Mongol Invasion of Java

The greatest and most controversial of these "divine" Singhasari kings is Kertanagara (r. 1268-92), the first Javanese ruler to be accorded the title of dewa-prabu (literally, god-king).

Largely by force or threat, Kertanagara brings most of eastern Java under his control, then carries his military campaigns overseas, notably to Srivijaya's successor, Melayu (at this time also known as Jambi), with a huge naval expedition in 1275, to Bali in 1282, and to areas in western Java, Madura, and the Malay Peninsula.

These imperial ambitions prove difficult and expensive, however: the realm is perennially troubled by dissent at court and rebellion both at home and in the subjugated territories.

Much farther afield, Kertanagara provokes the new Mongol rulers of Yüan Dynasty (1279-1368) China to attempt to check his expansion, which they consider a threat to the region, but before their fleet of allegedly a thousand ships and a hundred thousand men can land on Java, Kertanagara has been assassinated by a vengeful descendant of the Kediri kings, and in the convoluted events that follow, Kertanagara's son-in-law, Raden Wijaya, succeeds in defeating both his father-in-law's principal rival and the Mongol forces.

In 1294 Wijaya ascends the throne as Kertarajasa, ruler of the new kingdom of Majapahit.

Hulagu, who had seized Baghdad and defeated the Abbasid Caliphate in 1258 and conquered Mesopotamia and Syria, had returned to Mongolia upon receiving news of Mengke's death.

While he was gone, his forces were defeated by a larger, Mamluk, army at the Battle of Ain Jalut in Palestine in 1260.

This was the first significant Mongol defeat in seventy years.

The Mamluks had been led by a Turk named Baibars, a former Mongol warrior who used Mongol tactics.

Neither Kublai nor Hulagu make a serious effort to avenge the defeat of Ain Jalut.

Both devote their attention primarily to consolidating their conquests, to suppressing dissidence, and to reestablishing law and order.

Like their uncle, Batu, and his Golden Horde successors, they limit  their offensive moves to occasional raids or to attacks with limited objectives in unconquered neighboring regions.

After the failure of two invasion attempts against Japan in 1274 and 1281, Kublai also gives up his goal of expansion to the east.

In January 1293, Kublai invades Java and defeats the local ruler, only to be driven off the island by a Javanese ally who has turned against him.

The Mongol troops of China’s Yuan dynasty, invading Dai Viet for the third and final tine, are defeated and are forced to withdraw their troops from Dai Viet and Champa.

Kublai Khan, the Great Khan of the Mongol Empire and the founder of the Yuan Dynasty, sends a large invasion fleet to Java in 1293 with twenty thousand to thirty thousand soldiers.

This is a punitive expedition against King Kertanegara of Singhasari, who had refused to pay tribute to the Yuan and maimed one of its ministers.

The invasion results in the establishment of Majahapit, a vast archipelagic empire based on the island of Java (modern-day Indonesia) to around 1500.

The Khan has sent a massive one-thousand-ship ship expedition that arrives off the coast of Java in 1293.

Raden Wijaya, Kertanegara's son in law and supreme commander, himself a descendant of the kingdom’s founder Ken Anrok, after a brief exile in the favor of the Regent (Bupati) Arya Wiraraja of Madura, allies himself with the Mongols against Jayakatwang and, once Jayakatwang is destroyed and the invaders are feasting in victory, turns and forces his Mongol allies to withdraw from the isle after he launches a surprise attack.

The huge Mongol Army has to withdraw in confusion as they are in hostile land and it is the last opportunity for the monsoon that will allow them to depart for home, otherwise, they would have had to wait for another six months anchored off hostile territory.

Wijaya, or Vijaya, now establishes a state in eastern Java (to be known eventually as the Majapahit Empire), which is to become one of the greatest empires to arise from within the area covered by the modern territory of Indonesia.

The exact date used as the birth of the Majapahit kingdom is the day of his coronation, the fifteenth of Kartika month in the year 1215 using the Javanese çaka calendar, which equates to November 10, 1293.

During his coronation he is given the formal name Kertarajasa Jayawardhana.

King Kertarajasa takes all four daughters of Kertanegara as his wives, his first wife and prime queen consort Tribhuwaneswari, and her sisters; Prajnaparamita, Narendraduhita, and Gayatri Rajapatni the youngest.

He also takes a Sumatran Malay Dharmasraya princess named Dara Petak as his wife.