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Pacific worlds : a history of seas, peoples, and cultures Cover Image

Pacific worlds : a history of seas, peoples, and cultures / Matt K. Matsuda.

Matsuda, Matt K. (Author).

Summary:

Asia, the Pacific Islands and the coasts of the Americas have long been studied separately. This history of the Pacific traces the global interactions and remarkable peoples that have connected these regions with each other and with Europe and the Indian Ocean, for millennia. From ancient canoe navigators, monumental civilizations, pirates and seaborne empires, to the rise of nuclear testing and global warming, the author ranges across the frontiers of colonial history, anthropology and Pacific Rim economics and politics, piecing together a history of the region. The book identifies and draws together the defining threads and extraordinary personal narratives which have contributed to this history, showing how localized contacts and contests have often blossomed into global struggles over colonialism, tourism and the rise of Asian economies. Drawing on Asian, Oceanian, European, American, ancient and modern narratives, the author assembles a Pacific region from a global perspective.

Record details

ISBN: 9780521887632
ISBN: 0521887631
ISBN: 9780521715669
ISBN: 0521715660
Physical Description: xii, 436 pages : illustrations, maps ; 23 cm
Publisher: Cambridge ; Cambridge University Press, 2012.

Content descriptions

Bibliography, etc. Note:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 379-412) and index.

Formatted Contents Note:

Introduction: Encircling the ocean -- Civilization without a center -- Trading rings and tidal empires -- Straits, sultans and treasure fleets -- Conquered colonies and Iberian ambitions -- Island encounters and the Spanish lake -- Sea changes and spice islands -- Samurai, priests, and potentates -- Pirates and raiders of the eastern seas -- Asia, America, and the age of the galleons -- Navigators of Polynesia and paradise -- Gods and sky piercers -- Extremities of the Great Southern Continent -- The world that Canton made -- Flags, treaties, and gunboats -- Migrations, plantations, and the people trade -- Imperial destinies on foreign shores -- Traditions of engagement and ethnography -- War stories from the Pacific theater -- Prophets and rebels of decolonization -- Critical mass for the earth and ocean -- Specters of memory, agents of development -- Repairing legacies, claiming histories -- Afterword: World heritage.