History of Surabaya

The earliest record of Surabaya was in a 1225 book written by Chau Ju-Kua, in which it was called Jungala, the ancient name of Surabaya. By early 15th century, Admiral Zheng He's Treasure ship visited Sulumayi. Ma Huan who accompanied Zheng He wrote in his 1433 book Ying-yai Sheng-lan : "after travelling south for more than twenty li, the ship riched Sulumayi, whose foreign name is Surabaya. At the estuary, the outflowing water is fresh".

In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, Surabaya was a sultanate and a major political and military power in eastern Java. It entered a conflict with, and was later captured by, the more powerful Sultanate of Mataram in 1625 under Sultan Agung. It was one of Mataram's fiercest campaigns, in which they had to conquer Surabaya's allies, Sukadana and Madura and to lay siege to the city before capturing it. With this conquest, Mataram then controlled almost the whole of Java, with the exception of the Sultanate of Banten and the Dutch settlement of Batavia.
The expanding East Indies Companies took the city over from a weakened Mataram in November 1743. Surabaya became a major trading center under the Dutch colonial government, and hosted the largest naval base in the colony.

In 1917 a revolt occurred amongst the soldiers and sailors of Surabaya, led by the Indies Social Democratic Association. The revolt was firmly crushed and the insurgents given harsh sentences.

During World War II Surabaya was captured by the Japanese in 1942. It was bombed by the Allies in 1944. After that it was seized by Indonesian nationalists. However, the young nation was soon put into conflict with the Allied-backed Dutch who tried to retake their colony.

The Battle of Surabaya was one of the most important battles of the Indonesian revolution. It was started after British Brigadier General Mallaby was killed in October 30, 1945 near Jembatan Merah (the "Red Bridge"). The Allies gave an ultimatum to the Indonesian freedom fighters inside the city to surrender, but this was refused. The ensuing battle took place on 10 November, nowadays celebrated as Heroes' Day (Hari Pahlawan).The incident of red-white flag (Dutch' red-white-blue flag in the top of Yamato Hotel's tower was teared into Indonesian red-white flag) in Hotel Yamato is also recorded as an heroic struggle of this city.

Because of prolonged international pressure, the Dutch transferred sovereignty of Indonesia in December 1949.