Having lived through it, the problem that Java uniquely solved in the '90s was that software companiesn had fallen in love with OO but C++ was too complicated f

Having lived through it, the problem that Java uniquely solved in the '90s was that software companiesn had fallen in love with OO but C++ was too complicated for developers to use safely, with pointers vs. references problems, operator overloading (IIRC, the Zapp framework overloaded ++ to add items to a menu), and lack of garbage collection. Java was a breath of fresh air, a language sweet spot with most of C++'s power and few of its drawbacks.