The modern history of the North Pacific began five hundred years ago when Europeans sailed into the ocean for the first time. This discovery shaped the destinies of seven countries that now rim its Asiatic and North American shores: Russia, China, Japan, North Korea, South Korea, the United States, and Canada.

Their history is an exciting epic of discovery -- the great expeditions of Marco Polo, Drake, and Magellan; the quest for the spices of Cathay; the early days of the fur trade, the gold rush, and the long treks westward across North America to first establish Canadian and American possessions on the Pacific shore.

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 Pacific 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.