Jakarta

• 1. The Sinking Capital

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  Greater Jakarta holds more than 40 million people, making it the most populous urban area in the world. Yet the ground beneath it is dropping. Land subsidence along the northern coast keeps raising the flood risk, and parts of the city already sit below sea level. This combination of crowding and sinking has pushed Indonesia toward a decision few capitals ever face. The national government is relocating the country's future capital to Nusantara in East Kalimantan. How did a single port on the northwestern coast of Java grow into one of the largest urban economies of its region, and why is it now preparing to hand off the title it has held since 1945? The settlement here has carried at least four names. It was a Sunda harbour, then a captured prize, then a Dutch fortress, then the seat of a new republic. Each name marks a different power that wanted this stretch of coast at the mouth of the Ciliwung River. The story runs through massacres and canals, through a president's monuments and a financial crisis that toppled a government. It also runs through soto betawi, through textile alleys, and through a skyline of towers that rose only in the late 20th century.

• 2. Four Names, One Harbour

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  Kalapa was the harbour's name under the Sunda Kingdom, one of its principal ports on the north coast of western Java. Early Portuguese accounts called it Calapa. The Suma Oriental described it as the most important of Sunda's ports, with trade arriving from Sumatra, Java, and other places. The Chinese work Chu-fan-chi referred to western Java as Sin-t'o and noted its harbour and pepper. The name Jayakarta is traditionally traced to 1527, when Demak-backed forces under Fatahillah captured the port. The reported renaming is not confirmed by surviving historical records. The name has been glossed as victory or victorious deed. Early European sources recorded related forms including Iacarta, Xacatra, and Jacatra. Batavia came next, after the Dutch East India Company took control in 1619 and rebuilt the settlement. The name referred to the Batavi, whom the Dutch regarded as their ancestors. It stayed in use until 1942, when Japanese occupation authorities renamed the city. After Indonesian independence, Jakarta became the city's formal name. The oldest written trace of the area is older still. A mid-5th-century inscription found in present-day North Jakarta, the Tugu inscription, records river works ordered by King Purnawarman of Tarumanagara and mentions the Candrabhaga and Gomati rivers.

• 3. The Walled Canal City

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  Jan Pieterszoon Coen returned with reinforcements in May 1619, overran Jayakarta, and destroyed it. The Dutch East India Company rebuilt the ruins as a fortified city, Batavia, and made it the company's headquarters in Asia. The new town was laid out as a walled canal city on low coastal land at the mouth of the Ciliwung. Its canals carried transport, drainage, and water management, but poor flow, sedimentation, and coastal silting turned flooding and sanitation into recurring problems. By the 18th century, the old town had a reputation for disease and decay. Chinese residents played a large role in Batavia's commerce, agriculture, crafts, and construction, living both inside and outside the walled city. In 1740, conflict between company authorities and the Chinese community ended in a massacre. Survivors were barred from living inside the city walls. In 1741, the company designated a Chinese settlement at Diestpoort, south of Batavia, in the area later known as Glodok. Health concerns and the decline of the old town pushed development southward in the 19th century. Weltevreden, today's Central Jakarta, became an inland district of government buildings, spacious houses, and gardens. Later expansion added Menteng and absorbed Meester Cornelis. Dutch colonial rule ended in March 1942, when Japanese forces captured the city.

• 4. Capital Of A Republic

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  Indonesia's independence was proclaimed in Jakarta on the 17th of August 1945. During the national revolution that followed, the city's government was contested between Indonesian republican authority and returning Allied and Dutch power. Republican leaders moved the temporary capital to Yogyakarta in early 1946 after British troops entered Jakarta. The Netherlands transferred sovereignty in 1949, and the 1950 Provisional Constitution placed the national government in Jakarta. Sukarno turned the city into a stage for state architecture. His nation-building programme and the 1962 Asian Games came with major landmarks and corridors, including the National Monument, Hotel Indonesia, Sarinah, the Senayan sports complex, and the Thamrin-Sudirman axis. In 1964, Jakarta was legally designated a Special Capital Region with administrative status equal to a province. The political crisis of 1965-66 ended Sukarno's presidency and brought the rise of General Suharto's New Order. Under governor Ali Sadikin, from 1966 to 1977, the city pursued modernisation while expanding the kampung improvement program, which upgraded infrastructure and services in dense settlements. The Asian financial crisis of 1997-98 disrupted growth and fed political unrest. The riots of May 1998 led to Suharto's resignation. In the Reformasi era, decentralisation brought direct gubernatorial elections in 2007. A 2022 law keeps Jakarta the capital until a presidential decree transfers it to Nusantara, and a 2024 law reframes the city afterward as an economic centre and global city.

