1.
Cape of Good Hope
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The Cape of Good Hope is a rocky headland on the Atlantic coast of the Cape Peninsula, South Africa. In fact, the southernmost point of Africa is Cape Agulhas, when following the western side of the African coastline from the equator, however, the Cape of Good Hope marks the point where a ship begins to travel more eastward than southward. Thus, the first modern rounding of the cape in 1488 by Portuguese explorer Bartolomeu Dias was a milestone in the attempts by the Portuguese to establish trade relations with the Far East. Dias called the cape Cabo das Tormentas, which was the name of the Cape of Good Hope. As one of the capes of the South Atlantic Ocean. It is a waypoint on the Cape Route and the route followed by clipper ships to the Far East and Australia. The term Cape of Good Hope is also used in three ways, It is a section of the Table Mountain National Park, within which the cape of the same name, as well as Cape Point. Prior to its incorporation into the park, this section constituted the Cape Point Nature Reserve. It was the name of the early Cape Colony established by the Dutch in 1652, just before the Union of South Africa was formed, the term referred to the entire region that in 1910 was to become the Cape of Good Hope Province. When Eudoxus was returning from his voyage to India the wind forced him south of the Gulf of Aden. Somewhere along the coast of East Africa, he found the remains of the ship, due to its appearance and the story told by the natives, Eudoxus concluded that the ship was from Gades and had sailed anti-clockwise around Africa, passing the Cape and entering the Indian Ocean. This inspired him to repeat the voyage and attempt a circumnavigation of the continent, organising the expedition on his own account he set sail from Gades and began to work down the African coast. The difficulties were too great, however, and he was obliged to return to Europe, after this failure he again set out to circumnavigate Africa. Although some, such as Pliny, claimed that Eudoxus did achieve his goal, in the 1450 Fra Mauro map, the Indian Ocean is depicted as connected to the Atlantic. It sailed for 40 days in a south-westerly direction without ever finding anything other than wind and water. According to these people themselves, the ship went some 2,000 miles ahead until - once favourable conditions came to an end - it turned round and sailed back to Cape Diab in 70 days. The ships called junks that navigate these seas carry four masts or more, some of which can be raised or lowered, and have 40 to 60 cabins for the merchants and only one tiller. They can navigate without a compass, because they have an astrologer, thus one can believe and confirm what is said by both these and those, and that they had therefore sailed 4,000 miles
2.
Islam in South Africa
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Islam in South Africa is a minority religion, practised by less than 1. 5% of the total population, according to estimates. Islam in South Africa has grown in three phases, the second phase was the arrival of Indians as indentured labourers to work in the sugar-cane fields in Natal between 1860 and 1868, and again from 1874 to 1911. Of the approximately 176,000 Indians of all faiths who were transported to the Natal province, the third phase has been marked - post apartheid – by the wave of African Muslims that have arrived on the shores and borders of South Africa. Recent figures put the number at approximately at 75-100000, added to this are a considerable number of Muslims from the Indo-Pak subcontinent that have arrived as economic migrants. Although, the majority of Muslims are Sunni, smaller numbers are Ahmadi, in the 17th century the Dutch controlled East Indies and the Cape. Muslims were brought from Dutch East Indies, etc. as slaves including those who waged Jihad in the Dutch colonies, the first recorded arrival of free Muslims known as Mardyckers is in 1658. Jan Van Riebeeck had requested that the Mardyckers be sent to the Cape as a labour force, the Mardyckers were prohibited from openly practising their religion, Islam. Offenders to be punished with death, but should there be amongst them those who had drawn to God to become Christians. The same Placaat was re-issued on 23 August 1657 by Governor John Maetsuycker probably in anticipation of the advent of the Mardyckers to the Cape of Good Hope, the Placaat governed the Cape as part of the Dutch Colonial Empire. During the late seventeenth and early eighteenth