Surabaya

Capital of East Java province, Indonesia, situated in northeast Java at the mouth of the Kali River, opposite Madura Island; population (2000) 2,507,000. It is Indonesia's second-largest city, a major port and railway terminus, and it has an airport. Surabaya is a manufacturing centre, and the main industries are shipbuilding, rubber processing, and some motor assembly. Exports include sugar, tobacco, coffee, and maize. Adjacent to the port is Ujung, the chief naval station of Indonesia.

During the 13th and 14th centuries, Surabaya was a powerful port-kingdom, thriving on the Maluku spice trade and its strategic role in the Majapahit empire's expansion from Java. The walled city resisted attack by the Mataram kingsom during the 16th and 17th centuries until it was subjugated in 1625, and was the centre of considerable opposition to the Dutch until the Dutch conquest in 1707. Surabaya then became the main naval base of the Dutch fleet in Indonesia; it is now the headquarters of the Indonesian Fleet Command, and has Indonesia's largest naval shipyard. In late 1945, after the end of World War II, Surabaya was the site of the Indonesian republic's first major battle against British forces holding Indonesia for the Dutch. The city was subdued within a month, following a seaborne British invasion, before the Dutch returned to continue the war against Sukarno's nationalist army.

Surabaya is also a major centre for education, whose institutions include Airlangga University, Petra Christian University, and the Surabaya Institute of Technology, as well as a naval college.