1398
300 Majapahit warships surround the kingdom of Singapore. They've come to settle unfinished business
Singapore is the last holdout of their old rival Srivijaya
This is where the Srivijaya elites ran to when the Javanese took their Sumatran ports a century before.
This far-flung province...
This so-called, "Lion City" had escaped a siege by Hayam Wuruk decades before. But that would not happen again
Majapahit would destroy it.
But in doing so they would help birth their greatest rival...
The Sultanate of Malacca
*Spicy Intro Music*
A quick aside before we begin. We started episode 1 of this series with a call to aid earthquake victims in Lombok
However, as we finished this episode, an even more devastating earthquake and tsunami struck the island of Sulawesi
Once again...
We've linked to fundraising efforts in the description. One international Aid
Organization and another for a local effort. Any help you could give would be deeply appreciated. And now, back to the show
when Majapahit razed Singapore in
1389 they appeared to be at the height of their power.
True, Hayum Waruk, rook was 9 years dead, and multiple Prince's were warring for the throne.
But Majapahit navies still control the spice trade
challenging rival Thai fleets and the occasional Chinese trade expedition. Little did they know however that the
Archipelago was entering a period of transition and realignment
But it was not a great sweeping event that would bring change
It was a small gradual one for the kingdoms on Sumatra were increasingly converting to a new faith
It's unclear when Islam came to Indonesia
But it likely resembled the earlier diffusion of Hinduism and Buddhism through maritime networks
but even in this it had an advantage as a religion started by merchants Islam was
naturally portable while Buddhism and Hinduism relied on
geographically fixed elements like temples God images and monasteries
Spreading Islam to new lands required only transporting books and cultural practices
Muslim traders had passed through Indonesia since the 8th century
But it was the 13th century before the religion gained local converts
The Malay traders of Sumatra seemed to have picked it up first
They specialized in the leg of the spice trade between the Strait of Malacca and the Bay of Bengal
Putting them in contact with Indianized Islam that was more compatible with their worldview than the versions practiced in the Middle East
Meanwhile, another wave came via China where Muslims were enjoying an unusual period of lenience under the Mongol Yuan Dynasty
initial conversions were likely pragmatic after all common religion often greased the wheels of trade and this new faith had
intriguing things to offer like Arabic writing language
legal codes and paper which was so much more convenient than dried palm leaves and
it was these same tools of linguistic power as well as the sweetener of greater diplomatic and trade links to Muslim kingdoms in India that
Convinced local rulers to start adopting the teachings of the Prophet
in fact, this linguistic merger was so comprehensive that
15% of the words in Malay come from Arabic roots
by 1346
a flourishing Muslim trade city the first in Indonesia
Existed at the northern tip of Sumatra and we know this from who else but Ibn Battuta
Yep, the same even Battuta from our Mali series
Seriously, this guy went like everywhere
Anyway, Ibn Battuta describes a city in transition one with mosques and Friday prayers
But where Islam is largely a religion of merchants and elites the eastern most city ruled by Muslims
But within a few decades it wasn't alone Islamic port cities were popping up all over Sumatra
but the greatest Muslim city was founded by Majapahit by
accident
Which brings us back to where we started Singapore?
Despite being only a shadow of Srivjijaya original power the far-flung post of Singapore was crazy
Rich and kept the heirs of Srivijaya in the political game
But enemies surrounded it the aggressive Thai kingdom of Ayvthaya looming in the north and to the expansionist
Majapahit in the south not to mention previous evasions had weakened the Lion City
So when Majapahit breached the walls the Raja of Singapore a man named
Parameswara fled to the south and started anew this time
He would do it right he picked a strategic location
Right on the Strait of Malacca where he could control traffic running to and from India
He used the old tactics of his Srivijaya
Ancestors aligning with the pirates and sea nomads to create a navy that would direct ships to his court where he could charge
protection
He also converted to Islam to ease the relations with India and took a Muslim name and he named this new
City-state the Sultanate of Malacca but not after the strait
Oh, no the other way around we call it the Strait of Malacca
because of this city
Malacca would be a new Zenith for a Muslim kingdom in Southeast Asia and a powerful state that cast its sphere of influence
to the surrounding maritime ports but to attain that height Parameswara needed one last step to secure Malacca
a tributary ally to keep the larger powers off its back
He turned to China the Mongol Yuan emperors were gone
Overthrown by the Ming and a century after Kublai Khan's failed invasion of Java
The imperial court was looking to re-engage in maritime Southeast Asia
Yet Imperial inattention had allowed fleets from Majapahit and the Thai kingdoms to essentially run the table in the southern seas
the Sultanate of Malacca offered a unique
Opportunity for the Ming they were looking for a partner to keep the sea lanes clear on the straight one
That wasn't a burgeoning Empire set to challenge Chinese influence in the region
Malacca was essentially a knowing pawn
The Chinese got a check on Majapahit and Thai power and Malacca received a security guarantee from its Imperial ally
And that security guarantee wasn't an empty promise
Because two years later a Chinese fleet arrived in Malacca a fleet larger than any seen before
It constituted over 300 ships
The largest were 600 feet long with 12 sails and a crew of five hundred sailors
27,000 soldiers diplomats and other officials lived aboard. Dwarfing the population of the coastal cities where they stopped.
