Jakarta

The area that is now Jakarta has been inhabited since at least the early centuries of the Common Era and was long associated with Sunda Kelapa, the principal port of the Sunda Kingdom. In 1527, forces aligned with the Demak Sultanate captured the settlement and renamed it Jayakarta. The Dutch East India Company seized the city in 1619, rebuilt it as a fortified canal city named Batavia, and made it the centre of Dutch colonial power in the Indonesian archipelago for more than three centuries. After Japanese occupation during the Second World War and Indonesia's declaration of independence in 1945, the city took the name Jakarta and became the capital of the new republic.

In 1964, Jakarta was legally designated a Special Capital Region with administrative status equivalent to a province. Under President Sukarno, the city hosted the 1962 Asian Games and gained major landmarks including the National Monument and the Gelora Bung Karno Sports Complex. Jakarta co-hosted the 2018 Asian Games with Palembang. The Indonesian government has since initiated the legal process of relocating the national capital to Nusantara in East Kalimantan.

Jakarta's entry into international motorsport came with the Formula E World Championship. The city hosted the Jakarta ePrix starting in 2022, using a purpose-built street circuit at the Ancol waterfront area in North Jakarta, formally known as the Jakarta International e-Prix Circuit. The event brought the all-electric open-wheel racing series to Southeast Asia, representing a significant moment for the region's motorsport calendar.

Beyond Formula E, the Jakarta metropolitan area supports a domestic motorsport scene, and the city's role as Indonesia's economic and commercial centre makes it a natural staging ground for international racing events seeking visibility in one of the world's most populous countries.

The Gelora Bung Karno Sports Complex, constructed in the early 1960s in preparation for the Asian Games, remains one of Jakarta's most prominent sporting complexes, encompassing venues for football, athletics, aquatics, and indoor arena events. The Jakarta International Velodrome served as a venue during the 2018 Asian Games. The Jakarta International Stadium, a retractable-roof football facility, opened in 2022. The city also supports mass participation events such as the Jakarta Marathon, held since 2013, and Jakarta Car-Free Day along major arterial roads.

Jakarta is highly diverse, with no single dominant ethnic group. Its population includes large communities of Javanese, Betawi, Sundanese, Chinese Indonesians, and migrants from across the Indonesian archipelago. The city serves as Indonesia's main financial, commercial, media, and diplomatic centre, and hosts the secretariat of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. Persistent urban challenges include traffic congestion, air pollution, flooding linked to the thirteen rivers flowing through the city, and land subsidence along the northern coastal zone.