The Boundless Sea: A Human History of the Oceans

by David Abulafia

WINNER OF THE WOLFSON HISTORY PRIZE 2020

A SUNDAY TIMES, FINANCIAL TIMES, THE TIMES AND BBC HISTORY MAGAZINE BOOK OF THE YEAR

For most of human history, the seas and oceans have been the main means of long-distance trade and communication between peoples - for the spread of ideas and religion as well as commerce. This book traces the history of human movement and interaction around and across the world's greatest bodies of water, charting our relationship with the oceans from the time of the first voyagers. David Abulafia begins with the earliest of seafaring societies - the Polynesians of the Pacific, the possessors of intuitive navigational skills long before the invention of the compass, who by the first century were trading between their far-flung islands. By the seventh century, trading routes stretched from the coasts of Arabia and Africa to southern China and Japan, bringing together the Indian Ocean and the western Pacific and linking half the world through the international spice trade. In the Atlantic, centuries before the little kingdom of Portugal carved out its powerful, seaborne empire, many peoples sought new lands across the sea - the Bretons, the Frisians and, most notably, the Vikings, now known to be the first Europeans to reach North America. As Portuguese supremacy dwindled in the late sixteenth century, the Spanish, the Dutch and then the British each successively ruled the waves.

Following merchants, explorers, pirates, cartographers and travellers in their quests for spices, gold, ivory, slaves, lands for settlement and knowledge of what lay beyond, Abulafia has created an extraordinary narrative of humanity and the oceans. From the earliest forays of peoples in hand-hewn canoes through uncharted waters to the routes now taken daily by supertankers in their thousands, The Boundless Sea shows how maritime networks came to form a continuum of interaction and interconnection across the 90 per cent of global trade is still conducted by sea. This is history of the grandest scale and scope, and from a bracingly different perspective - not, as in most global histories, from the land, but from the boundless seas.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Science, Nature, World History, Audiobook, Geography

1088 pages, Paperback

First published October 3, 2019

About the author

David Samuel Harvard Abulafia is a British historian with a particular interest in Italy, Spain and the rest of the Mediterranean during the Middle Ages and Renaissance.
His published works include Frederick II, The Mediterranean in History, Italy in the central Middle Ages, The Discovery of Mankind: Atlantic encounters in the age of Columbus and The Great Sea: a human history of the Mediterranean.

Reviews

[Henk · Rating 3 out of 5]

A sprawling account of maritime trade and the development of especially the maritime colonial empires of Portugal, Spain, the Dutch and the English. A lot is covered, but the focus on some of the periods where only scant historic sources exist, make the book less compelling than I had hoped
Wether in the Baltic or the Mediterranean, crusade and trade were intimately intertwined &

David Abulafia takes on the relation of humans with the oceans (Indian, Pacific and Atlantic predominantly, with the Arctic and Southern one's being much less economically or strategically important during most of history) in this 1.000 page plus book.
Till the time of the European travels of discovery, around halfway the book, the story of these oceans is mostly discrete, inhibited by the ways of transport available. It's an interesting, if very long book, but it definitely captures the complexities and serendipity of global trade networks in a compelling, holistic manner. I liked the part onwards from the Portuguese expensansion most, since only then an interconnected world becomes more apparent (plus being more documented), but definitely an achievement how the author dove into the various farflung archeological records around the globe.

Eastern shores
The Boundless Sea: A Human History of the Oceans starts of with the settlement of the pacific islands taking 3000 years, with New Zealand only being reached around 1400. Oceans acted as a vehicle for trade in luxury goods, with in Roman times Italian wine making it into India, in exchange for pepper and ivory. Marcus Aurelius his envoys even reached China, if being dismissed as commonplace in terms of trade goods by the Heavenly Empire. Conversely, Vietnamese South China Sea ports in the earliest centuries after Christ showing more remains of Roman produce than Chinese artifacts, showing the length of trade routes. Interestingly even asbestos was a rare good being traded by Malay sailors.
Lack of archeological evidence for many coastal earlier cities due to changes in sea levels since the classical ages make much of the earlier parts of the book fragmentary.

Indonesian city states sending tribute to the distant emperor of China as political tool against neighbors forms a major part of the more political usages of the great seas.

Japanese medieval sailors send by the Nara emperor being notoriously bad at navigation beyond their own archipelago, with a Korean ship returning from China in three weeks versus nine months to a solely Japanese manned ship. This was followed by a period of Chinese navigator dominance and then a Japanese piracy riddled period.
Overseas trade taxes only yielding 2% of the budget of Song empire, China being with few exception a terrestrial force first and foremost.

The west before its rise
Axes made of bronze being a currency in the Atlantic settlements of the Bronze Age, proven by over 800 found together, and because lead was used as an alloy, making the weapons unsuitable for battle.

Frisian lack of grain and wine forming an impulse for amber trade. Piracy being an permanent companion to sea trade.
Dorrestad and The Netherlands being named during the Carolingian era as a major trading hub is nice to see. Boat burials of vikings, to signify social status, and the importance of seafaring in their societies. Vikings even raiding as far as Seville and Norway taking its name from raiders coming from the North to Britain (plus forming the basis of Normandy as a name).

The attention to the Orkney Islands and Iceland feels too large compared to the whole treatment of Japan and Indonesia in the earlier parts of the book.
The Hansa then again is very interesting! Brugge a centre of accounting and banking, with Castilian, Hansa, Venetian, Florentine and many other traders having businesses there.
Wool products from England leading to a mass influx of silver during the middle ages and forming a base for Flemish cloth production.

Chronicles of exploitation and exploitation, and strife for rich fish grounds form most of the medieval interactions with the Atlantic.

Fleets of Spain and Portugal emerging due to the Moors fitting own fleets after Viking raids at the turn of the millennium.
Madeira producing over 1 million kilograms of sugar in the 15th century and offered hardwood for shipbuilding.
Slave trade being a core goal of the Portuguese crown and , but later on being dwarfed by gold trade in El Mina.

Maritime empires of the Portuguese, Spanish and Dutch
America found while searching for Asia, with Genovese sailors selling their navigation knowledge being instrumental to the discoveries Portugal and Spain made.
Mozambique forming a staging area for the Portuguese, who craved the gold of Zimbabwe to trade for spices in India.
Violence and firepower by cannons as a foundation for their trading posts, making them disliked by native populations and trading partners alike.
The Venetians went so far as informing the Mamluks on the encroachment of Portugal on the spice trade, clearly putting their commercial interests above any Christian allegiances. Venice even offering Alexandria wood to build a fleet opposing Portuguese ships.

Intense competition between Spain and Portugal, with the demarcation of the globe by the pope hardly helping in settling any conflicts. Even King Philip was not able to merge the Portuguese and Spanish trade networks, despite holding both crowns of Iberia.

Vermillion passports offered by Japanese shoguns to Japanese traders to over 16 countries, including the Philippines and Vietnam.
Silver being mined in Japan and traded for Chinese goods, first by the Portuguese and then the Dutch. Also staple good including flour being a lucrative trade for Japanese supplying Manila.
Japanese mercenaries serving in Manila and being feared for their battle prowess.