This was the first voyage, of Zheng He, and his famous treasure fleet.
Series of seven missions stretching the whole of maritime Asia from the South China Sea to the Bay of Bengal
Their task was neither one of exploration nor military force instead
They were a display of Chinese supremacy.
Zheng He would come as a diplomat; dispensing gifts of silk, gold brocade, and other exotic goods.
Yet the enormous fleet (sitting right off the coast) carried its own message. This great treasure fleet offered rewards with one hand and
threatened retribution with the other
aligned with China or face our wrath
Zheng He would make seven voyages between 1405 and 1433
dramatically reshaping politics in the southern seas
Malacca prospered as a Chinese Ally solidifying its claims and influences under imperial protection
Receiving no less than six visits from the Admiral. And Zheng He,
himself a member of China's Muslim minority; helped spread and foster the growth of Islamic kingdoms in the region.
And as all this happened, Majapahit
Increasingly turned inward. Tearing itself apart over royal succession and court intrigues and ignoring the larger world.
Over the next century its vassals eroded like a beach during typhoon season
Majapahit still controlled the eastern Spice Islands, but the all-important Strait now belonged to Malacca
Majapahit vassals in Sumatra increasingly converting to Islam and sensing a shift in the political winds...
began switching their allegiances to China or allying with other Muslim kingdoms. And in 1513, the falling dominoes
finally reached Java itself a
Coalition of Muslim kingdoms captured Majapahit's coastal ports and drove the court inland to their rice terraces.
Splinters of the kingdom would survive until 1527
But Majapahit's time as the dominant power on Java... was over.
Their successor the Muslim kingdom of Demak went about wiping Majapahit from the island
Burning their leaf, scroll chronicles and epic poems relegating their old temples to neglected ruins
But Majapahit was not destroyed at least not totally
Members of the royal family fled to Bali. Taking their culture with them. They continued their Hindu Buddhist faith
scribes preserved the few royal documents
they smuggled out the historical records we have today and artists kept Majapahit artistic styles alive
Ironically the island that Majapahit violently dominated had become the last vestige of their way of life.
To this day, Bali remains the last majority Hindu-Buddhist island of Indonesia.
Butt
Majapahit survived in another sense as well. Unlike Srivijaya which vanished from popular memory after it fell
indonesians remembered Majapahit through the folklore, mythic history, and plays it inspired. That cultural memory of a
powerful state uniting the islands lasted through centuries of Dutch colonialism
During the Indonesian independence movement of the 20th century
Majapahit became a rallying point for nationalists a historical example of the archipelago
united under one government an argument that it was historically one nation rather than a constellation of kingdoms and
When the Republic of Indonesia won independence from the Dutch in 1949
Majapahit loomed large in the political imagination
The country's motto unity in diversity comes from a poem written during high. Hayum Wurek reign Gadjah Mada University
Became its first place of higher education to this day. There is real pride in the Majapahit period
But for those outside Java this nostalgia can have a darker connotation for them
Majapahit's vision of unity felt more like colonialism and is reflective of a political system. That's to this day
dominated by interests on Java
But what lesson should we as students of history take from Majapahit?
We can enjoy its stories and understand its role in modern Indonesia certainly but - to Rob and myself
The biggest takeaway is their use of water
We've all been trained to look at maps and only see the land the water is an empty space separating countries
But Majapahit didn't see it that way to them
The ocean was the great connector not only a way to trade and project naval power but a sort of fluid
Conductor that carried the electrical charge of human culture from island to island
The sea united people and merged their ways of life
creating something new
an empire of water