The history of the Pacific Ocean is often told as a story of isolated islands like French Polynesia or Hawaii, or as a mere backdrop to European discovery. But what if it’s a central maritime world—a network of interconnections and struggles spanning landlocked Bolivia, Banaba island in Kiribati, and Haizhou, China? How did networks of silver, nitrates, and phosphates fuse the destinies of tiny Pacific islands with continental powers? And why did some regions escape becoming economic hinterlands while others faced total ecological devastation? Asia Historian Dr Lewis Mayo from Asia Institute joins host Sami Shah to unravel the threads of the historical tapestry of this vast region.
An Asia Institute podcast. Produced and edited by profactual.com. Music by audionautix.com. Transcript here.
Main image: Lewis Mayo. Listing image: Detailed view of a woven thatched roof made from dried palm leaves. Credit: Debora Silveira/Pexels.