Silver arbitrage, with the ratio being 5kg to 1kg of gold in China and 15kg to 1kg of gold in Peru, being key to international trade developing. Porcelain and Chinese earthenware serving as ballast on the return trips, after ships loaded off their silver.

The rise of the Dutch, taking over the Portuguese naval empire, including parts of Brazil and Angola. VOC and WIC being founded in response to trade boycotts and blockades from Spain and Portugal, leading ships to head out for salt as far as Venezuela and for spices as far as in Indonesia.

David Mitchell, my favorite author, even comes back, getting some love from the author for The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet and the depiction of Dutch Deshima, being the only European trading window onto Japan. The Japan monopoly of the Dutch being supremely profitable at 75% margins, compared to slave trade generating 45% margins.

Other players emerge
Armenia’s flag being used as a neutral flag for Persians and Turks, being left alone by European sea powers when they flew this flag.

Danish East India and West India companies being set up to compete with the Dutch and English (but being much less successful than their competitors). In the end Denmark did gain three Caribbean islands and even forts on the coast of Guinea to facilitate slave trade.
The setting up of competing trade companies, that failed to achieve scale versus the first moving naval empires, reminds me of the commercial scramble for the internet or the streaming market currently.

Tea becoming more important than pepper during the late 16th century, with initially Swedes taking the lead in this trade, supplying Great Britain which levied taxes of over 100% on imports of this luxury (and leading to the Boston Tea Party).
American merchant financing piracy in Madagascar where they made slave trade.
English colonization of the Caribbean induced by high demand for tobacco and sugar.

What luxuries we now enjoy lead to terrible conditions on the other side of the world, like sugar did in the 15th to 18th century? is something that crossed my mind when reading the book.

Astor his fortunes, and the general recovery of the USA economy after the war of independence hinging partly on fur trade with China.
General northern sea exploitation driven by demand for furs.

One in 6 ships in the 19th century sank in the end during Atlantic or Pacific ocean crossing.

[H (trying to keep up with GR friends) Balikov · Rating 4 out of 5]

Our oceans are our planet’s greatest geographical features and, at over 1000 pages, Abulafia’s book may be the most comprehensive treatment of humankind’s relationship to those big bodies of water.

I won’t tell you that I have read every page of this book; that could take a decade. I have followed my interests and been very pleased with what I have learned (and un-learned).

For instance, I found enlightening the account of the Manila galleon route and the Carlettis, father and son. Abulafia makes a good case for why this route and similar were much more important (yet less notable) than the circumnavigations by Magellan, Elcano and Drake.

Also there is a nice piece about the islands of the south Atlantic and why Ascension Island, Tristran da Cunha and St Helena had significance far beyond their size (because they could re-supply the India fleets).

I found the strategy for keeping Singapore a “free port” and its affect on the monopoly assemble by the Dutch fascinating. Details about how Baba Tan Tock Seng (who came from Melaka) but achieved wealth and influence by becoming “business partners” with key British were part of the complex tapestry woven by Abulafia.

I stand by my determination to come back to this book from either need or want. Until then, 4* should be sufficient.

[Patricia · Rating 5 out of 5]

The most important reason you need to read this book is because it's probably due time you updated your knowledge of world history. You'll discover this just reading the Preface. Although its 1000+ pages appear daunting, I cannot believe that this beautifully crafted story of showing the role the oceans have played in "making connections between human societies," told in a voice that is relaxed yet in command of the subject matter, by a story-teller who enriches every page with the perfect story (or two), and who is confident in his knowledge, will not capture you. And the payoff is that this is not an academic tome in tone, and its author is not afraid of debunking old myths and beliefs along the way.

Not a chapter or a topic is introduced when we don't have to pause to reconsider something we thought we knew. Henry the Navigator? The ruler who opened up the world? "Thoroughly modern Henry is a myth" we are told. "The statue of Henry that looms over the quayside at Belém, near Lisbon, pointing the way of his navigators out into the far ocean, was built for an exhibition in 1940...and says more about the imperial myths of Portugal...than it does about Portugal in the days of Prince Henry" (p. 480). Another example: I was taught by a very congenial professor a long time ago that it was 'Roman trade' that built those early CE centuries of trade across the Arabian Sea between the Red Sea and India/Ceylon but as this Emeritus Professor of Mediterranean History at the University of Cambridge points out, it's "important to remember that the economy of coastal India was not sustained simply by contact with the Roman Empire" (p. 117).

Many of these errors, as Abulafia notes in this hefty tome (buy the hardback; the paperback is so thick one can barely hold it after a few hours) is because we have for too long depended too often on European sources and because the advances in archaeology, linguistics and other sciences have opened many once-locked doors and because we are perhaps more open to learning the whole stories. "It makes no sense," he writes, for example, in the chapter 'The Struggle for the Indian Ocean' "to concentrate on the Turks and the Egyptians to the exclusion of native Indian merchants who also challenged the Portuguese.... Gujaratis had been enjoying great success along the trade routes of the Indian Ocean until the Portuguese came along" (my italics, p. 604). I loved Abulafia's identification of Ceuta as having been 'Portugal's Siberia' to which they sent their undesirables (p. 478), and his warning when exploring the incredibly complicated history of the empire of Śri Vijaya, that "Ethnic muddles of this sort are exceptionally common, and the earnestness with which scholars of the Orient have chased these will-o'-the-wisp terms round and round provides more entertainment than enlightenment" (p. 162). At last, an accomplished academic who calls what he sees, as, for example, when writing of the Portuguese attempt to force the Dutch out of the East Indies in the early 1600s: "If there was ever an example of an economic policy that backfired, it was surely the decision to place a trade embargo on the Dutch" (p. 684).

But enough of those little cherries of mirth that made this history one of the most enjoyable books I've ever read. This is a serious world history, written by one of the foremost scholars of our day who leaves no stone unturned in his search for the events, the reasons, the causes, the people, the circumstances that influenced events. The evidence he presents ranges from shipwreck finds across the world's oceans to ancient manuscripts hastily copied around 900 AD in the Byzantine Empire (The Periplous, written by an Egyptian Greek from whom we learn of the world of Arabian Sea trade around the first or early 2nd century CE). Exploration, trade, food, ceramics, firearms, ship-building, pirates, slavery, the pepper trade ... let me just point out that the index alone (in miniscule type in three columns) is 63 pages long.

I know personally of this professor's passion for his subject matter and the thoroughness of his research because during a very brief stopover here in Singapore a few years ago, in addition to a number of talks and events he had committed to, he found a way to make a day bus trip up to Malacca and back to see for himself its site and the old Portuguese fort. When he writes of Malacca, which figures often in The Boundless Sea (7" of page references in the Index), you see it literally through his eyes. I have no doubt he has stood in the vast majority of sites he writes of (including Ceuta) and has read every chronicle he quotes from.

I have read several of Professor Abulafia's former books and thought The Great Sea (about the Mediterranean) couldn't be surpassed, but this book surpasses it. The words on the back cover say it all: a historical sweep, dazzling, masterpiece, an intense and thrilling tour de force....

