History of Bali

The first inhabitants of Bali are Austronesian peoples who came in 2000 BC. They came from Taiwan through the South China Sea. Thus these peoples are closer to the peoples of the Philippines, Oceania and Indonesian Archipelago in terms of linguistic and culture. The historical artifacts dated from this time are stone tools found not too far from Cekik village at the western part of the island. There are nine Hindu sects in the ancient Bali with each has its own personal Godhead, namely Ganapatya, Resi, Brahma, Sora, Waisnawa, Siwa Sidharta, Bodha, Bhairawa and Pasupata.

Various inscriptions show that the name Bali Dwipa or Bali Island had appeared since the first ages of the first millennium. One of the inscriptions that mentioned the island is the Blanjong pillar which was created by Sri Kesari Warmadewa in 914. The inscription in the pillar mentioned the island as Walidwipa. Subak, the complex irrigation system for which Bali is well known, was developed during this time. Some of the cultural and religious traditions that can be seen until today have their roots from this period too although much older Indian influence is believed to had been present since 1 AD. In 1343, the big Hindu Majapahit Empire from East Java founded a colony in here. Bali became the final destination for the exodus of artists, priests, musicians and priests when the empire eventually declined in the 15th century.

Portuguese was the first European who made a contact with the island. In 1585, a Portuguese ship is believed to be foundered off the Bukit Peninsula. A few Portuguese were then left to serve Dewa Agung. Cornelis de Houtman, the Dutch explorer who had previously made a contact with Banten at the West Java, arrived in Bali in 1597. However, it is only since 1840s that the Dutch held political and economic control over Bali, especially on the northern part. That was the time when Balinese kingdoms fought against each other which was pitted further by the Dutch. The Dutch also exploited the Balinese kingdoms of the southern part since the late 1890s.

The year 1906 saw a massive unbalanced fight at Sanur region between the Dutch forces against thousands of Balinese royal family members and their followers. At that time, the Dutch launched naval and ground campaign to gain control over the southern part of the island. The Balinese responded with suicidal defensive resistance because they did not want to be humiliated for surrender. The same fight, which is known as puputan, also broke in 1908 at Klungkung region. After those unbalanced fights, the Dutch eventually able to take the administrative control over Bali, although culture and religion are generally still maintained at full level by the local powers. However, the Dutch control never succeeded in obtaining total control over the island like the control it had on Ambon and Java.

The popular image of Bali as “an enchanted land of aesthetes at peace with themselves and nature” was first created in the 1930s. The works of musicologist Colin McPhee, the artists Walter Spies and Miguel Covarrubias, and the anthropologists Gregory Bateson and Margaret Mead, collaborated to build the image which further developed the first western tourism on Bali.

Bali was occupied by the Imperial Japan during the World War II. It was during this time that Gusti Ngurah Rai formed the Freedom Army. However, the Japanese did not able to exert effective control over the administrative matters due to the harshness of the war time and the difficult institutional change from the Dutch rule. After Japan surrendered in August 1945, the Dutch came back to regain control over the entire Indonesia, including Bali. However, this movement met heavy resistance. In Bali, the resistance against the Dutch was launched using the weapons obtained from Japan. Colonel I Gusti Ngurah Rai, 29 years old at that time, led his army to Marga Rana in Tabanan, central Bali, to launch a suicidal assault, or puputan, against the heavily armored Dutch power. The battle was fought on 29 November 1946 with the Balinese army entirely eliminated and hence ended the military resistance against the Dutch.

In 1946, the Dutch included Bali as one of the 13 administrative districts of the State of East Indonesia. This state was founded by the Dutch to rival Republic of Indonesia which was proclaimed by Soekarno and Hatta in 17 August 1945. When the Republic of the United States of Indonesia was created in the Round Table Conference on 29 December 1949, Bali was included in the new state that was recognized by the Dutch.

The eruption of Mount Agung in 1963 killed thousands of people. Economic situation was at havoc and thus forced most of the survivors to transmigrate to other areas of the Republic Indonesia. During the 1950s and 1960s, Bali saw the conflict between the supporters of caste system and those that rejected the traditional values. The conflict was typical for that time in Indonesia and had been politicized by Indonesian Communist Party or PKI which rejected the caste system and the Indonesian Nationalist Party of PNI which supported the traditional system. The tension was culminated in Land Reform which was launched by PKI. However, when the coup, which was associated with PKI broke in Jakarta, was followed by the elimination of PKI and its supporters by General Soeharto, Bali was also affected. In Bali alone, at least 80,000 people died because of the anti-communist purge, which is equivalent to 5 percent of the total population of the island at that time. There is no Islamic force in the island so that PNI landlords were rather easy when taking the lead in the purge in Bali.

After General Soeharto took the presidency from President Soekarno in 1966, his New Order regime re-established the relations with the Western countries. The renewed relation resulted in the growth of tourism, with Bali promoted as the Paradise Island. Foreign exchanges and living standard in Bali were dramatically changed with the tourism boom. However, when a massive bombing by militant Islamists in 2002 destroyed the Kuta tourist area and killed 202 people, most of which are foreigners, economic boom ended abruptly. Another bomb attack in 2005 put the tourism industry at hardship. However, the tourist numbers per 2010 had returned to the level before the bomb attacks.