| The sequence of population explosion and increasing wood usage leading to decline of the forests and soils, followed by decline of an empire, was repeated in the Mediterranean region after the fall of Rome. The Egyptian empire, from around the seventh to tenth centuries A.D., and the Venetian Republic, between 500 and 1500 A.D., both went through cycles of expansion and contraction influenced by wood supplies. Timber supplies for building huge fleets of war ships and ships for trading were of constant strategic importance. By the late 1500's, it was cheaper to have ships built in Northern Europe for owners in Venice, than to use wood from local sources. |
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