century the Dutch continued to exile Muslim leaders from Dutch East Indies to the Cape,1667 saw the arrival of first Muslim political exiles banished by the Dutch to the Cape. The first political exiles were the rulers of Sumatra and they were Sheikh Abdurahman Matabe Shah and Sheikh Mahmood. From the very outset the Cape authorities accommodated the exiles away from Cape Town as they feared the exiles would escape, a tomb for these political exiles has been erected on Islam Hill in Constantia in the Cape. Sheikh Abdurahman Matebe Shah used his exile to consolidate the teaching of Islam among slaves in the Cape, the next Orang Cayen was Sheikh Yusuf of Bantam who arrived on board De Voetboog on 2 April 1694 along with his family and followers. They were housed on a farm in Zandvleit, near the mouth of the Eerste River in the Cape, far from Cape Town, the Companys attempt to isolate Shaykh Yusuf at Zandvleit did not succeed. On the contrary, Zandvleit turned out to be the point for fugitive slaves. It was here that the first cohesive Muslim community in South Africa was established, since the Sheikh and his followers hailed from Macassar, the district around Zandvleit is still known today as Macassar. Sa‘id Alowie, popularly known as Tuan Sa‘id, of Mocca in Yemen, Arabia and they were banished to the Cape by the Dutch and were incarcerated on Robben Island. On his release from Robben Island Tuan Said settled at the Cape where he worked as a police constable - an occupation which gave him opportunities for visiting slave quarters at night to teach
3.
Sultanate of Gowa
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Sultanate of Gowa, was one of the great kingdoms and the most successful kingdom in the South Sulawesi region. People of this come from the Makassar tribe who lived in the south end. Before the establishment of the kingdom, the region had been known as Makassar, the history of the kingdom can be divided into two eras, pre-Islamic kingdom and post-Islamic sultanate. According to the epic poem The Nagarakretagama, in praise of King Rajasanagara of Majapahit, it lists Makassar as one of the tributaries in 1365. The first queen of Gowa was Tomanurung Baine, for years both kingdoms were involved in wars until the kingdom of Tallo was defeated. Since then, when becomes a king of Tallo, he also becomes the king of Gowa. Many historians then simply call these Gowa-Tallo twin kingdoms as Makassar or just Gowa, the traces of Islam in South Sulawesi existed since 1320s with the arrival of the first Sayyid in South Sulawesi, namely Sayyid Jamaluddin al-Akbar Al-Husaini, who is the grandfather of Wali Songo. He ruled the kingdom from 1591 to 1629 and his conversion to Islam is associated with the arrival of three ulama from Minangkabau, Ri Bandang Datuk, Datuk Datuk ri ri Tiro and Patimang. From 1630 until the twentieth century, Gowas political leaaders. Since 1607, sultans of Makassar established a policy of welcoming all foreign traders, in 1613, an English factory built in Makassar. This began the hostilities of English-Dutch against Makassar, since 1673 the area around Fort Rotterdam grew into a city currently known as Makassar. Since 1904 the Dutch colonial government performed an expedition called South Sulawesi expedition and started war against small kingdoms in South Sulawesi, in 1911 the Sultanate lost its independence after losing the war and became one of the Dutch Indies regencies. Following the Indonesian Independence from Netherlands in 1945, the dissolved and has since become part of the Republic of Indonesia. In 1644, Bone uprised against Gowa, the Battle of Passempe sees Bone defeated and governed by a regent, the head of an Islamic religious council. In 1660 Arung Palakka, the long haired prince of Bone sultanate, led Bugis revolt against Gowa, in 1666, under the command of Admiral Cornelis Speelman, VOC attempted to subdue the small kingdoms in the North, but had not managed to subdue the Sultanate of Gowa. On the other hand, after Sultan Hasanuddin ascended to the throne as the 16th sultan of Gowa, on the morning of 24 November 1666, the VOC expedition and the Eastern Quarters set sail under the command of Speelman. Speelman also accepted Sultan Ternates offer to contribute a number of his war canoes for the war against Gowa, a week after June 19,1667 Speelmans armada set sail toward Sulawesi and Makassar from Butung. The war later broke in 1666 between VOC and the sultanate of Gowa, the war continued until 1669, after VOC had strengthened its troops on a desperate and ultimately weakening Gowa
4.
