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

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Matsuda, Matt K., author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Pacific Area--Civilization.

Pacific Area.

Pacific Area--History.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xii, 436 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2012.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Asia, the Pacific Islands and the coasts of the Americas have long been studied separately. This essential single-volume 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 civilisations, pirates and seaborne empires, to the rise of nuclear testing and global warming, Matt Matsuda 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 localised 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 fascinating Pacific region from a truly global perspective.

Contents:

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.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Oct 2015).

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

1-107-22614-7

1-139-20949-3

1-280-56871-2

9786613598318

1-139-22233-3

1-139-03431-6

1-139-21752-6

1-139-21444-6

1-139-22404-2

1-139-22061-6

OCLC:

780425825