During the Middle Ages in Europe, very little new knowledge of the oceans was acquired. Pretend Europeans spent more time and energy gaining knowledge of the ocean during this time. Develop some inventions (at least 2) that may be in use right now if humans were exploring the oceans back then. Explain how these inventions might work and their intended use. Base your ideas on some of the inventions that were developed by ancient sea explorers. Be creative, there is no right or wrong answer.

Certain indicators lend clues to this expansion. Wherever we have evidence of family size, families appear to be larger. It does not appear that more babies are being born, but rather that more of them are surviving and people were living longer.

There was no plague or significant famine throughout this period. Generally speaking, this was a period of warm, dry climate through much of Europe, when enormous amounts of new land were brought under cultivation. People did not bring new land under cultivation for no reason. There were mouths to feed and diets improved.

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