Makassar
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Makassar – sometimes spelled Macassar, Mangkasara – is the provincial capital of South Sulawesi, Indonesia. It is the largest city on Sulawesi Island in terms of population, and the fifth largest city in Indonesia after Jakarta, Surabaya, Bandung, and Medan. From 1971 to 1999, the city was named Ujung Pandang, after a fort in the city. The city is located on the southwest coast of the island of Sulawesi, the citys area is 19,926 hectares and it had a population of around 1.6 million in 2013. Its built-up area has 1,976,168 inhabitants covering Makassar City and 15 districts. Its official metropolitan area, known as Mamminasata, with 17 additional districts, Makassar is mentioned in the Nagarakretagama, a Javanese eulogy composed in 14th century during the reign of Majapahit king Hayam Wuruk. In the text, Makassar is mentioned as an island under Majapahit dominance, alongside Butun, Salaya, beginning in the sixteenth century, Makassar was the dominant trading center of eastern Indonesia, and soon became one of the largest cities in island Southeast Asia. The Makassar kings maintained a policy of trade, insisting on the right of any visitor to do business in the city. Much of South Sulawesis early history was written in old texts that can be traced back to the 13th and 14th centuries, tolerant religious attitudes meant that even as Islam became the dominant faith in the region, Christians and others were still able to trade in the city. With these attractions, Makassar was a key center for Malays working in the trade, as well as a valuable base for European. The first European settlers were Portuguese sailors, Portuguese rulers called the city Macáçar. The arrival of the Dutch in the early 17th century altered events dramatically and they finally replaced the Portuguese as colonial masters in 1667. Their first objective was to create a hegemony over the trade and their first move was to capture the fort of Makassar in 1667. From this base they managed to destroy the strongholds of the Sultan of Gowa who was forced to live on the outskirts of Makassar. Following the Java War, Prince Diponegoro was exiled to Fort Rotterdam until his death in 1855, the character of this old trading centre changed as a walled city known as Vlaardingen grew. Gradually, in defiance of the Dutch, the Arabs, Malays and Buddhist returned to trade outside the fortress walls, and were joined later by the Chinese. Although the Dutch controlled the coast, it was not until the early 20th century that they gained power over the interior through a series of treaties with local rulers. Meanwhile, Dutch missionaries converted many of the Toraja people to Christianity, by 1938, the population of Makassar had reached around 84,000 – a town described by writer Joseph Conrad as the prettiest and perhaps, cleanest looking of all the towns in the islands
5.
