History
Bangka was ceded to Britain by the sultan of Palembang in 1812, but in 1814 it was exchanged with the Dutch for Cochin in India. The island was occupied by the Japanese from February 1942 to August 1945. It became part of independent Indonesia in 1949. The island, together with neighboring Belitung, was formerly part of South Sumatra (Sumatera Selatan) province, but in 2000 the two islands became the new province of Bangka-Belitung.
Bangka is famous for two other events: the Banka Island massacre during World War II, perpetrated by the Japanese against Australian nurses and British and Australian servicemen and civilians, and for reputedly being the setting for the book Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad.
In 1930 Bangka had a population of 205,363.
Bangka is also home to a number of communist Indonesians who have been under house arrest since the 1960s anti-Communist purge and are not permitted to leave the island.
Read more about this topic: Bangka Island
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