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Age of Sail

 

 
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Age of Sail
 
 
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The Age of Sail was the period in which international trade
International trade

International trade is exchange of Capital , goods, and services across international borders or territories. In most countries, it represents a significant share of gross domestic product ....
 and naval warfare
Naval warfare

Naval warfare is combat in and on seas, oceans, or any other major bodies of water such as large lakes and wide rivers....
 were dominated by sail
Sail

A sail is any type of surface intended to generate thrust by being placed in a wind—in essence a vertically-oriented wing. Sails are used in sailing....
ing ship
Ship

A ship is a large watercraft that floats on water. Ships are generally distinguished from boats based on size. Ships may be found on lakes, seas, and rivers and they allow for a variety of activities, such as the ferry or cargo ships, fishing, cruise ship, Coast guard, and warship....
s, lasting from the 16th to the mid 19th century. This is a significant period during which square-rigged sailing ships carried European settlers
History of colonialism

The historical phenomenon of colonisation is one that stretches around the globe and across time, including such disparate peoples as the Hittites, the Incas and the British Empire....
 to many parts of the world in one of the most expansive human migration
Human migration

Human migration denotes any movement by humans from one district to another, sometimes over long distances or in large groups.Migration is one of the four evolutionary forces ...
s in recorded history.

Like most periodic eras
History by period

eras, or classification of history, culture, and such into thematic groups involving time, so as to generate a history by period are intellectual constructs consisting of certain sets of common characteristics used by researchers, teachers, and academics when communicating about the past, its characteristics and attributes, and the like....
 the definition is inexact and close enough to serve as a general description.






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The Age of Sail was the period in which international trade
International trade

International trade is exchange of Capital , goods, and services across international borders or territories. In most countries, it represents a significant share of gross domestic product ....
 and naval warfare
Naval warfare

Naval warfare is combat in and on seas, oceans, or any other major bodies of water such as large lakes and wide rivers....
 were dominated by sail
Sail

A sail is any type of surface intended to generate thrust by being placed in a wind—in essence a vertically-oriented wing. Sails are used in sailing....
ing ship
Ship

A ship is a large watercraft that floats on water. Ships are generally distinguished from boats based on size. Ships may be found on lakes, seas, and rivers and they allow for a variety of activities, such as the ferry or cargo ships, fishing, cruise ship, Coast guard, and warship....
s, lasting from the 16th to the mid 19th century. This is a significant period during which square-rigged sailing ships carried European settlers
History of colonialism

The historical phenomenon of colonisation is one that stretches around the globe and across time, including such disparate peoples as the Hittites, the Incas and the British Empire....
 to many parts of the world in one of the most expansive human migration
Human migration

Human migration denotes any movement by humans from one district to another, sometimes over long distances or in large groups.Migration is one of the four evolutionary forces ...
s in recorded history.

Like most periodic eras
History by period

eras, or classification of history, culture, and such into thematic groups involving time, so as to generate a history by period are intellectual constructs consisting of certain sets of common characteristics used by researchers, teachers, and academics when communicating about the past, its characteristics and attributes, and the like....
 the definition is inexact and close enough to serve as a general description. The age of sail runs roughly from the Battle of Lepanto
Battle of Lepanto (1571)

The Battle of Lepanto took place on 7 October 1571 when a galley fleet of the Holy League , a coalition of the Republic of Venice, the Pope , Spain , the Republic of Genoa, the Duchy of Savoy, the Knights Hospitaller and others, decisively defeated the main fleet of Ottoman Empire war galleys....
 in 1571, the last significant engagement in which oar
Oar

An oar is an implement used for water-borne Marine propulsion. Oars have a flat Blade at one end. The oarsmen grasp the oar at the other end....
-propelled galleys played a major role, to the Battle of Hampton Roads
Battle of Hampton Roads

The Battle of Hampton Roads, often referred to as the Battle of Monitor and Merrimack , was the most noted and arguably the most important naval battle of the American Civil War from the standpoint of the development of navies....
 in 1862, in which the steam-powered CSS Virginia
CSS Virginia

CSS Virginia was a steam-powered Floating battery design ironclad warship of the Confederate States Navy during the American Civil War .She was one of the participants in the Battle of Hampton Roads in March, 1862 opposite the USS Monitor....
 destroyed the sailing ships USS Cumberland
USS Cumberland (1842)

The first USS Cumberland was a 50-gun sailing frigate of the United States Navy. She was the first ship sunk by the ironclad CSS Virginia....
 and USS Congress
USS Congress (1841)

USS Congress ? the fourth U.S. Navy ship to carry that name --was a sailing frigate, like her predecessor, .Congress served with distinction in the Mediterranean, South Atlantic Ocean, and in the Pacific Ocean....
, finally culminating with the advance of steam power, rendering sail power in warfare obsolete.