Indonesia
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Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a unitary sovereign state and transcontinental country located mainly in Southeast Asia with some territories in Oceania. Situated between the Indian and Pacific oceans, it is the worlds largest island country, with more than seventeen thousand islands. At 1,904,569 square kilometres, Indonesia is the worlds 14th-largest country in terms of area and worlds 7th-largest country in terms of combined sea. It has an population of over 260 million people and is the worlds fourth most populous country. The worlds most populous island, Java, contains more than half of the countrys population, Indonesias republican form of government includes an elected legislature and president. Indonesia has 34 provinces, of which five have Special Administrative status and its capital and countrys most populous city is Jakarta, which is also the most populous city in Southeast Asia and the second in Asia. The country shares land borders with Papua New Guinea, East Timor, other neighbouring countries include Singapore, Vietnam, the Philippines, Australia, Palau, and the Indian territory of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Despite its large population and densely populated regions, Indonesia has vast areas of wilderness that support the second highest level of biodiversity. The country has abundant natural resources like oil and natural gas, tin, copper, agriculture mainly produces rice, palm oil, tea, coffee, cacao, medicinal plants, spices and rubber. Indonesias major trading partners are Japan, United States, China, the Indonesian archipelago has been an important region for trade since at least the 7th century, when Srivijaya and then later Majapahit traded with China and India. Local rulers gradually absorbed foreign cultural, religious and political models from the early centuries CE, Indonesian history has been influenced by foreign powers drawn to its natural resources. Indonesia consists of hundreds of native ethnic and linguistic groups. The largest – and politically dominant – ethnic group are the Javanese, a shared identity has developed, defined by a national language, ethnic diversity, religious pluralism within a Muslim-majority population, and a history of colonialism and rebellion against it. Indonesias national motto, Bhinneka Tunggal Ika, articulates the diversity that shapes the country, Indonesias economy is the worlds 16th largest by nominal GDP and the 8th largest by GDP at PPP, the largest in Southeast Asia, and is considered an emerging market and newly industrialised country. Indonesia has been a member of the United Nations since 1950, Indonesia is a member of the G20 major economies and World Trade Organization. The name Indonesia derives from the Greek name of the Indós, the name dates to the 18th century, far predating the formation of independent Indonesia. In 1850, George Windsor Earl, an English ethnologist, proposed the terms Indunesians—and, his preference, in the same publication, one of his students, James Richardson Logan, used Indonesia as a synonym for Indian Archipelago. However, Dutch academics writing in East Indies publications were reluctant to use Indonesia, they preferred Malay Archipelago, the Netherlands East Indies, popularly Indië, the East, and Insulinde
6.
Hajj
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It is one of the five pillars of Islam, alongside Shahadah, Salat, Zakat, and Sawm. The Hajj is the largest annual gathering of people in the world, the state of being physically and financially capable of performing the Hajj is called istitaah, and a Muslim who fulfills this condition is called a mustati. The Hajj is a demonstration of the solidarity of the Muslim people, the word Hajj means to intend a journey, which connotes both the outward act of a journey and the inward act of intentions. The pilgrimage occurs from the 8th to 12th of Dhu al-Hijjah, because the Islamic calendar is lunar and the Islamic year is about eleven days shorter than the Gregorian year, the Gregorian date of Hajj changes from year to year. Ihram is the given to the special spiritual state in which pilgrims wear two white sheets of seamless cloth and abstain from certain actions. The pilgrims then shave their heads, perform a ritual of animal sacrifice, Pilgrims can also go to Mecca to perform the rituals at other times of the year. This is sometimes called the lesser pilgrimage, or Umrah, the present pattern of Hajj was established by Muhammad. However, according to the Quran, elements of Hajj trace back to the time of Abraham, according to Islamic tradition, Abraham was ordered by God to leave his wife Hagar and his son Ishmael alone in the desert of ancient Mecca. In search of water, Hagar desperately ran seven times between the two hills of Safa and Marwah but found none, returning in despair to Ishmael, she saw the baby scratching the ground with his leg and a water fountain sprang forth underneath his foot. Later, Abraham was commanded to build the Kaaba and to people to perform pilgrimage there. The Quran refers to incidents in verses 2, 124-127 and 22. It is said that the archangel Gabriel brought the Black Stone from Heaven to be attached to the Kaaba, in pre-Islamic Arabia, a time known as jahiliyyah, the Kaaba became surrounded by pagan idols. In 630 CE, Muhammad led his followers from Medina to Mecca, cleansed the Kaaba by destroying all the pagan idols, in 632 CE, Muhammad performed his only and last pilgrimage with a large number of followers, and instructed them on the rites of Hajj. It was from this point that Hajj became one of the five pillars of Islam. During the medieval times, pilgrims would gather in big cities of Syria, Egypt and this was done in order to protect the caravan from Bedouin robbers or natural hazards, and to ensure that the pilgrims were supplied with the necessary provisions. Muslim travelers like Ibn Jubayr and Ibn Battuta have recorded detailed accounts of Hajj-travels of medieval time, the caravans followed well-established routes called in Arabic darb al-hajj, lit. Pilgrimage road, which usually followed ancient routes such as the Kings Highway, the date of Hajj is determined by the Islamic calendar, which is based on the lunar year. Every year, the events of Hajj take place in a period, starting on 8 and ending on 12 Dhu al-Hijjah
7.