I hopscotched my way through the work reading the chapters united by the storylines I was most interested in (Asia and Scandinavia, and even found chapters that connected the two subjects) then returned to fill in the skipped-over sections, which I found only enriched the earlier chapters. When my hardbound copy arrives, my plan is to re-read it from beginning to end, confident that it will be even more engrossing the second time through. Let me add the Scandinavian concept of 'feast' to the accolades.

[Rama Rao · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Captive Sea: Communication and Commerce in the last four millennia

Long before Columbus set off for India, merchant mariners had been plying trade from Rome to the Indian subcontinent trading silk, spices, timber and ivory. This book is voluminous work at 1050 pages that takes the reader to far depths of the planet on water from the Pacific to Atlantic and Indian Oceans. There are 50 chapters and the reader can pick and choose a continent of interest rather than read from beginning. The five sections of the book, each dealing with the three oceans is a magnificent work and describes the tenacity of human beings for their struggle to survive, prosper and dominate the planet.

The Great Sea since the beginning of civilization is amazing as the author begins to focus on Mediterranean’s capacity over the last 3,000 years and reveals the imagination, resilience and ruthlessness of sailors. The unending domination continues as recently China leased the Piraeus docks from a cash-strapped Greek government. Building on economic and political strength is as old as the birth of civilization.

The trade of Indian Ocean from Alexandria and Red Sea ports to Indian coasts brings together the robust trade from Rome to India and the tremendous impact on commerce, culture and religion. The trade continues onwards into the eastern side of Indian Ocean to Malay Archipelago. The navigation based on monsoons propelled trade between China, the eastern archipelago and India. The Indian trade also brought Hinduism and Buddhism to South East Asia.

Author Abulafia decodes successive generations testing the sea as a source of survival. He also shows that it is a bearer of promises and rewards. The waterways were an ecosystem swayed by oceans currents and monsoon. But the political initiative and commerce determined the importance of Mediterranean cities and Asia. This is a fascinating book that includes every continent and brings amazing amount of history. I recommend this to readers interested in human adventure and ancient history.

[Inderjit Sanghera · Rating 4 out of 5]

Abualafia has the rare ability to write about history in a way that is both erudite and accessible in a book which is both full of depth and over 800 pages long, yet singularly light. In ‘The Boundless Sea’ Abulafia explores the history of man’s explorations of the oceans, starting with the Polynesian’s exploration of the Pacific Ocean and ending with the modern commercialisation of ocean travel. Throughout Abulafia demonstrates how instrumental the ocean has been to the development of civilisation, from the spread of the alphabet via the Phoenicians, to the mapping of the stars via the Polynesians or the dominance of the West via the discovery of the Americas and imperialism.

The ocean has frequently been a source of human ingenuity, the bright spark upon which the explosion of human development rests, from free trade to culture and idea, none of these would have been possible without our exploration of the ocean. On the flipside, the ocean also hides unfathomable depths of human misery and subjugation, from the Trans-Atlantic slave trade, to the acts of piracy and way committed from 15th century Japan the Second World War. Indeed, one of Abulafia’s strengths is his attempt to paint a truly inclusive picture of history. There are a couple of issues-some of the latter chapters, especially the one covering post-WW2 are fairly dull and he seems surprisingly reluctant to explore the rise of the British Empire in any great depth, perhaps due to his political proclivities or perhaps because he has explore it in greater depth elsewhere. Nonetheless, ‘The Boundless Sea’ remains a magisterial narrative of human history.

[Rob Thompson · Rating 4 out of 5]

In The Boundless Sea: A Human History of the Oceans, David Abulafia takes readers on an expansive voyage across the world's oceans, illuminating their profound impact on human history and civilization With a deft hand, he weaves together narratives from diverse eras and cultures, revealing the seas as both barriers and bridges that have shaped the course of humanity.

One of the book’s greatest strengths lies in Abulafia’s remarkable ability to synthesize a wealth of historical events, scientific insights, and cultural reflections. He traverses a wide array of topics, from the ancient art of seafaring and the intricate web of trade routes to the pressing environmental challenges our oceans face today. His engaging writing style transforms complex subjects into accessible stories, inviting readers to lose themselves in the narrative.

The richness of detail throughout the book is equally impressive. Abulafia shares captivating anecdotes and lesser-known tales that breathe life into the history of the oceans. His passion for the subject is palpable, drawing readers into a deeper contemplation of the seas' significant roles in shaping human destiny.

Yet, the book’s ambitious scope can occasionally lead to a lack of depth in certain areas. Those seeking a thorough analysis of specific events or cultures may find themselves yearning for more detail. Moreover, the sheer volume of information can feel overwhelming at times, making it easy to lose track of the central themes that bind the narrative together.

In summary, The Boundless Sea is a thought-provoking exploration that offers a unique perspective on the intricate relationship between humanity and the oceans. Abulafia has crafted a work that balances scholarly depth with accessible storytelling, earning a solid 4 out of 5 stars. This book is a must-read for history enthusiasts, environmental advocates, and anyone intrigued by the vital role oceans play in our shared world.

[Farah Mendlesohn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I learned a ridiculous amount, sometimes huge chunks of history I knew nothing about, sometimes thrown away tit bits that left me wanting to know more.

I don't know enough to critique this book but I can highly recommend it for making the world genuinely feel like a globe.

[I listened to it on audio: it's beautifully read.]

Aside: I am getting really pissed off with gentile historians who only address the history of Jews when their ancestors were killing us. One of the marvels of this book is that Abulafia draws our attention to what Jews were doing *as Jews*, whether that is as trading partners in the spice route, victims of the Spanish Crown, or slavers.

[Tom · Rating 5 out of 5]

A sprawling, mind-boggling, occasionally unwieldy but ultimately awe-inspiring human history of the oceans. Contains everything from the earliest exploration of Polynesia (back in the 1000s BC) and nascent maritime trade between Egypt, Arabia and Persia, through Asian thalassocracies and the European mapping of the seas, right on up to how the world wars changed the balance of power at sea and the birth of container shipping. How Abulafia has managed to synthesise information that incorporates the history and geography of regions across the globe into a cohesive book is just insane.

[Igor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Коли тема настільки неохопна, є ризик, що автор вдасться до поверхового переказу і так відомих речей. Тут цього не сталось: Абулафія навіть не намагався писати історію, приміром, технологій кораблебудування або військових дій на морі, за цим потрібно звертатись до спеціалізованої літератури. Його фокус - повсякденне використання моря, тобто торгівля, подорожі та міграція. У підсумку вийшла цікаво написана книжка, у якій знайшлось місце і полінезійським мандрівникам на каное, і вікінгам, і японським піратам, і розкиданим по світу єврейським купецьким родинам. Зрештою і тисячі сторінок не вистачило для повноцінного огляду - на останні двісті років в автора, схоже, лишилось надто мало сил. Але це не псує загального позитивного враження.

[Marion Lougheed · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wasn't able to finish this book before my review copy expired, but I loved everything I read so far. Abulafia is cogent and engaging and full of fun facts as well as deep analysis and commentary. This book is a lot to take in at once, but I love how he shows that the way we divide up the world today (in terms of continents or land regions) does not represent human flows and interactions throughout much of history. The seas have connected us throughout time, especially when travel through mountains or over land was more difficult than a journey by boat or ship.

