Empire of the Winds

Winner of the Penang Book Prize 2019
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.

Philip Bowring is an Asia-based journalist. He was formerly the editor of the Far Eastern Economic Review and has written for the International Herald Tribune, the Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, the South China Morning Post and the Guardian. He studied at Cambridge University and is an expert on maritime history and the history of Southeast Asia.

List of Maps and Illustrations
Glossary
Preface
Introduction
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
Notes
Bibliography
Index