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In the Wake of the Whale: Towards a Liquid Area History of the Pacific

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2025

Tessa Morris-Suzuki
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Abstract

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In the 19th century, the massive growth of commercial whaling transformed the face of the Pacific, causing widespread ecological destruction, but also creating new links between island and shoreline communities across the region. By exploring that history from the mobile viewpoint of whaleships as they crossed and re-crossed the ocean, this essay seeks to develop a ‘liquid area’ approach to 19th century transformations in the Asia-Pacific region. Such an approach, I argue, shifts the historical focus to communities that are commonly regarded as ‘remote’ and peripheral to narratives of national history. It helps us to see how the people of these communities responded actively and creatively to the incursions of global capitalism, and how they became participants in networks of interaction and exchange which spanned the region from Chile and Peru to Hawaii, Japan, the Bering Sea coast and the many islands of Oceania.

Keywords

Pacific historywhalingarea studies
Type
Research Article
Information
Asia-Pacific Journal , Volume 22 , Issue 3 , March 2024 , e4
Copyright
Copyright © The Authors 2024

References

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