• 5. Rivers And The Flood

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  Thirteen rivers flow through Jakarta from the south toward Jakarta Bay, including the Ciliwung, Angke, Sunter, and Grogol. The city covers about 662 square kilometres of land and 6,977 square kilometres of sea area, spread mostly across low, flat terrain on an alluvial plain. Elevations range from below sea level to about 50 metres above it. The area once held extensive swamps, and seasonal flooding remains a recurrent problem. Flooding here comes from a stack of causes at once. Heavy rainfall combines with upstream runoff, high tides, land subsidence, sedimentation, waste, and limited drainage capacity. Jakarta's tropical monsoon climate concentrates the heaviest rain between December and March, when average monthly totals exceed 150 millimetres. July and August are normally the driest months. Flood-control policy has long leaned on engineered works: canals, river improvements, drainage, pumps, and coastal-protection schemes. Studies link land subsidence to groundwater extraction and urban development, and identify it as a contributor to coastal-flood risk along the northern coast. Much of the city's raw water arrives through the West Tarum Canal, which carries water from the Jatiluhur reservoir system on the Citarum River toward the capital. Even so, a 2022 study reported piped-water coverage at about 64%, leaving many residents reliant on self-supplied groundwater, the very extraction that helps the land sink.

• 6. A City Of Migrants

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  Census-based research found that in 1961, only 51.0% of Jakarta's population had been born in the city, while 46.7% had been born in other Indonesian provinces. The city has drawn people from across Indonesia for employment, education, and business ever since. From 1980 to 2018, Jakarta's population rose from about 6.7 million to 10 million, while the surrounding metropolitan area grew from roughly 11.4 million to 34 million. Jakarta has no single majority ethnic group. The 2010 census put Javanese as the largest group, followed by Betawi, Sundanese, Chinese, and Batak, with Minangkabau, Malays, Madurese, and others also present. The Betawi people are regarded as the city's indigenous community, developed from the diverse populations of colonial Batavia. Their emergence drew on Chinese settlers, South Asian Muslims, Malays, Balinese, Buginese, Ambonese, Bandanese, and others, linked through Islam and local forms of Malay. Indonesian is the official language and the common tongue across ethnic backgrounds. The Betawi language, a Malay-based variety, shaped the informal speech of Jakarta, and colloquial Jakartan Indonesian has become an influential urban variety. Minangkabau migration here is part of the practice of merantau. By the mid-20th century, Jakarta had become an increasingly important destination for migrants from West Sumatra, a pull that still reshapes the city's edges into West Java and Banten.

• 7. The Betawi Inheritance

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  Soto betawi, a beef-and-offal soup in a spiced broth made with coconut milk or cow's milk, is one of the best-known dishes of the Betawi, the community born from colonial Batavia. Their cuisine grew through trade and contact with Chinese, Arab, European, and other Indonesian traditions. Betawi arts run just as deep: tanjidor, gambang kromong, lenong, palang pintu, and ondel-ondel cover music, dance, theatre, and performance. Events such as Lebaran Betawi present this culture through performances, food, and ceremonial displays. Condet in East Jakarta has been promoted as a Betawi cultural heritage area. Betawi vernacular houses show the same mixing in built form. Their wide eaves, large openings, and open layouts draw on Malay, Arab, Chinese, and Dutch influences, and suit the tropical climate. The city's retail life carries echoes of its trading past. Tanah Abang is known for textiles and garments, Pasar Baru is a historic commercial street sometimes called Jakarta's Little India, and Glodok's alleys are known for Chinese Indonesian commerce. Modern malls like Grand Indonesia and Plaza Indonesia sit alongside these markets, serving as climate-controlled refuges in a city shaped by heat, congestion, and limited public space. Green open space covered only about 5.18% of the city's area in 2023, well below the 30% minimum required by national law.

• 8. Engine And Handover

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  Jakarta's gross regional domestic product reached Rp 3,679.36 trillion at current prices in 2024, with the economy growing by 4.90%. Wholesale and retail trade, including motor-vehicle and motorcycle repair, was the largest industry, while household final consumption was the largest expenditure component. Realised investment hit Rp 241.9 trillion that year, the second-highest among Indonesian provinces. Services dominate, spanning trade, finance, business services, information and communications, transport, hospitality, and public administration. The city's economic roots trace back through the port and administrative functions of Sunda Kelapa, Batavia, and colonial Jakarta. Tanjung Priok is now Indonesia's main maritime gateway and busiest port. Soekarno-Hatta International Airport serves the wider region, and in 2024 Jakarta recorded about 2.5 million foreign tourist arrivals. The city's transport network ties together bus rapid transit, the Jakarta MRT, Jakarta LRT, KRL Commuterline, and an airport rail link, work that earned the 2021 Sustainable Transport Award. Yet congestion endures, managed in part by an odd-even licence-plate restriction. Law No. 2 of 2024 holds Jakarta as Indonesia's capital until a presidential decree moves the seat to Nusantara. After that handover, the same law names Jakarta a national economic centre and global city, a role that would let the sinking port keep its weight even as the title of capital travels across the sea to East Kalimantan.