Also, the Polynesian sailors had an amazing navigational science, entirely oral and far more precise than anything the Europeans or the Chinese ever had. Read this book to learn more. ;)

[Kadri · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an absolute leviathan of a book, a beautifully narrated maritime history of the world. But since I listened to it as an audiobook, I found myself crying for maps so many times throughout the thing. Why don't audiobooks come with maps???!!! You can embed them in chapter titles! Honestly!

Also, it contains this sentence: "Before long they were reduced to a diet of grubs, psychedelic crab meat, and luminous but poisonous lizards." Now you can look forward to hearing from my new band, Psychedelic Crab Meat.

Will probably listen to it a few times more, possibly when googling maps.

[Jorge Zuluaga · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brutal.

Basto como la mar océana.

La más extensa y exhaustiva lección de geografía e Historia que he recibido hasta ahora.

Supe de "Un mar sin límites" por un amigo de los libros, Santiago Osorio, que lo descubrió, según recuerdo me contó en su momento, por una referencia hallada en otro gran libro, "Mediterráneo" de Julius Norwich; libro que, gracias a la recomendación de Santiago, yace ahora también en mi interminable lista de libros por leer.

No puedo estar más agradecido con Santiago por conducirme a esta lectura monumental, pero también, por introducirme, a través de su recomendación, en los escritos de su autor, David Abulafia, que se suma ahora a esa otra lista, no mucho menor que la de libros por leer, de mis autores preferidos.

No había emprendido hacía muchos meses la lectura de un ensayo divulgativo tan extenso como este. Si bien he leído en el entre tanto más de una novela con de cerca de 1 millar de páginas, nada se comparaba hasta ahora con la lectura de eso otro monumental ensayo histórico que no puede faltar en la biblioteca de quién se precie de buen o buena lectora - así no lo haya leído todavía. Me refiero, por supuesto, al excepcional libro "Ideas" de Peter Watson, que fue en su momento mi iniciación en ese "deporte extremo" de leer libros de ensayo de más de 1.000 páginas. Y es que no es la extensión lo que hace a estos libros excepcionales, ni a los lectores y lectoras que nos obsesionamos con leerlos en su totalidad unos bichos raros; es la densidad de datos históricos, biográficos y geográficos que contienen, densidad que resulta a la larga sencillamente apabullante.

Extensos y densos pero eso si ¡libros muy bien escritos! ¡libros maravillosos!.

Apabullante: ese sería otro adjetivo adecuado para describir el inmenso proyecto que desarrolla Abulafia en "Un mar sin límites". Como seguro habrán leído en la descripción (no me gustan las reseñas que repiten lo que se puede leer en una contraportada) "Un mar sin límites" hace un recorrido por más de 170.000 años y, con toda seguridad - el autor no los contabiliza -, por más de 1 millón de kilómetros (que es solo la longitud conjunta de todas las costas de los continentes e islas de la Tierra); el increíble periplo histórico y espacial de la humanidad alrededor de los océanos y mares de la Tierra.

El resultado no puede ser más monumental. Abulafia nos conduce con maestría ensayística y rigor académico por todas las costas y mares de la Tierra, desde las remotas islas en la mitad del inmenso Pacífico o las ricas islas en medio del Atlántico, pasando por las costas de Africa, el sur y oriente de Asia, América y Europa, en las que se desarrollaron algunos de los eventos más importantes de la Historia de la humanidad, hasta llegar incluso a las accidentadas y remotas costas que comunican a Asia con América, a las heladas Tierras de Groenlandia o a los laberintos de mar y Tierra del ártico canadiense.

Ningún lugar en las costas de los océanos de la Tierra parece escapar a este inmenso viaje. De allí mi afirmación de que "Un mar sin límites" es la más grande lección de geografía a la que se pueda aspirar a través de un único libro de ensayo.

Me complació muchísimo conocer con mucho detalles a través de los a veces interminables, más no insoportables, capítulos dedicados a esta parte de la geografía de los océanos, las regiones del suroriente de Asia: indonesia, indochina, las costas del mar meridional de la China o el archipiélago de Filipinas y de Japón. Para quiénes vivimos tan lejos de esos lugares, pero que al mismo tiempo no somos ajenos a la importancia que muchos de ellos han tenido en la historia pasada de la humanidad, pero más importante, el papel que están teniendo en la historia presente, conocer al fin la organización de esas geografías remotas es simplemente revelador.

Para mí, después de leer "Un mar sin límites", lugares como Singapur, Borneo, Filipinas, Melaka, Indonesia, Guangzhou (Cantón), Nagasaki, Taiwan, Java, Shanghai, Sumatra, Sri Lanka, lugares que están en el imaginario de la mayoría de todo los humanos de este lado del planeta, bien sea por referencias turísticas o razones sociopolíticas, han dejado de ser de repente para mí sitios exóticos, sitios que solo existen por allá al otro lado del mundo, en algún lugar de oriente, para convertirse en lugares con una ubicación específica en un mapa (¡los mapas abundan en el libro y son indispensables!) con una larga Historia llena de eventos fundamentales para la Historia del resto del planeta. Hoy, puedo señalar en un mapa dónde esta cualquiera de esos lugares y aunque esto parezca una hazaña infantil, es mucho más de lo que puede cualquiera recordar de todos los años de lecciones de historia y geografía en el colegio.

Naturalmente esto no es lo más importante que deja la lectura de "Un mar sin límites". El mensaje central, sea que haya sido el propósito o no del autor, es mucho más impresionante: no hay una Historia de occidente, la que nos han enseñado a casi todos y que conocemos con lujo de detalles; tampoco una historia de oriente, lejana y desconocida para la mayoría; no existe, aislada, una prehistoria del pacífico o de la América precolombina. Gracias a los océanos, que han actuado a lo largo de más de 100.000 años de navegación como el sistema circulatorio de las ideas y la cultura de la humanidad, existe una sola Historia. No hay un solo evento que haya marcado la vida de las generaciones de humanos del presente, y con ellas las de toda la vida de la Tierra, dígase por caso el comercio y el consumo de té - para citar tan solo un ejemplo de los muchos en los que ahonda Abulafia, que haya ocurrido sin la concatenación de cientos o miles de eventos cruciales acaecidos en las costas, mares e islas de todo el planeta; desde el "Mediterráneo de Asia," el mar de la China Meridional, del que salieron los primeros cargamentos de esta bendita planta, pasando por el océano indico - si en la Europa del imperio Romano, todos los caminos conducían a Roma, en el mismo tiempo de ese impero, pero también mucho antes y después, todos los "caminos" pasaban por el océano índico - recorriendo las costas occidentales de Africa, plagadas de portugueses esclavistas, atravesando el atlántico o el pacífico en Carabelas españolas, todo el mundo tuvo que ver.

Una relectura de la Historia como un relato naturalmente interconectado, eso me deja pues también este extraordinario recorrido que es "Un mar sin límites".

