Page 33 - Encyclopedia Of World History Vol V

1810 berkshire encyclopedia of world history

Europeans also brought their animals with them wher- summer and autumn and away from that continent in the
ever they went. Pigs and cattle ran wild in the Americas. winter and spring. In the early centuries of the common
Horses were used by Europeans and by the Plains Indi- era, Arabs, Persians, and Indians built dhows, small sail-
ans of North America. The New World had almost no ing ships made of teak planks sewn together with coconut
animals to offer in exchange, however. Introduced crops fibers with a lateen,or triangular sail,that could sail at an
and animals increased the food supply and contributed angle to the wind. The prosperity of the Indian Ocean
to the rise in population around the world. In the trade was the envy of both Chinese and Europeans.
process, they accelerated the transformation of local envi- Beginning in the Song Dynasty (960–1279), the Chi-
ronments and the destruction of native plants and ani- nese developed a kind of ship called a junk, with a flat
mals. In the fifteenth century, improvements in ships and bottom, bamboo sails, and a sternpost rudder. Captains
navigation led to the diffusion of other technologies were equipped with magnetic compasses and charts of
around the globe. Let us consider three important tech- the waters they sailed in. Between 1405 and 1433, the
nologies with global repercussions: navigation and Chinese government sent seven expeditions to the Indian
gunpowder. Ocean. The first included 317 ships, some of which
were 120 meters long and 48 meters wide. With the
Navigation largest ships and the most powerful fleet in the world, the
People had long navigated on rivers and lakes and along Chinese could have explored all the oceans of the world.
seacoasts. Humans reached New Guinea and Australia But for various reasons, not the least of which was cost,
tens of thousands of years ago. Malay people from South- the government ended the expeditions and prohibited
east Asia migrated to Indonesia and reached Micronesia ocean navigation.
and New Caledonia by 2000 BCE. Others crossed the Meanwhile, Europeans were becoming more adept at
Indian Ocean to Madagascar.They learned to navigate by navigation. By combining the best features of the
observing the stars, the sun, and the moon and by feel- Mediterranean oared galleys and the round-hulled sailing
ing the ocean swells. Gradually, they ventured out into ships of the North Sea, the Portuguese created a ship
the Pacific Ocean in dugout canoes equipped with out- called a caravel that had both square and lateen sails and
riggers and triangular “crab-claw” sails, finally reaching a sternpost rudder, and that could be sailed in any wind
Hawaii and New Zealand. The peoples living along the with a small crew. During the fifteenth century, they fig-
Mediterranean Sea, by contrast, did not develop ocean- ured out the wind patterns
going vessels.Their cargo ships were broad-beamed with of the Atlantic.
a square sail and could sail only in good weather and With such
preferably with the wind.Their warships were propelled
by oarsmen and were designed to ram and board enemy
ships. Neither was suited to travel on the Atlantic.
The Indian Ocean lends itself to regular navigation
because of the monsoons that blow towardAsia in the late

Fire making is one of the most
basic of human technological skills.
In this drawing a Tohono O'odham
(papago) man in southern Arizona is
shown starting a fire with a fire drill.