ABSTRACT
Description: Major Islamic port city in Indonesia during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
Contact: Diparda Jawa Barat JlCipaganti 151-153 Bandung, West Java Indonesia (22)81490
Th e two centuries from approximately 1450 to 1650 were a time of intense commercial activity in Southeast Asia. Spurred by the growth of markets in China, India, and the West, a host of port cities sprang up along the coasts of western Indonesia. For a brief interlude in the sixteenth century, the greatest of these was Banten. Facing north to the Java Sea but close to the Sunda Strait, one of Indonesia's two main maritime gateways to the West, Banten owed its prom inence both to temporarily favorable conditions and to the energy of its founders.
