They were indeed impressive navigators - I think the most amazing feat is that they were the ones who first settled Madagascar, and just look at the distance fr

They were indeed impressive navigators - I think the most amazing feat is that they were the ones who first settled Madagascar, and just look at the distance from Southeast Asia - but I think they lacked most of the technological and societal prerequisites for building actual empires. Particularly, writing. Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs and Steel is obviously the go-to book in this area for introduction of why some people built empires and others did not.