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Aceh region has a strategic position as the gate of trading and cultural traffic, which has been connecting East and West since the past centuries. It is known as a transit place of Chinese, European, Indian and Arab merchants. This relationship made Aceh region as the first entrance of culture and religion into the southeast-asian archipelago.
Aceh is known for its political independence and fierce resistance to control by outsiders, including the former Dutch colonists and, until recently, the central government of Indonesia.
Aceh has substantial natural resources, including coal, oil and gas. Aceh's main income earners are petroleum and natural gas, fertilizer, estate produce and agriculture.
For the last 30 years, it has been torn by a separatist conflict waged by the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) against Jakarta rooted in issues over control of natural resources, economic, cultural, system of government and historical and legal issues over the transfer of Aceh region to Indonesia by the Dutch.
Aceh was the closest point of land to the epicenter of the massive 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake, which triggered a tsunami that devastated much of the western coast of the region, including the capital of Banda Aceh. Over 170,000 persons were listed as dead or missing, with a further 500,000 plus being made homeless.