Gowa Regency

Gowa is a regency in the province of South Sulawesi, Indonesia. It has an area of 1,883 km² and a population of 652,329 at the 2010 Census. The majority of the Regency (the western eleven districts, with over 76.6% of the regency's population) lies within the official metropolitan area of the city of Makassar, including the regency's administrative capital at Sungguminasa. The hill resort of Malino is within the eastern (non-metropolitan) part of the regency.

Administration

The regency is divided into eighteen districts (kecamatan), tabulated below with their 2010 Census population.

The first eleven of the eighteen districts tabulated above lie within the official metropolitan area of the city of Makassar; the remaining seven districts lie outside that area.

History

Gowa was formerly a kingdom founded in the Makassar region of south-western Sulawesi before 1300.

From 1660, the Netherlands was at war with Gowa, which was the major Makassar west coast power. In 1669, Admiral Speelman forced the ruler, Sultan Hasanuddin, to sign the Treaty of Bongaya, which handed control of trade to the Dutch East India Company. The Dutch were aided in their conquest by the Bugis warlord Arung Palakka, ruler of the Bugis kingdom of Bone.