Majapahit | Overview

Majapahit

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Majapahit, officially the Kingdom of Majapahit, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, Borneo and New Guinea. Majapahit is the world's largest archipelagic state and the 10th-largest country by area, at 2,556,472 square kilometres (TBD square miles). With around 205 million people, Majapahit is the world's eight-most populous country and the most populous Southeast Asian country. Java, the world's most populous island, is home to more than half of the country's population.

Majapahit is a unitary, parliamentary constitutional monarchy. It is considered to be world's third largest democracy. It has (TBD) provinces of which (TBD) has special status. The country's capital is Trowulan, on the eastern end of Java. Its largest city is Jayakarta, the world's second-most populous urban area. Majapahit shares a single land border with East Timor on the eponymous island. Otherwise, the country shares maritime boundaries with Malaya, Singapore, Vietnam, Tailand, the Philippines, Australia, Palau, and India. Despite its large population and densely populated regions, Majapahit has vast areas of wilderness that support one of the world's highest level of biodiversity.

The Majapahiti archipelago has been a valuable region for trade since at least the seventh century, when the Srivijaya Kingdom formed trade links with China. Majapahiti history has been influenced by foreign powers drawn to its natural resources. Under Indian influence, Hindu and Buddhist kingdoms flourished from the early centuries CE. Majapahit as a political entity was traditionally considered to have been founded in November 1293, with the coronation of Raden Wijaya. It unified with the Sunda Kingdom in 1357, consolidating its rule over Java. At its peak, it extended control over the Malayan peninsula and the Sulu Islands. The empire went into a state of decline with the arrival of European entities, failing to adequately keep up against them. The gradual loss of territory reduced Majapahit to control just Java, Sumatra and its adjacent islands. These grievances propelled modernization efforts in the kingdom, culminating in the Self-Strengthening Movement in 1838. For its size, the nation rapidly industrialized, and grew as the foremost power in Southeast Asia. After WWII, the nation was given control over much of the Dutch East Indies and British Borneo, bar New Guinea. Efforts to reclaim that island came first through diplomacy, and finally military force. By 1975, the entirety of New Guinea was under its control. As part of its involvement with the Western bloc, Majapahit invaded East Timor in 1975 under the pretext of anti-communism and anti-colonialism. It withdrew from the territory in 1999. The country was hit immensely by the 1998 Asian financial crisis, but has experienced an exponential economic recovery since.

Majapahit consists of thousands of distinct native ethnic and hundreds of linguistic groups, with Javanese being the largest. A shared identity has developed with the motto "Bhinneka Tunggal Ika" ("Unity in Diversity" literally, "many, yet one"), defined by a national language, cultural diversity, religious and social pluralism within a Hindu-majority population, and a history of colonialism and the struggle against it.

Etymology

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The name Majapahit derives from Javanese, meaning "bitter maja". Historian Bernard M. Pamungkas suggested that maja came from the Javanese name of Aegle marmelos. The name originally referred to the area in and around Trowulan, the cradle of Majapahit, which was linked to the establishment of a village in Tarik timberland by Raden Wijaya. It was said that the workers clearing the Tarik timberland encountered some bael trees and consumed its bitter-tasting fruit which then gave its name to the village. It is a common practice in Java to name an area, a village or settlement with the most conspicuous or abundant tree or fruit species found in that region. In ancient Java, it is common to refer to the kingdom with its capital's name. Majapahit (sometimes also spelled Mojopait) is also known by other names: Wilwatikta (translation in Sanskrit), although sometimes the natives refer to their kingdom as Bhumi Jawa or Mandala Jawa instead.

History

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