Mecca
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Mecca or Makkah is a city in the Hejaz region of Saudi Arabia that is also capital of the Makkah Region. The city is located 70 km inland from Jeddah in a valley at a height of 277 m above sea level. Its resident population in 2012 was roughly 2 million, although more than triple this number every year during the hajj period held in the twelfth Muslim lunar month of Dhu al-Hijjah. Mecca is home to the Kaaba, by majority description Islams holiest site, Mecca was long ruled by Muhammads descendants, the sharifs, acting either as independent rulers or as vassals to larger polities. It was conquered by Ibn Saud in 1925, during this expansion, Mecca has lost some historical structures and archaeological sites, such as the Ajyad Fortress. Today, more than 15 million Muslims visit Mecca annually, including several million during the few days of the Hajj, as a result, Mecca has become one of the most cosmopolitan cities in the Muslim world, despite the fact that non-Muslims are prohibited from entering the city. The Saudi government adopted Makkah as the spelling in the 1980s. The full official name is Makkah al-Mukarramah or Makkatu l-Mukarramah, which means Mecca the Honored, the ancient or early name for the site of Mecca is Bakkah. An Arabic language word, its etymology, like that of Mecca, is obscure, the form Bakkah is used for the name Mecca in the Quran in 3,96, while the form Mecca is used in 48,24. In South Arabic, the language in use in the portion of the Arabian Peninsula at the time of Muhammad. Other references to Mecca in the Quran call it Umm al-Qurā, another name of Mecca is Tihamah. Arab and Islamic tradition holds that the wilderness of Paran, broadly speaking, is the Tihamah, yaqut al-Hamawi, the 12th century Syrian geographer, wrote that Fārān was an arabized Hebrew word. One of the names of Mecca mentioned in the Torah, Mecca is governed by the Municipality of Mecca, a municipal council of fourteen locally elected members headed by a mayor appointed by the Saudi government. As of May 2015, the mayor of the city was Dr. Osama bin Fadhel Al-Bar, Mecca is the capital of the Makkah Region, which includes neighboring Jeddah. The provincial governor was prince Abdul Majeed bin Abdulaziz Al Saud from 2000 until his death in 2007, on 16 May 2007, prince Khalid bin Faisal Al Saud was appointed as the new governor. The early history of Mecca is still disputed, as there are no unambiguous references to it in ancient literature prior to the rise of Islam. The Roman Empire took control of part of the Hejaz in 106 AD, ruling cities such as Hegra, even though detailed descriptions were established of Western Arabia by Rome, such as by Procopius, there are no references of a pilgrimage and trading outpost such as Mecca. The first direct mention of Mecca in external literature occurs in 741 AD in the Byzantine-Arab Chronicle, claims have been made this could be a reference to the Kaaba in Mecca
8.
