History Memes

I cannot claim to know the actual answer here, but I can definitely see some possible ones. For a start the Pacific Islands just have nowhere near as much productive land as Europe, so it's going to be alot easier for Europeans to gather resources and build relatively large and unified societies that can cooperate on things. They're also much more isolated from other large population groups, being scattered across the world's biggest ocean, unlike Europe which can easily have contact with the rest of Europe, with the Middle East, and with North Africa. As such Europe has far more opportunities for ideas to spread and also a far greater need to compete against its neighbours

The maritime skills of Pacific Islanders were absolutely phenomenal, they were just working with a much tougher situation than Europe if the goal is to build a large industrial society. Europe's own maritime cultures distinguished it from its rivals like the Ottomans, who had a capable navy but nothing like the ability that some European nations at the time had to venture far from shore

It does. Just generally unfamiliar with their history outside of them having an open ocean sailing tradition that completely dominates all others.