Hojeando el libro para escribir esta reseña, que me tomo semanas empezar por encontrarme ante la desconsoladora pregunta de por dónde empezar a reseñar 170.000 años de historia y 1 millón de kilómetros compactados en 1300 páginas de buena literatura divulgativa, historia que se supone yo debo reseñar en unos 10.000 caracteres sin aburrir a mi yo futuro o a los lectores que siguen mis reseñas - por una razón que todavía desconozco; hojeando el libro, digo, me encontré con cosas que había leído y no recordaba. Historias increíbles que ahora me place mucho conocer. En una historia sobre los humanos en el mar, por ejemplo, no podrían quedar por fuera los Vikingos ¿o sí?. Leyendo a Abulafia descubrí que la historia de los navegantes del norte de Europa, del Báltico, del mar del norte, del atlántico norte, del ártico, todos lugares muy diferentes para mi sorpresa, es más compleja de lo que pensaba y trasciende a los Vikingos, esas tribus exploradoras a las que todos reducimos la historia del norte de Europa. Ni idea tenía yo de la existencia de la liga Hanseática y de los logros de comercio y navegación que sentaron las bases para algunos de los avances sociales y económicos más importantes de Europa, cuya Historia, querámoslo o no, para bien o para mal, marco el devenir de todo el mundo. Los Vikingos son solo la punta de un "iceberg" histórico que se pone en evidencia en las páginas de "Un mar sin límites".

La Historia, ampliada y enriquecida por Abulafia, del (supuesto) descubrimiento de América por Españoles, Portugueses, Ingleses y Franceses en los 1500 y su posterior (y brutal) colonización, resultó también para mí increíblemente más rica y excitante de lo que nunca fue cuando me la contaron en el colegio, incluso en otros libros dedicados al tema.

El papel clave de las islas del Caribe, Cuba, Jamaica, La Española, Bahamas, las Antillas holandesas, incluso la diminuta Barbados, en la compleja geopolítica de aquel tiempo, islas que en muchas ocasiones se nos presentan simplemente como el puente entre dos mundos, el viejo y el nuevo continente (que de viejo y de nuevo no tienen realmente nada, para viejas las islas del pacífico y para nueva la Antártida) y no como el verdadero corazón de la Historia del encuentro entre Europa y América. O mejor, del encuentro de Europa con Europa, teniendo a los pueblos originales de América como testigos mudos y esclavizados, en las tierras ricas de América. "Fue el Caribe estúpido", dirían por ahí. El papel de las costas del pacífico en ese período fue también para mí una sorpresa. O más bien se me revelo como una ofensa de mi educación ¿por qué todo las historias que me contaron de aquel período comenzaban en Sevilla y terminaban en Cartagena de Indias, en el Darien, en Yucatán o en la Florida?.

Leer "Un mar sin límites" no es un proyecto sencillo.

Para una persona como yo obsesionada con llegar al final de los libros (hay mucho para leer y muy poco tiempo) puede tomar entre uno y dos meses de lecturas relativamente continua. Para aquellas personas que no soporten leer una infinidad de detalles sobre mundos remotos en el espacio y en el tiempo, detalles sin embargo que a la larga resultan trascendentales (para citar un ejemplo déjenme mencionar los enfrentamientos entre los reyes de Java e Indonesia durante la que llamamos la edad media, una lucha de poderes que a la larga fueron trascendentales para los eventos que se desarrollaron alrededor de esas islas y que determinaron el comercio de productos exóticos - especias, té, porcelana - hacia Europa, pero también hacia China, con los impactos trascendentales en la historia que todos conocemos); para quiénes no soporten leer esos detalles, recorrer todas las páginas de este libro tal vez llegue a ser imposible. La recompensa sin embargo puede valer el esfuerzo. Como sucede con casi todos los libros, al final no recordaras casi nada (¡es casi absurdo aspirar a tanto!) pero es claro que no se es la misma persona después de leer un texto como "Un mar sin límites". O mejor, el mundo y la Historia ya no será la misma.

Si no está, pónganlo ya en su lista.

[Sarah Ensor · Rating 4 out of 5]

This hefty book synthesises vast amounts of information about our relationship to the oceans, focussing on development from trade and the spread of religious ideas from roughly 3000 years BCE.

We are a travelling species typified by where it begins with Polynesian and Austronesian navigators. They read stars, wind and waves to inhabit thousands of miles of sea between their island homes, developing their culture from technology created for fishing, hunting and travel.

Unsurprisingly, there’s a lot about boats and boat-building methods and some, though less about fishing. I am particularly interested in how people have shaped and managed their environment over thousands of years mutually benefiting themselves and non-human species. So I was looking for more on fishing and ordinary lives, but an author must write what they want and editors may not let them include all the fish-filled facts they would have liked. However, the discussion of trade routes and developing markets was interesting not least for how it showed how regions, cities and trade centres became multilingual, multicultural and diverse at various times. At one or two points it tended to feel like a great list of commodities and that the author was more interested in products and the circulation of capital than the producers, but in total the book is much more than that.

Its ambition is global and Abulafia works hard to avoid eurocentrism even where sources are less well researched than those in famous European archives. He includes areas and people that get skimmed over in maritime histories in English. For instance he discusses centuries of relationship between Japan and the great Chinese empires with Korea, Vietnam and other neighbours. Also, the Mediterranean (his speciality) and its relationship to the Middle East and countries around the Indian Ocean. There's also the “Danish Indies”, the Azores, the Canaries, Sao Tomé, the importance to trade and exploration of many other relatively small islands. And there’s Essaouria, Mogador in North Africa, where rulers determined to maximise profitable development didn’t care what religion merchants were or ever had been.

It’s a striking and important aspect through the book that Abulafia discusses the experience of multiple Jewish individuals and communities over the centuries. How they lived and traded in the Middle East, Far East, Northern Europe, the Iberian peninsula, different parts of Africa and how they responded to persecution. The forced conversions becoming “new Christians”, the geographically far-reaching harassment of the Inquisition and the appalling brutal treatment of Jewish children shipped to Sao Tome in 1493, taken from their parents in Portugal to “ensure they were baptised and brought up Catholic”. These kidnapped children were mostly two to 10 years old. In Sao Tome they were given to “foster parents” often “degradados”, transported criminals.

The book is scattered with slavery, which people got made into slaves and how plantation slavery created new categories of physical, sexual and mental abuse of the enslaved. Many of the most famous figures from my school education such as Albuquerque, Cortez, Columbus, Drake and Magellan were involved in slavery to a greater or lesser extent. But there are many others less famous (to me) here, who weren’t thieves, enslavers and violent attackers of strangers. This isn’t a projection of our values backwards, we know some of them were monsters from their contemporaries' judgments on them.

There are lots of snippets about fishing, fish traps and weirs, but the focus tends to be on technologies of shipbuilding and watercraft generally for trade. In the opening pages the author makes a point about technology and fish traps in the north-western region, now called Kimberley, Australia, which he says were,

“Dated to a maximum of 3,500 years ago but there is every reason to argue that these are the lineal descendents of earlier fish traps that were widely used along the Australian coast. These fish traps were a common feature of life in the Torres Strait Islands… Nowadays it is standard usage in Australia to speak of the “Aboriginal peoples and the Torres Strait Islanders”, recognising the distinct status, origin and culture of the people of these islands, whose technology has long been more advanced than that of the Australian Aborigines: more Neolithic than Old Stone Age.”

