The Western World Daily Readings on Geography Chapter 15 Pacific Realm Historical Geography I

CHAPTER 15 Pacific Realm Historical Geography I Expansion ALEXANDER Created by Noun The Expansion was perhaps the greatest human exploratory achievement until astronauts landed on the moon in 1969 . Over the span of a few thousand years , in open vessels sailed across hundreds of miles of open sea , and relying on courage , resolve , and not a little bit of luck , colonized islands across the Pacific Ocean . In some of their voyages , these seafaring farmers encountered people whose ancestors had already been there for thousands of years perhaps up to years , as in the Philippines , Indonesia , and . In other locations like Tahiti , New Zealand , and i , these explorers were the first humans to ever occupy these lands . Perhaps a bit paradoxically , the ( southern island ) Expansion began north of the Equator , in what is now Southeast China around 5000 years ago ( 3000 ) This was when of rice , along with root crops like taro and yams ( who spoke a language that linguists have partially reconstructed and call ) rowed across the Strait and began farming on . From , the moved south to the Philippines and then the islands of central Indonesia . By around 1400 , the southbound expansion forked into a right turn heading west and a left turn heading east . The descendants of those who headed west sailed across the Indian Ocean and eventually colonized Madagascar , just off the southeast coast of Africa . Those whose ancestors took the left turn ended up discovering and settling many ofthe islands of the vast Pacific Ocean . 72

PACIFIC REALM HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY I 73 This eastbound group discovered and settled some of the islands of eastern by perhaps as early as 2000 ( and , hundred of years later , It is striking that the archaeological evidence points to these on long before they were on . This would have required a voyage west from the Philippines to across more than 1000 miles of open sea . Other eastbound groups veered more to the Chronological dispersion people across the Pacific TI the Progress of branch of these speakers and their descendants has been relatively straightforward . Many of them relied consistently on an easily recognizable form of pottery called , known for being decorated using something like a comb . This makes it easy for archaeologists to follow the breadcrumbs and track with some precision the timing and locations of the presence from eastern to between 1600 and 500 . Here is a photo of a fragment of pottery , as found in Maritime in New . By 1300 , pottery could be found in much ofthe Archipelago , and as far as the previously unpopulated islands of by 900 and by 800 . Also by 1300 , had ceased , with newfound crops such as New Guinea breadfruit , coconut , and banana taking its place . Using round numbers , these farmers had expanded nearly miles in just over 2000 years . In the 2000 years starting with the discovery and settlement of the Samoan Islands , they would go nearly twice as far in about the same span of time . What accounted for the rapid acceleration of an already human on , migration ?

In short , it is the size ofthe islands . For much ofthe first half of the Expansion , found themselves on relatively large islands ( is larger than Maryland the biggest Philippine larger than Tennessee ) So there was little need to expand to another island when there was so much room ( relatively ) on the island already occupied . It is worth remembering that these farmers did not see themselves as part of one ofthe grandest population shifts in human history . Rather , they were people like us who made the best decisions they could , based on the alternatives before them . And since they were farmers , the need for expansion was necessarily built in . Imagine a farm , owned and operated by a family with two offspring . Each one inherits half of the family farm . later , and again assuming two offspring each , the original family farm is now in size that may not be enough to support a household . This means that somebody has to move on in order for the original farm to be sustainable . Ifa territory is large enough , a family moving on can pioneer a new plot of land not too far away . There could be a skirmish or two with local who do like the incursion , but the farmers

74 JOEL QUAM AND SCOTT CAMPBELL have enough people behind them to win in the end . Diamond , 1997 , Of course , this is also the story of the westward expansion of mostly Europeans across the middle of North America . Still , even on large islands like and later , the Archipelago and the island chains of the Solomons and , the pressure to find another place to farm would be too much . And once the move to the much smaller islands of beyond and beyond began , the need to find places to plant was accelerated . As of 500 , Many of the small islands had been discovered and settled , even as far west as . In general , was settled before the Polynesian region the earliest known Polynesian settlement was Tonga by around 900 , followed by shortly after . The most distant Polynesian islands were discovered within a CE , starting with the Cook Islands , Tahiti , and the then the Hawaiian archipelago ( about 900 CE ) and concluding with Nui ( Easter Island ) and New Zealand , just a few hundred years before Europeans arrived . While some scholars disagree on the routes taken by these explorers , genetics ( Li , et al , 2008 Yong , 2009 ) confirm the migratory account described here . Linguistically , found in different languages corroborate the same story EXPANSION AND LANGUAGE Estimated Data of settlement Modern Language hand coconut pig woman fish 2250 ( Philippines ) bor wak 800 Samoan pop i ' a 900 CE Native Hawaiian pua ' a wahine i ' a CE rima wahine The Expansion took place long before compasses and , and its voyages were powered by wind and ocean , of course , a lot of paddling . We will never know , naturally , how many sailing canoes of unsuccessful voyagers rest at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean , but we know they are there , and they are all a testament to the heroism of these explorers over the past years . Did You Know ?

In the year 1500 , the language family wrapped more than halfway around the greater distance than any other until European Expansion . The Expansion may have even reached the New World ! Cotton in ' i and sweet potatoes in the Cook Islands have South American origins that seemto have occurred before European contact ( 2007 ) The Republic of is in all four hemispheres some of its islands are north of the Equator and some are south and some of them are east of the International Date Line and some are west .

PACIFIC REALM HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY I 75 CITED AND ADDITIONAL BIBLIOGRAPHY , Robin . 2007 . Origins of Plant Exploitation in Near A Review . In Genes , Language , Culture History in the Southwest Pacific , edited Scott . 2018 . YouTube Video . YouTube . Chronological Dispersal of People across the Pacific ( per Benton et Al , 2012 , Adapted from Bellwood , 2011 ) 2020 . Obsidian Soul BY ( Diamond , 1997 . Guns , Germs , and Steel The Fates ofHuman Societies . New York Norton . 2017 . Fragment de . Generic ( Li , Hui , Bo Wen , Chen , Bing Su , Liu , Pan , et al . 2008 . Paternal Genetic Affinity between Western and Populations . Evolutionary ( Veronica . 2015 . Tracking the Expansion Across the . August 11 , Yong , Ed . 2009 . Bacteria and Languages Reveal How People Spread through the Pacific .