Austronesian Expansion

The origins of Champa are etched in a rebellion against Chinese rule.

Long before European sails broke the horizon of the South Pacific, a formidable maritime power was quietening the waves of Oceania.

The rise of the Majapahit Empire began in 1292 when Raden Wijaya established a stronghold on the island of Java, capitalizing on the chaos of a Mongol invasion.

The deep geological isolation of Madagascar began 180 million years ago when it sheared away from Africa, followed by a second rupture from the Indian subcontinent 90 million years later.

For thousands of years, the ocean-spanning people of the South Pacific recognized a sacred center in the volcanic peaks of Savai'i and Upolu.

Scatter fifteen fragments of land across nearly two million square kilometers of the South Pacific Ocean, and the resulting nation is defined far more by the water that separates its people than the soil beneath their…