The use of these archaeological categories here is a striking value judgement because human technology has always been created to fulfil a need. If our fish trap, hunting and harvesting gets us all we need, we won’t develop a more advanced or efficient trap that could lead to overfishing, waste and possibly future starvation. We have what we need from what we use.

The more interesting question isn’t which people are more advanced in these societies - islanders versus mainlanders, but what resources are available to each and how do they use them to fulfil their needs and wants, which aren’t all necessarily the same. The point is illustrated further on where Avienus, a “pagan poet” living in North Africa in the 4th century CE was impressed by the locals in the islands of Oestrymenides, possibly Britain and Ireland.

“There is much hardiness in the people here, a proud spirit, an efficient industriousness. They are all constantly concerned with commerce. They play the widely troubled sea and swell of monster-filled Ocean with skiffs made of skin. For these men do not know how to fashion keels with pine or maple wood. They do not hollow out sailing vessels, as the custom is, from fir trees. Rather they always marvellously fit out boats with joined skins and often run through the vast salt water in leather.” p333.

There’s not much about women specifically, though they briefly appear at various times, naturally, being half the population. For instance women ship owners are mentioned briefly at p111 and women in China who were possibly trade investors at p239. We know women travelled, fought and farmed for instance among the Norse people he describes crossing and recrossing between Scandinavia, Iceland, the Faroes, Orkney and further outlying islands, Scotland and Ireland. The viking-age runic graffiti in Maeshowe, Orkney contained runes carved by Hlif Matselja, herself, who had returned from a crusade to Jerusalem.

I always find a recent author's use of the BC/AD [Before Christ/Year of our Lord] dating system jarring. However, it’s not as awkward as this author's discussion and use of “eskimo” as a “blanket description of different people with different cultures”, p398. Eskimo, which is a place name, was a term long used by Europeans about the Inuit and has probably been considered racist or at least ignorant by those people themselves, so it seems an odd choice not to use the term Inuit.

And while I’m complaining, skyr isn’t a “milky drink” it’s the curds of the milk when all the fat and whey has been removed. It’s high in protein, a barrel of it kept well in a cold corner and it’s how generations of Icelanders survived in relatively good health. p399.

The book could be read as separate chapters but it’s worth tackling the whole because as it progresses, it loops and folds back to develop a previous point or people previously described, now affected further by new meetings and developments.

All history is interpretation and David Abulafia’s skill and vast reading enabled him to search beyond facts for political and social context and connections over great distances in time and space. Which makes his occasional dismissive comments on Marxist historiography surprising. For instance, he notes,

“Indian historians have debated the impact of these long-distance connections [to the Roman empire] on the development of the urban civilization of their country. Such controversies are part of a much wider debate, often intertwined with increasingly obscure ideological discussions, about the way external economic factors can generate social change; they can be as inspired by Karl Marx as they are by hard evidence.” p118

I think he is missing the point of the marxist method here, which isn’t about adherence to what Marx said as if it were a religious text. Chris Harman, historian and marxist put it this way,

“Historical materialism explains social transformations as the outcome of two mechanisms: first, the structural contradictions that arise between the development of the productive forces and the prevailing production relations; and secondly, and only in the context of the socio-economic crises generated by these contradictions, the class struggle. Capital does not only elucidate the conditions and forms of the extraction of surplus-value within the production process; it also locates capitalism’s chronic liability to recurrent economic crises in the tendency of the rate of profit to fall—the form of the contradiction between the forces and relations of production specific to that mode of production.

“Some of the greatest recent triumphs of Marxist historiography have been to delineate more precisely the nature of this contradiction in pre-capitalist modes. As Perry Anderson points out, G.E.M. de Ste Croix’s explanation of the decline of classical antiquity is an instance of the kind of ‘systemic contradiction’ that occurs ‘when the forces and relations of production enter into decisive contradiction with each other’.”

Whatever my disagreements, this is a wonderful book in many ways and one to return to for its huge scope, detail and sources.

[Gijs Limonard · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars; 5 stars for ambition, 3 stars for execution; the seas of the world (except the Mediterranean, the subject of a separate book by the same author) function mainly as a vista onto human activity; exploration, trade, travels, wars, described in a historical context. The scope is literally boundless and this is both its appeal and makes for an exasperating, exhaustive read at over a 1000 pages (or an audible listen clocking in at a solid 41 hours); worthwhile but you have to have the ‘Sitzfleisch’ to get to the end.

[Keenan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although my reading challenge may have failed, I can at least finish this 1200+ page tome on the human history of the world's oceans before year's end...

Human history cannot be understood without appreciating the role that the major world oceans played in its development. Politics and natural resources played as much of a role in what cities rose and fell as geography and trade winds did. Oceanic trade, which rightfully makes up the majority of this book, gave opportunities to small nations and ethnic groups to play an outsized role on the world stage. Exploration and colonization extended the domain of human influence on the planet, while new ship designs and canals shrunk distances between far off civilzations. The extent of human interaction over the long distances of the world's oceans is clear enough that there is debate among historians as to when "globalization" first started, as arguments could be made for it stretching back to ancient Egypt.

Below are some of the stories/details that I found most interesting, although every chapter had something to offer:

• The colonization of Polynesia, then Hawaii, and lastly New Zealand, and the oral history, local myths, and archaeological evidence that shows how it was accomplished (and the eccentric Thor Heyerdahl trying to impose his own theories against all evidence)
• The growth of Southeast Asian trading kingdoms, one long ago building on what is now modern-day Singapore. Areas that were resource poor would leverage their skills as seamen, guiding ships from India to the rich kingdoms of China and Japan (Buddhist texts were in high demand and could bring you some serious $$$). Malaysian sailors went as far as Madagascar and colonized the previously uninhabited island!
• Norse settlers, first in the Faroe islands, then Iceland, then Greenland, and for a short time the Eastern Seaboard. Fascinating stories about the way they integrated into the Norwegian mainland, the legends duly recorded by medeival scribes, and their motivations for exploring West.
• The Portuguese built their maritime empire based on a model that first succeeded in their colonization of islands like Madeira, Cabo Verde, and the Azores. Within 50 years of rounding the Cape of Good Hope, they had established bases in the Persian Gulf, India, Malacca, Macau, and Nagasaki. The Spanish took a more colonization approach, and for a century most global maritime trade involved Peruvian silver in some shape or form en route to the Ming dynasty. The Dutch succeeded in the 17th century by eating away at Portugal's monopoly in the Indian Ocean.
• The swiftly changing role of the East Pacific vis-a-vis trade. Drake's expeditions were first motivated by the search of a Northwest Passage, Japanese sailing to Veracruz trying to cut out Spanish middlemen in the Philippines, Americans going up and down the coast looking for seal skins that they could sell in Canton, Russians trying to lay claim east of the Bering strait, and Hawaiians building up a European-style fleet to cement control over the islands.

