Madurese

The Madurese are an Austronesian people native to Madura off northeastern Java, speaking a Malayo-Sumbawan language. In the fourteenth century the island lay within Majapahit, whose naval colours survive in the red-and-white stripes of Madurese dress. They later became Sunni Muslims, their pondok pesantren pioneering Islamic learning in the archipelago.

In 1624 Sultan Agung of Mataram conquered Madura and installed the Cakraningrat line. Trunajaya, a descendant of the old Madurese lords, revolted in the 1670s with Makassarese allies and sacked Mataram's capital in 1677, before Dutch intervention crushed it; he was captured and executed.

The Dutch East India Company gained eastern Madura in 1705 and full sovereignty in 1743, when Cakraningrat IV's resistance ended in exile at the Cape of Good Hope. Under Dutch rule the island supplied troops and later salt, while migrants carried pencak silat and the karapan sapi bull races across the archipelago.