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East Java's Majapahit, which lasted through the 14th and 15th centuries, was the most successful of the early Javanese kingdoms. According to an old manuscript, Majapahit claimed an area under its control greater than that of present day Indonesia.

By the 16th century, Islam had displaced the old Indianized kingdoms and at the same time, European traders seeking spices began arriving. The Portuguese were first, but it was the Dutch East India Company, the Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie, that established a choke-hold on the spice trade. After the V.O.C. went bankrupt in 1799 the Dutch government ran Indonesia as a colony.

With the imposition of the "Cultivation System" in Java, Dutch planters grew wealthy, and the Javanese worked as near slaves growing export crops like coffee and sugar. Resentment grew and nationalism boiled at the turn of the 20th century.

After World War II and a cruel Japanese occupation, the nationalists declared independence on August 17, 1945. The Dutch were unwilling to relinquish their colony, however, and it took five years of fighting and mounting international opposition to the Dutch to drive them out. The Dutch signed sovereignty to the Republic of Indonesia in December 1949.