According to the record Medan was established by Raja Guru Patimpus in 1590, between the river of Deli and Babura, which is now near Jalan Putri Hijau. From the name of the founder it is no doubt that he was influenced by Indian culture. The name of raja means king, and guru means master or teacher, while Patimpus is a local name. By 16th century it is known that in North Sumatra exist 2 kingdoms, one was Aceh and the other is Deli. Deli is the beginning of todays Medan city. During 16th century to 17th century it is recorded that between Aceh and Deli always struggle for emporium. The Deli capital of the kingdom according the British who visited the area in 1823 found it was still a village with only 200 people.
In the turn of 19th century the Dutch seized the land and made it as colonial area. Knowing the great potential of the land vast size and incomparable fertile, a Dutch enterprise developed an estate of tobacco growing. Later not only tobacco but also pepper, rubber, coffee, palm oil, tea, and mining. These enterprises developed between 1865 to 1900. One of the most important plantation estate is the Pabatu coffle estate which is still can be seen until now. Medan soon sprang into busy town reaching 100.000 population by 1900 within only less then a decade. The development of Medan into giant city was encouraged by the plantation estates that needs labors. Many labors were imported from China, Java and Kalimantan, beside local people who previously lived on the highland. With this development of the city after the independence of Indoneia continued to received new comers make the city as the 3rd biggest city in Indonesia to reach 2 million population by the turn of 21th century, and giving the city a cosmopolitan character.