Dutch East India Company
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It is often considered to be the worlds first truly transnational corporation and the first company in history to actually issue bonds and shares of stock to the general public. In other words, the VOC was officially the first publicly traded company of the world, the company was also considered by many to be the very first major and the greatest corporation in history. Statistically, the VOC eclipsed all of its rivals in international trade for almost 200 years of existence. Between 1602 and 1796 the VOC sent almost a million Europeans to work in the Asia trade on 4,785 ships, the VOC enjoyed huge profits from its spice monopoly through most of the 17th century. Having been set up in 1602, to profit from the Malukan spice trade, in 1619 the VOC established a capital in the city of Jayakarta. Over the next two centuries the Company acquired additional ports as trading bases and safeguarded their interests by taking over surrounding territory and it remained an important trading concern and paid an 18% annual dividend for almost 200 years. Around the world and especially in English-speaking countries, the VOC is widely known as the Dutch East India Company, the name ‘Dutch East India Company’ is used to make a distinction with the East India Company and other East Indian companies. The abbreviation VOC stands for Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie or Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie in Dutch, the VOC monogram was possibly the first globally-recognized corporate logo. The logo of the VOC consisted of a large capital V with an O on the left and it appeared on various corporate items, such as cannon and coins. The first letter of the hometown of the conducting the operation was placed on top. An Australian vintner has used the VOC logo since the late 20th century, the flag of the company was orange, white, and blue, with the company logo embroidered on it. Before the Dutch Revolt, Antwerp had played an important role as a centre in northern Europe. At the same time, the Portuguese trade system was unable to supply to satisfy growing demand. Demand for spices was relatively inelastic, and therefore each lag in the supply of pepper caused a rise in pepper prices. These three factors motivated Dutch merchants to enter the spice trade themselves. Further, a number of Dutchmen like Jan Huyghen van Linschoten and Cornelis de Houtman obtained first hand knowledge of the secret Portuguese trade routes and practices, thereby providing opportunity. The stage was set for Houtmans 1595 four-ship exploratory expedition to Banten, the main pepper port of West Java. Houtmans expedition then sailed east along the north coast of Java, losing twelve crew to a Javanese attack at Sidayu, half the crew were lost before the expedition made it back to the Netherlands the following year, but with enough spices to make a considerable profit
9.
East India Company
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The company also ruled the beginnings of the British Empire in India. The company received a Royal Charter from Queen Elizabeth I on 31 December 1600, wealthy merchants and aristocrats owned the Companys shares. Initially the government owned no shares and had only indirect control, during its first century of operation the focus of the Company was trade, not the building of an empire in India. The company eventually came to rule large areas of India with its own armies, exercising military power. Despite frequent government intervention, the company had recurring problems with its finances, the official government machinery of British India had assumed its governmental functions and absorbed its armies. Soon after the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588, London merchants presented a petition to Queen Elizabeth I for permission to sail to the Indian Ocean, one of them, Edward Bonventure, then sailed around Cape Comorin to the Malay Peninsula and returned to England in 1594. In 1596, three ships sailed east, however, these were all lost at sea. Two days later, on 24 September, the Adventurers reconvened and resolved to apply to the Queen for support of the project, the Adventurers convened again a year later. For a period of fifteen years the charter awarded the newly formed company a monopoly on trade with all countries east of the Cape of Good Hope and west of the Straits of Magellan. Anybody who traded in breach of the charter without a licence from the Company was liable to forfeiture of their ships and cargo, the governance of the company was in the hands of one governor and 24 directors or committees, who made up the Court of Directors. They, in turn, reported to the Court of Proprietors, ten committees reported to the Court of Directors. According to tradition, business was transacted at the Nags Head Inn, opposite St Botolphs church in Bishopsgate. Sir James Lancaster commanded the first East India Company voyage in 1601, in March 1604 Sir Henry Middleton commanded the second voyage. Early in 1608 Alexander Sharpeigh was appointed captain of the Companys Ascension, thereafter two ships, Ascension and Union sailed from Woolwich on 14 March 1607–8. Initially, the company struggled in the trade because of the competition from the already well-established Dutch East India Company. The company opened a factory in Bantam on the first voyage, the factory in Bantam was closed in 1683. During this time belonging to the company arriving in India docked at Surat. In the next two years, the company established its first factory in south India in the town of Machilipatnam on the Coromandel Coast of the Bay of Bengal
10.
