To reach these small and remote islands, explorers and merchant adventurers would invariably call first at Java to replenish food and water supplies after the long haul across the Indian Ocean from the Cape of Good Hope, and to pick up local pilots to guide them through the maze of islands between Java and the Moluccas.

The archipelago is also home to the fabled Spice Islands of the Moluccas, the quest for which provided the major stimulus for the great voyages of discovery in the 15th and 16th centuries. Visit to register and access our new public EM-DAT query tool.The islands of Java and Bali located 8 degrees south of the Equator in the Indian Ocean are two of the 17,000 islands that make up the Republic of Indonesia, the world’s largest archipelago and the fourth most populous nation on Earth. Access shall be granted to EM-DAT upon proof of payment of the corresponding annual fee, as agreed upon in the Database License Agreement. corporations, private companies, commercial partnerships, or other business organizations, must contact EM-DAT database manager ( regarding access. Users representing an entity with a Commercial use, e.g. Users on behalf of academic organizations, universities, non-profit organisations and/or international public organization (UN agencies, multi-lateral banks, other multi-lateral institution and national governments), are granted free access to EM-DAT, after acceptance of the present conditions of use.

The Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED) within the Université catholique de Louvain (UCLouvain) provides free access to the full Emergency Events Database (EM-DAT) for non-commercial purposes.

Java and sumatra on world map