Majapahit

Majapahit, also known by the name Wilwatikta, was a Javanese Hindu-Buddhist thalassocratic empire in maritime Southeast Asia based on the island of Java, founded in 1292 in the aftermath of the collapse of the earlier Singhasari kingdom. Under rulers including Hayam Wuruk and his chief minister Gajah Mada in the fourteenth century, Majapahit expanded through military conquest and tributary alliances until its influence and trading network covered almost the entire Nusantara archipelago, spanning territory across both maritime Southeast Asia and parts of Oceania, making it one of the largest and most influential states in the region's premodern history. Majapahit's court was a major center of Javanese literature, art and Hindu-Buddhist religious practice, producing works that remain foundational to later Indonesian cultural memory. The empire weakened after a civil war undermined its control over its tributary states, and it slowly declined before finally collapsing in 1527 following an invasion by the rising Islamic Sultanate of Demak, a defeat that marked the broader rise of Islamic kingdoms across Java.