Amazon.com description: Product Description: Rivalry and confrontation were part of this epic. From the sixteenth to the nineteenth century European powers contested for the riches of the East and the West, the wealth of the ocean, and territory to sate colonial ambitions. Since that time full-blooded conflicts developed between Asian states and between Asia and the Western powers. As a major trading power in the Pacifc with no tradition of territorial expansion, and as a respected peacekeeper, Canada is in a unique position to view the history of the Pacific impartially. This survey is doubly valuable, not only as the first history of the North Pacific dealing with the concurrent events in the East and West, but also as a history reflecting Canada's international outlook.