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That time the USSR tried to join NATO

  NATO is a military alliance whose primary purpose used to be deterring any potential aggression from the communist Warsaw Pact, however that wasn’t always the case. Before the latter’s creation the USSR applied to join NATO in 1954. It did so as a half serious attempt (they knew they were going to get rejected) to thaw the relations between the 2 ideological factions and because it was a win-win scenario. If the West accepted them, then it would render the anti-Soviet alliance useless and Germany would stay disarmed which, after the second world war, was something the USSR wanted. Conversely if they were rejected, the USSR would be free to create its own alliance, which it did only 1 year later, after NATO stated that due to the Soviet occupation of eastern Europe and its non-democratic government the USSR can’t join and should frankly stop joking around. This situation teaches us that under the right circumstances we can make even the most unreasonable demands.  
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Srivijaya

  Srivijaya was a Buddhist thalassocracy (meaning an empire at sea) based on the island of Sumatra with its capital being (most likely) Palembang (to which the Chinese referred as Jugang meaning giant city/harbor). The empire spanned from the Malay peninsula to central Java. Srivijaya was founded around the year AD 650 and (barring a 20 years period of Chola rule in the XI century) existed as an independent state until 1288 when it was the conquered by the kingdom of Singhasari (which after a civil war 5 years later became the empire of Majapahit). Majapahit ultimately put an end to Srivijaya in 1398 by crushing the last remnants of the old empire, those being the kingdom of Singapura and absorbing its territory into Majapahit proper. Srivijaya was a major trading center,  controlling both the straits of Malacca and Sunda, w ith ports located along the entirety of northern Sumatra, it was responsible for the flow of goods (such as rice, cotton, indigo, silver, gold, aloe,...
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