Sapiens have been spreading all over the world, Java, Borneo, and Sumatra have been all a part of the identical landmass, Sundaland.
So this is the reason Java is likely one of the most densely populated locations on the planet, whereas neighboring Sumatra and Borneo have a lot smaller populations:
Java and Sumatra are on the border of a tectonic plate. This implies quite a lot of volcanoes.
Java
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However Java has extra volcanoes and fewer different sorts of mountains. This implies a lot of very fertile land that may maintain quite a lot of agriculture for a protracted time frame.
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The Javanese develop a lot of rice with that fertile land, which feeds its big inhabitants.
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The Javenese additionally want massive households to are likely to the rice fields, so natality has at all times been inspired. Fertility of land have bred fertility of people.
Sumatra
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Sumatra has an honest quantity of volcanoes, which have produced its most fertile soils that help its inhabitants.
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However Sumatra additionally has many extra mountains that aren’t volcanoes, whereas Java is almost completely volcanoes. These mountains haven’t generated fertile land round them.
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And the remainder of the land shouldn’t be fertile in any respect.
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A part of the shortage of fertility is as a result of it was fashioned tons of of hundreds of thousands of years in the past, and its vitamins have leached since, with out being very replenished by its volcanoes, that are much less energetic.
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A part of it’s as a result of it lies squarely on the equator, which suggests it has a large quantity of rain that constantly leaches any remaining vitamins, a course of that agriculture solely accelerates.
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A part of it’s as a result of its lowlands are drowned in water.
Borneo
In the meantime, the island of Borneo has all the issues of Sumatra and none of its property:
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It was fashioned tons of of hundreds of thousands of years in the past.
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It has a giant, outdated mountain vary within the center with no volcanoes.
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Equatorial rains leach its soil.
In consequence, it doesn’t enable for a lot agriculture on its land, aside from some tropical plantations
.
