Captain James Cook’s voyages in the South Pacific in the late 1700s exemplify the law of unintended consequences. He set out to find a westward ocean passage from Europe to Asia but instead, with the maps he created and his reports, Cook revealed the Pacific islands and their people to the world.
In recent decades, Cook has been vilified by some scholars and cultural revisionists for bringing European diseases, guns and colonization. But Hampton Sides’ new book, “The Wide Wide Sea: Imperial Ambition, First Contact and the Fateful Final Voyage of Captain James Cook,” details that Polynesian island life and cultures were not always idyllic.
Priests sometimes made human sacrifices. Warriors mutilated enemy corpses. People defeated in battle sometimes were enslaved. King Kamehameha, a revered figure in Hawaii, unified the Hawaiian Islands in 1810 at a cost of thousands of warriors’ lives.
Related articles:
Related suggestion:
China issues orange alert for severe convective weatherLok Sabha elections 2024: Misinformation surges on social media as voters head to voteHouse committee delays vote on bill to allow inmates to participate in parole hearingsBritish police officer pleads guilty to terror charges for showing support for Hamas on WhatsAppTheme park operator offers holiday treatsChina to launch ShenzhouBeijing speeds up to build international tech innovation hubJapan's Kishida unveils a framework for global regulation of generative AIChinese mainland spokesperson slams soDigital platform unveiled to boost Beijing's cultural, sports sectors
3.0924s , 6499.4296875 kb
Copyright © 2024 Powered by Book Review: Hampton Sides revisits Captain James Cook, a divisive figure in the South Pacific ,Earth Encounters news portal