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  "path": "/2026/03/07/traversal-tambora-bicycle/",
  "publishedAt": "2026-03-08T01:37:12.000Z",
  "site": "https://www.themarginalian.org",
  "tags": [
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  "textContent": "This essay is adapted from Traversal. On April 5, 1815, as Napoleon is assembling his troops for the Battle of Waterloo, where he would meet his final defeat, the lieutenant-governor of Java leaps to his feet upon hearing the unmistakable roar of cannons in the distance while the setting sun is honeying the marble of his colonial mansion. Having taken advantage of the Napoleonic Wars to claim the island for the British crown from the Dutch and the French, he is all too aware that enemies might return for what we now call Indonesia — Earth’s largest archipelago, a geological… read article",
  "title": "How the Bicycle Was Born: Mount Tambora, the Year Without a Summer, and the Stubborn Courage to Reimagine the Possible"
}