Banten Sultanate
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The Banten Sultanate was founded in the 16th century and centred in Banten, a port city on the northwest coast of Java, the contemporary English spelling of both was Bantam. It is said to have founded by Sunan Gunungjati, who had previously founded Cirebon. Once a great trading centre in Southeast Asia, especially of pepper, its importance was overshadowed by Batavia and its core territory now forms the Indonesian province of Banten. Today, in Old Banten, the Grand Mosque of Banten is an important destination for tourists and for pilgrims from across Indonesia and it was known as Banten Girang, meaning Banten-up-the-river owing to its location. Sunan Gunungjati was an ulama, a class of Muslim legal scholars. He was educated in Middle East, and can trace his ancestry to the Kingdom of Sunda, Sharif Hidayatullah become the Sultan of Cirebon in 1479. In 1482 Sharif Hidayatullah sent a letter to King of Sunda, previously Cirebon settlement was founded in 1445 by his uncle Prince Cakrabuana. In the early 16th century, Gunungjati arrived in the town with the intention of spreading the word of Islam in this still-Hindu area. Although at first well received by Sunda authorities, after news of the Portuguese-Sunda alliance in 1522 became known, Gunungjati nevertheless asked Demak sultanate to send troops to Banten. It was likely his son, Hasanudin, who commanded this military operation in 1527, just as the Portuguese fleet was arriving of the coast at Sunda Kelapa, to capture these towns. Sunan Gunungjati had Hasanudin named king of Banten by the Sultan of Demak who, in turn, thus, a new dynasty was born at the same time as a new kingdom was created. Banten was the capital of kingdom, held as a province under Sultanate of Cirebon. From the beginning it was obviously Hasanuddin’s intention to revive the fortunes of the ancient kingdom of Sunda for his own benefit. One of his earliest decision was to travel to southern Sumatra, which had belonged to the kingdom of Sunda. Having established control over the ports and the trade, Hasanuddin decided to build a new capital. On the advice of his father, Sunan Gunungjati, he choose to construct it on the coast at the mouth of the Cibanten River. That a settlement already existed at this place is evidence by its harbour activities, the royal city was founded on the delta, formed by the two arms of the river. Two main streets running north-south and east-west divided the city into quarters, the royal palace surrounded by residences of the principal minister of state, was built on the south side of the royal square and the great mosque on the west side
11.
Batavia, Dutch East Indies
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Batavia was the name of the capital city of the Dutch East Indies and corresponds to the present-day city of Jakarta. The establishment of Batavia at the site of the city of Jayakarta by the Dutch in 1619 led to the Dutch colony that became modern Indonesia following World War II. Batavia became the center of the Dutch East India Companys trading network in Asia, monopolies on nutmeg, black pepper, cloves and cinnamon were augmented by non-indigenous cash crops like coffee, tea, cacao, tobacco, rubber, sugar and opium. To safeguard their commercial interests, the company and the colonial administration, Batavia lies on the north coast of Java, in a sheltered bay, over a flat land consisting of marshland and hills, and crisscrossed with canals. Batavia was a city for about 320 years until 1942 when the Dutch East Indies fell under Japanese occupation during World War II. During the Japanese occupation and again after Indonesian nationalists declared independence on August 17,1945, the period started with the founding of the walled city of Batavia by the Dutch East India Company following the destruction of the port city of Jayakarta. The period ends with the dissolution of the Dutch East India Company, in 1595, merchants from Amsterdam embarked upon an expedition to the East Indies archipelago. Under the command of Cornelis de Houtman, the expedition reached Bantam, capital of the Sultanate of Banten, in 1602, the English East India Companys first voyage, commanded by Sir James Lancaster, arrived in Aceh and sailed on to Bantam. There he was allowed to build a trading post that became the center of English trade in Indonesia until 1682, in 1602, the Dutch government granted a monopoly on Asian trade to the Dutch East India Company. In 1603, the first permanent Dutch trading post in Indonesia was established in Bantam, in 1610, Prince Jayawikarta granted permission to Dutch merchants to build a wooden godown and houses on the east bank of the Ciliwung River, opposite to Jayakarta. This outpost was established in 1611, as Dutch power increased, Jayawikarta allowed the British to erect houses on the west bank of the Ciliwung River, as well as a fort close to his customs office post, to keep the forces balanced. In December 1618, the relationship between Prince Jayawikarta and the Dutch escalated, and Jayawikartas soldiers besieged the Dutch fortress, containing the godowns Nassau. A British fleet of 15 ships arrived under the leadership of Sir Thomas Dale, after a sea battle, the newly appointed Dutch governor, Jan Pieterszoon Coen, escaped to the Moluccas to seek support. Meanwhile, the commander of the Dutch garrison, Pieter van den Broecke, along with five men, was arrested during negotiations. Later, Jayawikarta and the British entered into a friendship agreement, the Dutch army was on the verge of surrendering to the British when, in 1619, Banten sent a group of soldiers to summon Prince Jayawikarta. Jayawikartas friendship agreement with the British was without approval from the Bantenese authorities. The conflict between Banten and Prince Jayawikarta, as well as the relationship between Banten and the British, presented a new opportunity for the Dutch. Coen returned from the Moluccas with reinforcements on 28 May 1619 and razed Jayakarta to the ground on 30 May 1619, only the Padrão of Sunda Kelapa remained
12.