Clearly there was a lot more to this immense novel, but if you're a passionate reader of history there should be a few chapters that stoke your interest. If anything, it ties together the histories of places you may previously have considered separate into a beautiful tapestry of civilizations and the seas they lived and died on.

[Koit · Rating 1 out of 5]

There’s a saying by which the knowledge of today is too great for generalists to survive: one has to specialize. I definitely think that Mr Abulafia should have focussed this book by that principle, because the book jumps from one time and place to another, leaving confusion in its wake.

This book begins with Polynesian expansion in the Pacific Ocean and covers everything from that to recent trends of container ships. Between these two extremes are Arab merchants of the Indian Ocean, Norse colonization of Greenland, Baltic Sea merchant city states, and the Russo-Japanese War. As the subject matter tries to cover everything that has ever happened on the seas, this book becomes very difficult to follow. Also, the author has a tendency to refer to things which are going to be described in more detail a few chapters on—this can become annoying very quickly (and is most certainly *very* annoying by the twentieth time it happens).

This inability to focus on any area in more detail also means that while the descriptions of different periods and areas are detailed, these lack the anecdotal stories that give history colour. Most of the description is dry, though occasionally the author’s tangents take the reader onto land for long periods. While this makes sense for the reasons why those descriptions are included, it also makes for a book that is even more aimless. Another aspect of this book I dislike is how often the author likes saying how much better his own research is compared to everyone else who’s ever published a theory regarding these subjects (which is near everyone due to the wide scope).

What this could have been, instead, is a series of volumes that either focusses on specific regions or times. A coherent narrative that wants to include both Scandinavian settlements in North America and early trade empires in Malaysia doesn’t make sense otherwise, and the author’s attempts to tie it together prove this. Yet, the narratives that the author did include are thorough and do offer new information to the reader, and partially the same wide scope will offer near every reader something new to think about.

So… there’s a lot here that’s new, possibly quite a lot. Yet, the book is structured poorly and misses out on some of the most colourful detail that I’d like to see in a narrative history. I wouldn’t like to read it again.

This review was originally posted on my blog.

[James Hinchcliffe · Rating 2 out of 5]

My disappointing voyage: this book promises an exciting exploration of the vast maritime realm, offering readers a chance to dive into the depths of global trade and human interaction throughout history. However, my experience with this book left much to be desired. Unfortunately, I found myself struggling to maintain interest due to its dry and misunderstood premise, leading to a prolonged and arduous reading experience.

One of the primary issues with this book was its lackluster writing style, for me it was too dry. The author presents a historical account that feels more like a relic than an engaging narrative to get interested in. The writing fails to breathe life into the subjects discussed, making it difficult to connect with the stories of exploration, trade, and the human experience on the open seas. As a result, the book reads more like a dry academic text rather than an immersive adventure I was hoping for. Because of this, the sheer dryness of the book made it a struggle to maintain my concentration. It became necessary for me to ration my reading sessions over several months, in an attempt to salvage what little interest I had left.

Another factor that contributed to my disappointment was the discrepancy between the book's promised premise and its actual content. While I expected a comprehensive examination of global trade and its impact on humanity, "The Boundless Sea" seemed to focus predominantly on historical accounts of trade routes and only briefly examined the broader socio-cultural implications. As a result, the book fails to engage readers who were seeking a more holistic exploration of the human relationship with the oceans.

Despite its flaws, "The Boundless Sea" does contain valuable information for those with a specific interest in the historical aspects of global trade. For readers seeking a more academic and detailed examination of trade routes and their impact on human civilization, this book may serve as a useful reference. However, for those who are looking for a captivating narrative that intertwines history, culture, and personal stories, "The Boundless Sea" may not fulfill their expectations.

[Tom · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is best read during the middle of a pandemic when it is most appropriate to stay home. This is a massive book, over 1000 pages, with a myriad of details that are virtually impossible to fully absorb. But with that said, what makes this book interesting is learning that travel and trade by sea has been part of the human condition since time immemorial. The only things that have changed are the size of the seagoing vessels and the technology.

[Genae Matthews · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow. What a book! I genuinely cannot believe that I finished it. It is, without a doubt, one of (if not the) longest books I've ever read. This book is so rich -- it's full of hilarious and intriguing anecdotes and paints pictures of magical trading ports around the world. I especially learned a lot about the old trading ports on Sri Vijaya and about how trade developed in the Indian Ocean. The first part on the Pacific really is the stuff of novels in its fantasticalness. This book is not for someone who likes history books to have a "theme" that guides them through its entirety, and it's also not for the faint of heart. David Abulafia really takes no prisoners, and doesn't try to lure you in with literary tricks -- this book requires you to be antecedently interested in history (and the history of human movement and exploration in particular), not worry if you don't see an overarching theme (I still haven't decided whether there was one, but I don't mind), and not get flustered trying to remember every particular detail. However, if this is you (or if this can be you just for the purposes of this book), you really will not find a better book. I don't remember the last time I read a book that was this full and complex, and that gave me this rich of a sense of what is no less the history of the world. This book was a fantastic feat, and I loved every anecdote, all of which really gave me a sense of what life might have been like during the different time periods. I plan to read Abulafia's first book as well! It is amazing to me that it is even possible to achieve scholarship of this magnitude. We are quite lucky to be alive at the same time as David Abulafia.

[Aaron · Rating 4 out of 5]

“The history of long distance travel across the seas is the history of people willing to take risks both physical and financial.”

And with that, we begin our trek into what may be the most rewarding spine-busting one volume account of the human history of our oceans ever published. From the beginning of recorded history to the present, remaining above the ocean not under it (aside from shipwrecks), and given the author’s historian background, a focus on that aspect—human history and not environmental history which albeit extremely important, for his purpose at least, is omitted.

Normally historical surveys are not my bag. There’s just too much covered. Too many places, too many names, no real ‘hero characters’ one can latch on to. Confusion all around jumping from topic to topic without a breath to spare who needs periods when you have historical surveys, right? Somehow in spite of The Boundless Sea: A Human History of the Oceans also being one and an epic one at that, it remained easy to follow. No, I did not leave this book having flawless knowledge of most every seafaring society (and there are a ton of them) mankind has ever given birth to, but I do feel like I learned a thing or two and did not loose my moorings. The author somehow did the impossible and kept things diverse, academic, and also engaging even for the simple reader like myself.

This is going to be a big pill for some to swallow given its length and yes, as noted, being a historical survey, we get little in terms of anchors. The book as well, for being focused on oceans, thus comes off at times as pretty dry, more akin to a big history textbook found in a college or advanced honors high school senior class than a standalone book—but a good one, see the last paragraph in this review to find out why. It plays things safe, basically. But these are not necessarily bad points. Dry, at times, but also it somehow never steps being engaging. This probably won’t suck you like a starving sea cucumber given its overarching focus, but for the most part, a curious reader will not be become bored.

