The programming language itself was developed based on C++.

Originally C++ was

going to be used as the language for the software platform, but found it lacking in
some areas that Sun wanted such as memory consumption and management. So Sun made
their own with these goals in mind:
It must be "simple, object-oriented, and familiar".
It must be "robust and secure".
It must be "architecture-neutral and portable".
It must execute with "high performance".
It must be "interpreted, threaded, and dynamic".
Though it can be argued that Sun achieved many of these points, one of the goals
that Sun wanted and achieved to great success was the idea of the "Write Once, Run
Anywhere." That is, Java source files are not compiled for the target machine. So
they are not converted into executables for Intel x86, Motorola 68000, or ARM.
Instead, they are compiled into what is called "bytecode", which for all intents
and purposes is a type of machine language code. The difference is the machine
doesn't actually exist. The bytecode is read by the other component of the Java
Software Platform to be run on the target system. This system however is not unique
to Java, nor did Sun invent it.

Java applications themselves are usually packed in Java Archive (JAR) files. If one
has a Java system platform installed on the OS, the default action is to execute
the JAR file. Otherwise, one can open the JAR file in a archive manager that can
handle the .zip extension and view or modify the source code and assets from there.
This is a common way to add mods and hacks to Minecraft, a well known Java
application.

As a bit of historical info, originally it was called Oak after a tree in front of
the main developers office. Then it went to Green as it was the project's codename
before finally settling on Java after the coffee type (insert joke about how much
software developers need their coffee).

The Java Virtual Machine (JVM)

The Java Virtual Machine, or JVM, is what runs the actual Java language compiled
bytecode on the system. From a 10,000 foot point of view, this is what converts the
bytecode into the target system's machine language to run. This system is known as
Just-In-Time compiling. Since the implementation details of the JVM are more or
less a standard, anyone can develop their own. Though the one most people are
familiar with is the "official" one from Oracle, who now maintains the Java
Software Platform.
Java's Legacy
Java was widely used in the 90s and early 2000s as a way to develop web
applications before HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and others were developed enough to make
web applications themselves. Because of Sun's paradigm of "Write Once, Run
Anywhere", this made any device that could run a JVM use the web application.
However, in late 2000s and beyond, for reasons only Sun and Oracle know, the JVM
has been plagued with security issues and often requires updating every few months.
That coupled with other software frameworks that work natively with web browsers,
as the JVM is a separate installation, started eroding Java as the go-to platform
for web applications. It had a small resurgence due to the Java Software Platform
being used in Minecraft on PC, but the game has since been ported to other
languages.
One area of confusion is with the scripting language JavaScript. It has almost
nothing to do with Java other than both are web application technologies. It was
originally called LiveScript, but at the time of its public release, the developers
renamed it after Java since it was the hot technology at the time.

The Java Software Platform influenced Microsoft to create the Common Language
Infrastructure. Microsoft's implementation of it, known as the .NET Framework, uses
several programming languages that are compiled into an intermediate form before
another program executes the program for the target system.

The Java language itself is also the main language for Android application
development. However, Android does not use the Java Virtual Machine to execute the
code. Rather Google developed its own platform called Davlik, and later Android Run
Time, to run the code. This got Google in hot water with Oracle when Oracle
acquired Sun as the first thing Oracle did was file a lawsuit against Google. Also,
the usage of Java language but not the virtual machine has caused confusion with
some technology geeks thinking Google is dumb for using a system that's known for
its security vulnerabilities (only the JVM has issues, the language itself does
not).