Sri Lanka
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Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an island country in South Asia near south-east India. Sri Lanka has maritime borders with India to the northwest and the Maldives to the southwest, Sri Lankas documented history spans 3,000 years, with evidence of pre-historic human settlements dating back to at least 125,000 years. Its geographic location and deep harbours made it of strategic importance from the time of the ancient Silk Road through to World War II. Sri Lanka was known from the beginning of British colonial rule until 1972 as Ceylon, Sri Lankas recent history has been marred by a thirty-year civil war which decisively ended when the Sri Lankan military defeated the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in 2009. A diverse and multicultural country, Sri Lanka is home to many religions, ethnic groups, in addition to the majority Sinhalese, it is home to large groups of Sri Lankan and Indian Tamils, Moors, Burghers, Malays, Kaffirs and the aboriginal Vedda. Sri Lanka has a rich Buddhist heritage, and the first known Buddhist writings of Sri Lanka, Sri Lanka is a republic and a unitary state governed by a semi-presidential system. The legislative capital, Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte, is a suburb of the capital and largest city. Along with the Maldives, Sri Lanka is one of the two countries in South Asia that are rated among high human development on the Human Development Index. In antiquity, Sri Lanka was known to travellers by a variety of names, according to the Mahavamsa, the legendary Prince Vijaya named the land Tambapanni, because his followers hands were reddened by the red soil of the area. In Hindu mythology, such as the Mahabharata, the island was referred to as Lankā, in Tamil, the island is referred to as Eelam. Ancient Greek geographers called it Taprobanā or Taprobanē from the word Tambapanni, as a British crown colony, the island was known as Ceylon, it achieved independence as the Dominion of Ceylon in 1948. The country is known in Sinhalese as Śrī Laṃkā and in Tamil as Ilaṅkai, in 1972, its formal name was changed to Free, Sovereign and Independent Republic of Sri Lanka. Later in 1978 it was changed to the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, as the name Ceylon still appears in the names of a number of organisations, the Sri Lankan government announced in 2011 a plan to rename all those over which it has authority. The pre-history of Sri Lanka goes back 125,000 years, the era spans the Palaeolithic, Mesolithic and early Iron Ages. Among the Paleolithic human settlements discovered in Sri Lanka, Pahiyangala and it is said that Kubera was overthrown by his demon stepbrother Ravana, the powerful emperor who built a mythical flying machine named Dandu Monara. The modern city of Wariyapola is described as Ravanas airport, early inhabitants of Sri Lanka were probably ancestors of the Vedda people, an indigenous people numbering approximately 2,500 living in modern-day Sri Lanka. According to the Mahāvamsa, a written in Pāḷi, the original inhabitants of Sri Lanka are the Yakshas and Nagas. Ancient cemeteries that were used before 600BC and other signs of advanced civilization has also discovered in Sri Lanka
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