21. Majapahit - Empire of the Islands

Paul Cooper: Raffles was fascinated by these remains which seemed to confirm stories he had heard. Stories of a great empire that had risen up on that island. A thriving combination of Hinduism and Buddhism that had flourished for centuries, spread its influence across the sea to countless other islands in the Indonesian archipelago and built what may have been one of the largest empires in Southeast Asia. This was the empire of Maja Pahit.

Paul Cooper: In the large island of Madagascar, just off the coast of Eastern Africa, the people's language has always puzzled linguists. The Madagascan language of Malagasi shares little in common with those of the African mainland. And it was only when the grammar and syntax were compared with Indonesian languages that a remarkable similarity was noticed. Although separated by the entire Indian Ocean, the language of Malagasi shares a grammatical structure with several Indonesian languages like Javanese. And they even have a number of different words in common. Just one example is the word for island, nosi in Malagasi and Nusa in Japanese. In fact, the closest living relative of Malagasi is thought to be a language called Manan, which originated on the south coast of Borneo. The most modern analysis of mitochondrial DNA in Madagascar has confirmed this connection and shows that the people there can trace their lineage back to about 30 mothers who arrived on the island from what is now Indonesia. This suggests a single boatload of settlers who had traveled across one of the world's widest oceans to find a new home.

Paul Cooper: Raden Vagaya asked permission to return to his country in order to prepare a new letter of submission to the emperor and to take the precious articles in his possession back to court. Shui consented to this and sent two officers with 200 men to go with him. But on the way, Raden Vagaya killed the two officers and revolted again. After which he availed himself of the circumstance that the main army was returning to attack it from both sides.

Paul Cooper: It's still an open question exactly how much power Majapahit exerted over its vassal states. Some empires like the Roman Empire ruled with direct control. When they conquered a new area, they erased previous forms of government and social structures. and imposed their own on absorbed territories. But we don't see much evidence of that in the case of Majapahit. Subordinate kings and rulers on the outer islands certainly paid symbolic homage to the king in Majapah. They likely provided an agreed upon tribute each year and a certain number of soldiers and ships for any military action undertaken by the empire. But beyond that, it's likely that the lords of each island and tributary kingdom continued to exert more or less total control over their own affairs.