A battleship was a heavily armored warship with large main guns, designed to serve as a capital ship. From the late 1880s, battleships were among the largest warships ever built, descended from sailing ships of the line through steam ships and ironclads. The British Royal Sovereign class became the first pre-dreadnought battleships, and navies built dozens of them in the 1890s and early 1900s. In 1906, the British launched HMS Dreadnought, which discarded medium guns for ten large ones and started a naval arms race. Only one major fleet clash took place in World War I, the Battle of Jutland in 1916, and it was inconclusive. Interwar treaties limited construction until Japan refused to sign the Second London Naval Treaty in 1936. In World War II aircraft carriers largely displaced them, though battleships still fought at Guadalcanal, Leyte Gulf and against Bismarck.

Hampi is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Karnataka, India, with more than 1,600 surviving remains spread over 4,100 hectares. It was the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire from 1336 to 1565. Travellers from Persia and Portugal described it as a prosperous, wealthy and grand city with temples, markets and farms along the Tungabhadra River. By 1500 it was estimated to be the world's second-largest city after Beijing, and probably India's richest at the time. In 1565 a coalition of Muslim sultanates defeated the Vijayanagara Empire, its capital was conquered and destroyed, and the city was left in ruins. Hampi remains a religious centre, with the active Virupaksha Temple at its heart.