The Boundless Sea

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For most of human history, seas and oceans have been vital for long-distance trade and communication, facilitating the exchange of ideas, religion, and commerce. This narrative explores the history of human movement and interaction across the world's oceans, beginning with the Polynesians, who navigated the Pacific using intuitive skills long before the compass was invented. By the first century, they were already trading between distant islands. By the seventh century, trading routes connected the coasts of Arabia and Africa to southern China and Japan, linking the Indian Ocean and western Pacific through the spice trade. In the Atlantic, various peoples, including the Bretons, Frisians, and notably the Vikings, sought new lands across the sea, with the Vikings being the first Europeans to reach North America. As Portuguese maritime dominance waned in the late sixteenth century, the Spanish, Dutch, and British successively took control of the seas. Following merchants, explorers, pirates, and cartographers in their quests for spices, gold, and knowledge, the narrative reveals how maritime networks have shaped global interactions. From early canoe voyages to the routes of today's supertankers, this account illustrates that 90 percent of global trade continues to be conducted by sea.