Champa, Dai Viet, Pagan, and the Other Kingdoms of Medieval Southeast Asia

The kingdom of Champa, of predominantly Austronesian culture, developed along the central and southern coast of present-day Vietnam from roughly the second to the seventeenth century, organized as a confederation of regional principalities — Indrapura, Amaravati, Vijaya, Kauthara, Panduranga — rather than a single centralized state. Its predominant religion was Hinduism, especially the cult of Shiva, visible in the brick temple complex of My Son, and its economy was strongly oriented toward maritime trade, including the export of prized aromatic aloeswood. Champa maintained a persistent rivalry with the kingdom of Dai Viet to its north, a struggle Vietnamese historiography calls "Nam tiến," the "southward march," through which Dai Viet progressively expanded at Champa's expense from roughly the eleventh to the seventeenth century; the fall of Champa's capital, Vijaya, to Vietnamese forces in 1471 marked a decisive turning point in the kingdom's decline.