"There is a quarter of this planet which is often forgotten in the histories that are told in the West," observes Sujit Sivasundaram. Focusing on the Indian Ocean and the Pacific, this history of the turbulent 18th and 19th centuries—known as the Age of Revolutions—reveals how modern history has been influenced by conflicts in India, Australia, New Zealand, and Mauritius. As the empires of the Dutch, the French, and the British reached across these regions, they faced a surge of revolutionary sentiment, and Sivasundaram weighs the costs for both the natives and the colonials.