Balambangan

Balambangan occupied Java's easternmost lands, across the strait from Bali. Its Hindu rulers maintained a court and ports at the edge of the Javanese world, between Muslim powers to the west and the kingdoms of Bali to the east. The northern port of Panarukan and, later, the coast near Banyuwangi linked this fertile country to the seas around the island.

The eastern court had already rivalled the western centre of Majapahit in the succession war of 1404–1406. After Majapahit weakened, Balambangan endured as a separate Hindu polity, sought by both the Javanese states and Balinese rulers. Panarukan was contested by Pasuruan and fell to Mataram's expansion in the seventeenth century. In 1665 Tawang Alun established a new capital at Macan Putih near Banyuwangi. After his death Balinese influence grew, while succession disputes left the court vulnerable to outside intervention. In the eighteenth century the Dutch East India Company and British traders competed for influence in this eastern corner of Java.