Empire of the Winds

Philip Bowring

Paperback

9781350162341

The Global Role of Asia’s Great Archipelago

Nusantaria – often referred to as 'Maritime Southeast Asia' – is the world's largest archipelago and has, for centuries, been a vital cultural and trading hub. Nusantara, a Sanskrit, then Malay, word referring to an island realm, is here adapted to become Nusantaria - denoting a slightly wider world but one with a single linguistic, cultural and trading base. Nusantaria encompasses the lands and shores created by the melting of the ice following the last Ice Age. These have long been primarily the domain of the Austronesian-speaking peoples and their seafaring traditions. The surrounding waters have always been uniquely important as a corridor connecting East Asia to India, the Middle East, Europe and Africa. In this book, Philip Bowring provides a history of the world's largest and most important archipelago and its adjacent coasts. He tells the story of the peoples and lands located at this crucial maritime and cultural crossroads, from its birth following the last Ice Age to today.

Contents

1. Child of a Drowned Parent

2. Nusantaria's Defining Features and Early People

3. To Babylon and Back

4. Ghosts of Early Empires

5. Culture from India, Goods from China

6. Srivijaya: Vanished Great Mandala

7. Java Takes Centre Stage

8. Tamil Tigers of Trade 

9. Champa: Master of the East Sea

10. Malagasy Genes and African Echoes 

11. China Raises its Head 

12. The Majapahit Good Life

13. Tremble and Obey: the Zheng He Voyages

14. Nails, Dowels and Improbable Ships 

15. Malay Melaka's Lasting Legacy

16. The Northern Outliers

17. Islam's Great Leap East

18. Nusantaria: Holed near the Waterline

19. Barangays and Baybayin

20. Makassar, Bugis and Freedom of the Seas

21. Where Kings Reign but Priests Rule

22. The Sulu Factor: Trading, Raiding, Slaving

23. Nusantaria's Existential Crisis 

24. Labour, Capital, Kongsi: The Power of the Chinese 

25. High Noon of Occupation

26. Empty Lands No Longer

27. Freedom, Fears and the Future