The Special Region


The City Logo

Yogyakarta was founded in 1775 and was the capital of Mataram Kingdom when the Dutch come along. The Dutch granted the Kings by title Sultan of Yogyakarta territory. Yogyakarta was also the scenes of Indonesia most successful rebellions against the Dutch – firstly with Prince Diponegoro who waged a holy war against colonial rule in 1825 – 1830, and also serving as the capital of the newly independent republic after world war II when the Dutch reoccupied BATAVIA (Jakarta).

People have lived in Central Java and Yogyakarta area since immemorial time since over the centuries they attracted by the rich soil caused by the numerous volcanic eruptions. The earliest recorded history dares from the 9th century and was dominated by Hindu and Buddhist Kingdoms that gave rise to the magnificent temples such as Prambanan, Ratu Boko, Sambisari, and Borobudur found in this area. Yogyakarta itself dates back to 18th century. In the early of that century, Pakubuwono II ruled the Muslim Mataram Kingdom of the time. After passed away, there is a conflict between his son and his brother, which was encouraged by the Dutch who were trying to colonized the region on a “divide and rule” basis


Malioboro Street

By the Gianti agreement in 1775, the Kingdom was then divided into two regions namely Surakarta Hadiningrat Kingdom under Sunan Pakubuwono III rule, and Ngayogyakarta Hadiningrat Kingdom under Sultan Hamengku Buwono I rule. He was the founder of the present lines Sultan who still live in Kraton and play important role in Javanese Culture. The second kingdom was later called Yogyakarta, and up until now better known as Yogyakarta.
After the independence of the Republic Indonesia was proclaimed, Sri Sultan Hamengku Buwono IX and Sri Paku Alam VIII launched a statement that the Kasultanan and Kadipaten (the two royal regions), belonged to Republic of Indonesia as part of the whole area of Indonesia Republic. Since then, it has been known as Yogyakarta special region and was given a provincial status in 1950 in recognition of its important role in it fighting for the independence