Java was developed by James Gosling and a team at Sun Microsystems. The first version was released in 1995. It was built upon the syntax of C and C++ but designed to emphasize object-oriented programming and simplify low-level processes. Java can be used to create desktop apps, web apps (including applets and backends), and mobile apps. Key pros include portability, multithreading, small footprint (around 40KB for JAR files), and automatic garbage collection, while cons include slower execution and using more memory compared to other languages. Developers write source code, compile it to bytecode that executes with the Java Virtual Machine (JVM), and debug as needed.