Gateways Of Asia : Port Cities of Asia in the 13th-20th Centuries

The Asian continent has a maritime tradition spanning as far back as the third millennium BC, and its port cities have for centuries had a social and cultural character radically different from those on the shores of the Atlantic. This book offers a fresh perspective on Asian history, focusing on the vital role played by ports and port cities.

First Published in 1997. The dynamic role of port cities has been a major element in the thrust of modern port city literature since. In the process interactions between history and other disciplines, above all geography, economics and town planning resulted in a growing number of collaborative volumes. Indicative of the broad front, multi-disciplinary approach and challenging agenda of this wave of port town and port city studies is the collective and diverse nature of the themes and authorship of each of these works. That very diversity of disciplines, nationalities and perspectives is also one of the main pillars supporting Gateways of Asia. It is not a repetition or summary of the introduction and first chapter of Brides of the Sea, but the publication of this volume, in many ways a sequel to that work, does provide the opportunity of clarifying a few points and elaborating on some issues raised after its publication.