Majapahit's expansion from a single Javanese kingdom to a sprawling maritime power owed much to one man: Gajah Mada, the empire's prime minister from roughly 1331 until his death around 1364. According to Javanese tradition, Gajah Mada swore an oath called the Sumpah Palapa, vowing to abstain from all spiced food until he had brought the entire archipelago under Majapahit's authority. Over twenty-eight years, he largely delivered on that promise. The Nagarakretagama, a court poem composed in 1365, lists 98 tributary states stretching from Sumatra to New Guinea, encompassing territories that correspond to modern Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei, and parts of the Philippines. Whether all these states were truly under Majapahit control or merely acknowledged its prestige remains debated, but the poem captures the empire's astonishing geographic ambition.

The ruins at Trowulan, near present-day Mojokerto in East Java, reveal a city far grander than its rural surroundings suggest today. Aerial and satellite imagery has uncovered an extensive network of canals that once crisscrossed the capital, suggesting sophisticated water management for a city that may have housed hundreds of thousands of people. The Wringin Lawang, a 15.5-meter red brick split gate, still stands as the entrance to what was likely an important compound. Reliefs recovered from the site depict walled compounds, ramparts, temples, and countryside scenes. Each year, on the first day of the month of Caitra in the lunar calendar, representatives from all tribute-paying territories traveled to Trowulan to pay court to the king, transforming the capital into a gathering point for the entire archipelago.

Majapahit's reach attracted the attention of travelers from far beyond Southeast Asia. The Italian Franciscan friar Odoric of Pordenone visited Java between 1318 and 1330 during an extraordinary overland journey from Padua through Persia, India, and Sri Lanka. In his account, he described the king of Java as ruling over seven vassal kings, an observation broadly consistent with the empire's hierarchical structure of direct provinces and semi-autonomous dependencies. Chinese records from the Ming dynasty also document extensive contact. The empire's territories were roughly divided into three administrative tiers: the palace and its immediate surroundings, the directly governed regions of East Java and Bali, and the outer dependencies that enjoyed substantial internal autonomy so long as they paid tribute.

Majapahit's decline was neither sudden nor simple. A civil war in the late 14th century weakened central authority and loosened the empire's grip on its vassal states. Islam, arriving through coastal trading networks, gradually gained adherents among Javanese port communities. By the early 16th century, the Sultanate of Demak, a former Majapahit vassal on Java's north coast, had grown powerful enough to challenge its overlord. In 1527, Demak crushed Majapahit, and the Hindu-Buddhist court collapsed. Courtiers, artisans, priests, and members of the royal family fled east, many crossing to the island of Bali, where they transplanted the culture, religion, and artistic traditions that define Balinese civilization to this day. A small Hindu enclave survived in the Tengger mountain range of East Java, where the Tenggerese people still practice their faith.

Indonesia has not forgotten Majapahit. Gajah Mada is honored as a national hero, and his name graces a major university in Yogyakarta and streets in cities across the country. The Majapahit coat of arms inspired elements of Indonesia's national emblem, and the empire's territorial reach is sometimes invoked to justify the modern nation's boundaries. At Trowulan, archaeological work continues to expand understanding of the capital's true extent. Findings from 2011 suggest the city was much larger than previously believed. For travelers flying over East Java, the flat, canal-laced landscape around Mojokerto offers few dramatic landmarks, but the ground beneath holds the foundations of a civilization that once connected the pepper ports of Sumatra to the spice islands of Maluku under a single Javanese crown.