Page 114 - Encyclopedia Of World History Vol V

transportation—overview 1891

to penetrate India, East Africa, Central Asia and, before alike. Instead, Muslim governments built caravanseries
long, eastern Europe as well. Initial Muslim victories where men and beasts could stay overnight and allowed
depended on cohesion sustained by their religious faith, charitable landowners to escape taxation by dedicating
but superior logistical support from camel caravans also selected estates to supplying free provender for travelers.
contributed mightily. In effect, free desert forage was thus ingeniously repro-
Using camels for overland haulage was cheaper than duced in agricultural landscapes, reconciling the needs of
maintaining roads for wheeled vehicles, so in the Muslim traveling merchants and their animals with the interests of
heartlands of western Asia existing roads were allowed to peasants and landowners. Free food and shelter along the
decay and city layouts changed since narrow passage- way meant that out-of-pocket costs for caravan transport
ways sufficed for camels.Wheeled transport continued to became surprisingly slender so camels could compete on
exist in fringe areas—Europe, China, India and the some routes with ships using free energy from the wind.
steppes. But for centuries cheap overland transport on Since Muslims shared advances made in ship design
camelback gave Islamic peoples an advantage, especially until after about 1300, their combination of cheap trans-
after they perfected legal systems that allowed camel car- port by land and sea was unmatched elsewhere. Muslim
avans to move safely through settled regions. traders accordingly became the most successful in the
Obviously, desert foraging at night only worked in world, operating along the coasts of China and Mediter-
uninhabited places. Letting camels loose to feed on grow- ranean Europe, while penetrating the Eurasian steppes
ing crops was bad business for farmers and merchants and much of sub-Saharan Africa.

Sailing the Seas
Yet eventually advances in shipbuilding and navigation
made sailing on stormy and tidal waters of the
northerly Pacific and Atlantic oceans feasible. There-
upon all-weather ships inaugurated long distance
transport networks that eventually carried luxuries
and goods of common consumption around the
whole earth. Yet it took a long while for all the pre-
requisites for safe and reliable all-weather shipping to
come together. And since wooden boats seldom leave
archaeological traces, knowing when and where ship-
building practices changed is largely guess work.
One breakthrough was the invention of pontoon
outriggers to stabilize dugout canoes.These outriggers
allowed canoes to carry larger sails and move far

Over the course of world history, boats
and ships have been a major form of
transportation for humans and their
material goods. In this drawing from late
nineteenth-century China, two boats with
sails make their way on the Yangtze River.