Das unendliche Meer – Die grosse Weltgeschichte der Ozeane

A surprising history of the world - told not from the land, but from the sea: In this beautifully designed book, historian David Abulafia describes how the world's oceans have enabled the exchange of distant peoples since ancient times, shaping the destinies of humanity. Goods, ideas, and religions have always spread via sea routes. Ships crossed the oceans as early as antiquity, and today, massive container ships transport goods from one continent to another. Abulafia tells the stories of merchants and adventurers, pirates and cartographers, driven by the quest for spices, gold, or slaves, or in search of new settlement opportunities or foreign knowledge. Europe is just one continent among many; we travel with seafarers from the coasts of Arabia to China and Japan, from the Indian Ocean across the Atlantic to the Mediterranean coasts of Europe and into the Arctic Sea. A vast panorama unfolds, showcasing a diversity of connections and networks around the globe, for the sea is infinite and boundless. A book for explorers of the world and for anyone who wonders what lies beyond the horizon.