Brief History

During the Dutch Colonial Government, North Sumatera used to be included in and administrative region which was known as Government Van Sumatera with Medan as the administration center. It constituted of some residencies or 'keresidenan'. The administration system did not change a lot when government shifted f rom the dutch to the Japanese.

In 1946, the Province of Sumatera was diveded into three sub Provinces each of which was headed by a Junior Governor. The Three sub Provinces were North Sumatera, Central Sumatera and South Sumatera.


Then in 1948, the Indonesian Government once again revised Sumatera region into three Provinces, namely : North Sumatera (that included Aceh, East Sumatera and Tapanuli), Central Sumatera (that included West Sumatera, Riau, Jambi) and South Sumatera (that included Bengkulu, Palembang, Lampung dan Bangka Belitung). The new three provinces were given the autonomy to manage themselve according to law No. 10/1948. Therefore, April 15th, 1948 was decided to be the Anniversary of North Sumatera Province. Eventually, as law No. 24/ 1956 was enacted, the province of North Sumatera seperated from the other provinces and has the autonomy to manage itself.