"The South Pacific is not only our geographic environment, it is also our cultural environment, and many New Zealanders trace their ancestry to Polynesian seafarers. This book is an introduction to the history of the South Pacific. A companion book to Illustrated History of New Zealand, also written by Marcia Stenson, it covers the following topics: geology and geography, the arrival of the first people to the Pacific, European exploration, war in the Pacific, political issues both historic and current.There is also specific information on these island groups: Cook Islands, Fiji, French Polynesia, Niue, Samoa, Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvalu and the Polynesian outliers."