Page 258 - Encyclopedia Of World History Vol V

water 2035

Travel on waterways was a
primary mode of transportation
used by humans to explore and
settle the earth. In this photo from
the early twentieth century, an
explorer and his Native American
guide set off on a raft on the Ama-
zon River in South America.

Cities or nations whose citizens became
skilled at seamanship or building boats were
able to capitalize upon this and create large
empires, commercially or militarily. By the
eighth century BCE, the Phoenicians were
able to create a trading network that
included the entire Mediterranean Sea and
as a result spread Phoenician culture to
many different regions. The success of the
Phoenicians was repeated on a smaller scale
by the Venetians in the Mediterranean and
the Hanseatic League in the Baltic Sea in the
thirteenth and fourteenth centuries CE.
Cultures that relied on overseas trans-
portation for their commercial goods often
developed a strong navy to protect their
commercial interests. In the fifth century
BCE, the city-state of Athens was able to use
its strong maritime presence in the Aegean
to create the Athenian empire. In the fif-
designed to control maximum prices provides histori- teenth century CE, England was able to use the develop-
ans with enough information to formulate standard ment of its mercantilist policies to create both a strong
costs of transportation during this period. The docu- merchant marine and a strong navy. England was able to
ment shows transporting goods overland cost between use its naval power to further its political policies abroad
30 and 50 percent more than sending them by boat. and build up an empire that spanned the globe.
Travel time was also significantly less, provided the
weather was favorable. Water Power
As commerce increased, merchants and nations tried Water has also been used to drive machines and create
to find ways to increase the speed and capacity of ships. energy. One of the earliest inventions was a waterwheel
This led to the development of the carrack and caravel, that used falling or flowing water to drive a shaft that
ship types that could carry larger cargoes and sail faster would then turn the mill.Waterwheels were first used by
and required fewer sailors. Another method of shorten- the ancient Greeks and Romans to power mills used for
ing the time of sea travel was the creation of canals that grinding grain into flour and this continued through the
linked major bodies of water, eliminating circumnaviga- medieval period.
tion. This led to the building of the Grand Canal (486 With the development of a successful steam engine in
BCE), Erie Canal (1825 CE), Suez Canal (1869), the early eighteenth century, the use of waterwheels
Corinthian Canal (1893), Panama Canal (1914), and declined. In the United States during the eighteenth and
Rhine-Danube Canal (1992). nineteenth centuries, waterwheels were used to supply