Bali is a small Indonesian island off Java’s east coast. Bali has an area of 2,175 square miles (5,633 square kilometers). Over 3 million people live on Bali. The Balinese are the largest ethnic group and speak Balinese. Most of them are Hindus.
Bali has several volcanic mountains. The highest mountain is Gunung Agung, a volcano sacred to the Balinese. Bali also has many rivers. Seasonal winds called monsoons control the climate. Rainfall is heaviest from December to February.
The tourism industry is important to the economy and has encouraged the preservation and development of Balinese arts. Rice is Bali’s largest crop. The people of Bali use an intricate system of dikes and floodgates for intensive wet rice agriculture.
Between the mid-1800’s and the early 1900’s, the Dutch incorporated Bali into the Netherlands East Indies colony. In the early 1900’s, several Balinese royal families, rather than surrender to the Dutch, chose to die by advancing on Dutch troops. During World War II (1938-1945), Japanese troops occupied Bali from 1942 to 1945. After the war ended, Indonesian nationalists declared independence in 1945. The Dutch tried to reestablish control over Indonesia, including Bali, but eventually recognized Indonesia’s independence in 1949. By the late 1900’s, Bali was Indonesia’s most popular tourist destination. In 2002, Muslim extremists bombed two nightclubs in Bali, killing about 200 people.