Normally I’d love to highlight parts of a book that really struck home for me, but in a book like this that in so many words is “the history of mankind as it relates to the oceans”, I’m pretty much at a loss. This is the type of work that for some people may contain nothing but (mostly) new material and for others, fortifies things they already learned as far back as elementary school. I’m in the middle here on that regard and I think that’s fine; I learned a lot, I refreshed a lot, and thankfully, I could learn about our long relationship with the sea without having to actually get in it because with full honesty, I’m not a fan of salt water.

This is an epic historic survey covering an immense history of humanity and while there are, as noted, no ‘hero characters’ that stay with us throughout the voyage, I almost wonder if David Abulafia was not subconsciously adding in some autobiographical elements of his own people, Sephardic Jewry. Being Jewish, it was nice to see our people—so few in number—have such an important influence on the advancement of seafaring commerce from the medieval period almost up to the present.

Conversely, I close out by noting while Asian societies get various times to shine and while the book begins with Polynesia, overall this is very western-focused. If one wants a deep dive (no pun intended) on the history of ocean-faring societies out of, Africa, for example, this may not be the book for you. But if you want a one volume account that reads like the history textbook you never knew existed (including the surprise F-bomb halfway through and no, I’m not joking), this one’s for you.

[David Clayton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brilliant account of the history of the seas and sailing. How it evolved and shaped the many nautical peoples and nations and continues to do so. Insightful read with a vast subject matter laid out in a clear and digestible way.

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

David Abulafia’s ‘The Boundless Sea’ provides a grand historical account of how humans have used the oceans since the earliest times for migration, exploration, trading, conquest and war. It is sweeping in all senses, beginning with the gradual population of the Pacific Islands from West to East by Polynesian societies who had mastered open ocean navigation in tiny outriggers.

The book seamlessly ties together the movements of peoples on the Mediterranean in early antiquity to the eventual push out into the Indian Ocean by Muslim traders making trading ties to India, Sri Lanka and onwards to Indonesia. The historical ports of Melaka, Palembang and Singapore provided the connections from Europe via the Indian Ocean onwards to China and Japan.

Conquests led by Portugal, Spain, Holland, France, Denmark and the British saw explorations of the vast Atlantic and then the Pacific Oceans being mapped and then exploited for financial gain.

With the oceans now better mapped and new lands connected, the European powers looked toward international expansion both in terms of colonisation and mercantilism. This precipitated the development of the horrific slave trade in which not just the Portuguese, Spanish, French and the British (among others) participated, but also elucidated how African kings and chiefs were often key suppliers of slaves in this terrible chapter of human history.

Discovery of the New World by Europeans, piracy in the Caribbean and wars on the high seas paint an incredible picture of how global these ventures were. This in fact is the dawn of globalisation.

As this book covers huge swathes of history and geography it still goes into a certain amount of detail and provides an excellent primer from which to explore each of these chapters in history.

It is a long book, over 900 reading pages but was able to keep my attention and I often found myself dreaming what it would have been like out there on the oceans.

Highly recommended for lovers of world history from antiquity to the present as well as readers with interest in globalisation, maritime trade networks, shipping and exploration.

[Kevin Andrew · Rating 2 out of 5]

I unfortunately could not bring myself to finish this book.

I actually agree with the majority of the 1-star review that is currently on Goodreads for this book. It gets 2 stars from me solely from my love of the ocean. Superficial and shallow, I know. …i just used the word shallow whilst reviewing a book about the Ocean. Funny, no? …just me? …moving on…

It is dry (another thing the ocean is not), the author jumps around at break-neck speed trying to cover every detail of the entire history on ocean navigation, and it can be extremely hard to follow.

It strikes me as fantastic reference material, but good luck finding the specific passage with the anecdotal reference to the sea-faring Walulu tribe in the Bronze Age.

[Dan Robb · Rating 3 out of 5]

Incredibly detailed, but as a result it can get quite dry. Definitely not light reading, but excellent and comprehensive, and I will probably use it as a reference book for maritime history.

Also it's almost entirely concerned with the evolution of maritime trade, so if you're looking for insight into the other aspects of our relationship with the ocean, other books would be more appropriate.

[Giovanni Bruno · Rating 5 out of 5]

Completo, fornisce una panoramica chiara sulla storia marittima mondiale facendo una summa di tutte le innumerevoli fonti usate per compilare questa perla

[Miles Row · Rating 5 out of 5]

A sketching out of global history so a book I'll need to listen to a few times.

[Alex Bendix · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow, this was a doozy. I’m going to round up from 950 pages and say I read a 1000 page book. In the span of time it took me to read this I’ve started a new job, gotten married, and a new calendar year is upon us. What a book!!!! This guy is a nutcase, how do you write a single book about the history of all the oceans. Absolute beast of an academic, I kind of want to email him thanking him for his service to humanity. If you like history you must read this - he starts at the earliest point in recorded human history for every single ocean and plods ahead century by century millennium by millennium until landing us squarely in the present. I particularly enjoyed the following sections:
- history of Polynesia: didn’t realize how god tier they were at sailing. Hawaiian and Māori languages are same language family and were somewhat mutually intelligible as of 1800- nuts!!!
- colonization of Madagascar by Malays: apparently people pulled up to Madagascar from Malaysia on these little skiffs 1500+ years ago. That is insane
- ancient Sri Lanka: cool to learn about how goods from the Roman Empire made it to Asia, oftentimes just following the coast going wayyyyy north then wayyyyyy south with each country before landing in the east
- Greenland and Iceland: the Vikings are bonkies, how they settled Greenland is absurd. Their disappearance is also ~spooky~!!
- North American settlement: some interesting stuff about how maybe (MAYBE!!) basque or Catalan fishermen made it to North America before Columbus. The author also ends all of this by saying basically ‘but why anyone cares about this is beyond me’ 😹

Anyway what are you doing here still reading my review? Go download this book silly!!

[Josh Brookes · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is hard to describe the breadth and depth of the information that is neatly folded into this book. The vast history being covered often made me feel, coincidentally, like I was cast adrift in the deep expanse of human history. Fortunately the author organises the story in both time and geographic space making it easy to trace the stories of the people spreading out across the seas for all reasons humans do, well, anything.

So basically I loved this book but I should caution anyone interested: it is quite long and dense. For those that find that prospect appealing I guarantee you will feel rewarded.

[Ian Mihura · Rating 5 out of 5]

One does not simply finish this book (mainly because it's over a thousand pages of dense history), and that's ok. It's rather a consultation book, than a novel, or a mind-blowing non-fiction.

It safely belongs alongsinde Braudel's Annals for its deep exploration of history as it is, not as it is told. A scientific approach to history, trying to find the narrative from the (limited) facts, not the other way around.

I approached it first to read about the Hanseatic League, and found the continuum of history hard to abandon. It has accompanied me for some months, but I'll lay it down for some time, until I find another point in history that baffles me.

[Tommy Cassiani · Rating 5 out of 5]

An incredible 923 pages journey through World's History from an unusual yet eye-opening perspective: the Oceans!
This book is full of lesser known civilizations' stories, underrated yet fundamental commercial linkages, cultural connections explaining nowadays synergies among Countries and traditions.
An absolute must-read for whoever enjoys nurturing his/her passion in "connecting the dots".