Sulawesi (formerly known as Celebes, English pronunciation: /səˈliːbiːz/) is one of the four larger Sunda Islands of Indonesia and is situated between Borneo and the Maluku Islands.Etymology

The Portuguese were the first to refer to Sulawesi as ‘Celebes’. The meaning of this name is unclear; originally it did not refer to the entire island as the Portuguese thought Sulawesi was an archipelago. The modern name ‘Sulawesi’ possibly comes from the words sula (’island’) and besi (’iron’) and may refer to the historical export of iron from the rich Lake Matano iron deposits.

Geography
Sulawesi is the world’s eleventh-largest island, covering an area of 174,600 km2 (67,413 sq mi). The island is surrounded by Borneo to the west, by the Philippines to the north, by Maluku to the east, and by Flores and Timor to the south. It has a distinctive shape, dominated by four large peninsulas: the Semenanjung Minahassa; the East Peninsula; the South Peninsula; and the South-east Peninsula. The central part of the island is ruggedly mountainous, such that the island’s peninsulas have traditionally been remote from each other, with better connections by sea than by road.

The island is subdivided into six provinces: Gorontalo, West Sulawesi, South Sulawesi, Central Sulawesi, Southeast Sulawesi, and North Sulawesi. West Sulawesi is a new province, created in 2004 from part of South Sulawesi. The largest cities on the island are Makassar, on the southwestern coast of the island, and Manado, on the northern tip.

History
Starting in the 13th century, access to prestige trade goods and to sources of iron started to alter long-standing cultural patterns, and to permit ambitious individuals to build larger political units. It is not known why these two ingredients appeared together; one was perhaps the product of the other. By 1400, a number of nascent agricultural principalities had arisen in the western Cenrana valley, as well as on the south coast and on the east coast near modern Parepare.

The first Europeans to visit the island (which they believed to be an archipelago due to its contorted shape) were Portuguese sailors in 1525, sent from the Moluccas in search of gold, which the islands had the reputation of producing.The Dutch arrived in 1605 and were quickly followed by the English, who established a factory in Makassar.From 1660, the Dutch were at war with Gowa, the major Makasar 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. The Dutch built a fort at Ujung Pandang, while Arung Palakka became the regional overlord and Bone the dominant kingdom. Political and cultural development seems to have slowed as a result of the status quo. In 1905 the entire island became part of the Dutch state colony of the Netherlands East Indies until Japanese occupation in World War II. In 1949, after the Indonesian National Revolution, during which the notorious Dutch Captain ‘Turk’ Westerling is believed to have murdered between 3,000 to 4,000 people, Sulawesi became part of the independent United States of Indonesia, which in 1950 became the Republic of Indonesia.

Orange Delight Shrimp from Sulawesi.

Fauna
Sulawesi straddles Wallace’s Line meaning that it has a mix of both Asian and Australasian species. However, the majority of Sulawesi’s wildlife belongs to the Australasia region. 2,290 square kilometres (570,000 acres) of the island is devoted to Lore Lindu National Park.

There are 127 known mammalian species in Sulawesi. A large percentage of these mammals, 62% (79 species) are endemic, meaning that they are found nowhere else in Indonesia or the world. The largest native mammal in Sulawesi is the dwarf buffalo, locally known as the anoa.

Sulawesi also has several endemic species of freshwater fish, such as those in the genus Nomorhamphus, a species flock of livebearing freshwater halfbeaks containing at least 19 distinct species, most of which are only found on Sulawesi.

There are also many species of freshwater shrimp that are endemic to Sulawesi. Several of these species have become very popular in the aquarium hobby. They are considered some of the most beautiful freshwater shrimp species to be found and are not found anywhere else in the world. Several of these shrimp species are found only in specific lakes in Sulawesi, making them even more rare.Freshwater snails endemic to Sulawesi are also extremely beautiful and like the shrimp are endemic to Sulawesi.The snails and shrimp from Sulawesi have made a wonderful addition to the freshwater aquarium invertebrate hobby. However, there must be careful attention placed to conserve and protect these species as well as many others. Due to the small habitat and unique environment it is critical that all freshwater species from Sulawesi be conserved properly. An expedition was conducted by Mimbon Aquarium to the island of Sulawesi to document and collect some of the species of fish, shrimp and snails mentioned. There are several photos of the landscape, underwater habitat and some of the collected specimens from the expedition journal.