Sailing ships continued to be an economical way to transport cargo on long voyages into the 1920s. Sailing ships do not require fuel or complex engines to be powered; thus they tended to be more independent from requiring a dedicated support base on the mainland. Crucially though, steam powered ships held a speed advantage and were rarely hindered by adverse winds, freeing steam-powered vessels from the necessity of following trade winds. As a result, cargo and supplies could reach a foreign port in half the time it took a sailing ship. It is this factor that drove sailing ships aside. Sailing vessels were pushed into narrower and narrower economic niches (see disruptive technology
Disruptive technology

A disruptive technology or disruptive innovation is a technological innovation that improves a product or service in ways that the market does not expect, typically by being lower priced or designed for a different set of consumers....
) and gradually disappeared from commercial trade. Today, sailing vessels are only economically viable for small scale coastal fishing, along with recreational uses such as yachting
Yachting

Yachting or recreational sailing is the specific act of sailing as a sport....
 and passenger sail excursion ships.

Golden Age of Sail

In Europe
Europe

Europe is, conventionally, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural , the Caspian Sea, and by the Caucasus Mountains to the southeast....
, the Golden Age of Sail is generally agreed to be the period in the 19th century when the efficiency and usage of commercial sailing vessels was at its peak (clipper
Clipper

A clipper was a very fast sailing ship of the 19th century that had multiple Mast and a square rig. They were generally narrow for their length, could carry limited bulk freight, small by later 19th century standards, and had a large total sail area....
s, tall ship
Tall ship

A tall ship is a large traditionally rigging sailing vessel. Popular modern tall ship rigs include topsail schooners, brigantines, brigs and barques....
s, etc.) and immediately before steamboat
Steamboat

A steamboat or steamship, sometimes called a steamer, is a ship in which the primary method of propulsion is steam engine, typically driving propellers or paddlewheels....
s started to take trade away from sail. Some would say that the Golden Age of Sail relates specifically to the clipper ship era. "The Golden Age of Sail" also sometimes refers to the time period in the early 18th century when well-known pirates such as Edward Teach (Blackbeard
Blackbeard

Edward Thatch , better known as Blackbeard, was a notorious England pirate in the Caribbean Sea and western Atlantic Ocean during the early 18th century, a period referred to as the Golden Age of Piracy....
) and Bartholomew Roberts
Bartholomew Roberts

Bartholomew Roberts was a Welsh people pirate who raided shipping off the Americas and West Africa between 1719 and 1722. He was the most successful pirate of the Golden Age of Piracy, capturing far more ships than some of the best-known pirates of this era such as Blackbeard or William Kidd....
 were preying on mercantile ships, and sometimes even blockading ports, around the world.

In America, the Golden Age of Sail has been said to be between the War of 1812
War of 1812

The War of 1812, between the United States of America and the British Empire , was fought from 1812 to 1815.There were several immediate stated causes for the U.S....
 and the Civil War
American Civil War

The American Civil War , also known as the War Between the States and several Naming the American Civil War, was a civil war in the United States....
, or between 1840 and 1880, or 1830 to 1880.

See also

  • Age of Discovery
    Age of Discovery

    The Age of Discovery, also known as the Age of Exploration, was a period in human history starting in the 15th Century and continuing into the 17th Century, during which Europeans explored the world by ocean searching for trading partners and particular trade goods....
  • Naval tactics in the Age of Sail
    Naval tactics in the Age of Sail

    Naval tactics in the Age of Sail were used from the early 1600s onward when sailing ships replaced oared galleys. These were used until the 1860s when steam power ironclad warships rendered sailing line of battle ships obsolete....
  • Sea lane
    Sea lane

    A sea lane is regularly used route for ocean-going Ship. In the time of sailing ships they were not only determined by the distribution of land masses but also the prevailing winds, whose discovery was crucial for the success of long voyages....
  • Naval history
    Naval history

    Naval history is the area of military history concerning war at sea and the subject is also a sub-discipline of the broad field of maritime history....
  • Columbian Exchange
    Columbian Exchange

    The Columbian Exchange has been one of the most significant events in the history of world ecology, agriculture, and culture. The term is used to describe the enormous widespread exchange of plants, animals, foods, human populations , communicable diseases, and ideas between the Eastern Hemisphere and Western Hemisphere hemispheres that oc...