ABSTRACT
This chapter accounts for five historical developments. The first is a tremendous increase in seaborne trade. The South China Sea has got its notoriety in world affairs mainly from serving as a passageway for ships between the Pacific and Indian Oceans. The second development is a naval rivalry. Shifting powers have dominated the sea through the ages, with superior ships and firepower, and control of ports. A third development is a competition for ownership to multiple small islands, rocks and reefs. They have been marked, mapped, named, occupied and built upon by states with rival sovereignty claims. The fourth development, which took off in the 1970s, is an expansion of state-claimed rights to resources in the sea and under the seabed. The third UN Conference on the Law of the Sea (1973–1982) made it possible to claim exclusive economic zones off coasts and around islands, with sovereign rights to fish, oil, gas and other resources. The fifth and saddest development is the depletion of fish stocks and destruction of coral reefs by overfishing, pollution and construction of militarized artificial islands, due to the failure of states to cooperate.
