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Why were ancient and medieval Europeans convinced that there must be an undiscovered continent in the Southern Hemisphere?
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∙ 14y ago
For centuries, the concept of a "terra australis incognita," or unknown southern land, intrigued the Western world, giving rise to fables and legends. Proposed by the Greeks, who believed that such land must exist to balance the lands of the Northern Hemisphere, the idea remained the subject of Fairy Tales until the Age of Exploration, when the civilized world began mapping the vast Pacific and Antarctic oceans.
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What territory did Jacques Cartier claim for France?
Cartier claimed the northeastern coast of North America (Canada) on behalf of France in 1534, 10 years after the voyages of Verrazano to the Atlantic coasts. Cartier explored Newfoundland and the Gulf of St. Lawrence, which he was convinced led to the Pacific Ocean.
What hardships did Charles Sturt face?
Charles Sturt, like all one Australian explorers, faced challenges they could not have imagined in the harsh, unforgiving land of Australia. At one stage on Charles Sturt's expedition along the Murray River, the group narrowly avoided a confrontation with hostile Aborigines. Fortunately, Sturt was always generous towards the many Aboriginal tribes he encountered, readily sharing food and gifts with them. In January 1830, however, his party encountered a group of about six hundred hostile Aborigines on sandbanks of the Murray. His men loaded their guns and prepared for battle, but further action was unnecessary when an Aborigine whom Sturt had befriended days earlier appeared from the bushes and convinced the hostile Aborigines to leave Sturt's party alone. Another common hardship was navigating his way through and around the many obstacles and snags which lay beneath the surface of the Murray River, particularly given that it was a flood year, and items such as trees and branches that would normally be exposed were submerged. Sturt's return journey was arduous and exhausting. His party had to row back up the Murray River, against the current and the floodwaters heading downstream. The men rowed constantly, in shifts which lasted from dawn until dusk each day. They were low on rations, and it was the hottest time of the year. When they finally reached Wantabadgery Station, they were at the point of starvation, and had to spend some time recovering before returning to Sydney in May 1830. Because of the perpetual sun-glare on e Murray River, Sturt suffered a degree of blindness, from which he never fully recovered. Later, whilst exploring the desert country of Central Australia, Sturt faced new challenges and hardships. Not expecting to take so long to long for this journey to "discover" the inland sea he was certain must exist, his party found themselves travelling through Australia's harsh interior in mid-summer. Daily temperatures in excess of 40 degrees Celsius took its toll on the men, and their hair and nails stopped growing. Although they are able to find sufficient water to sustain me, their diet in the deserts as very poor, and they were beset by scurvy. His assistant, James Poole, died in great pain from the effects of the disease. Add to that his ultimate disappointment in never finding any trace of an inland sea, as there was none.
Who are the indigenous people of Scotland?
By Mark HughesSaturday, 19 April 2008 * Share Close ** Digg ** del.icio.us ** Facebook ** Reddit ** Google ** Stumble Upon ** Fark ** Newsvine ** YahooBuzz ** Bebo ** Mixx ** Independent Minds* Print * Email * Text Size ** Normal ** Large ** Extra Large Australia has Aborigines, New Zealand has Maoris and the US has Native Americans. Now Scotland could soon have its own group of indigenous people, in the shape of its crofters. A report by the Scottish Crofting Foundation (SCF) is calling for the Government to recognise Scotland's 13,000 crofters as indigenous to the country in the same way that Australia, New Zealand and the US does with their ethnic groups. It suggests that, not only should the crofters be recognised as indigenous, but that they should be given the power to govern themselves through their own crofters' parliament. The report states that the Government must "recognise crofters as indigenous people of the Highlands and Islands, respect the growing body of international law on indigenous peoples, and devolve power and decision-making on indigenous issues to the people who maintain the indigenous cultures of the Highlands and Islands." The Government has refused to accept that the country has any indigenous people, so, should it act upon the report's recommendations, the crofters - essentially farmers who rear animals on small, rented pieces of land - would become the UK's first group of indigenous people. Patrick Krause, the chief executive of the SCF, says that his organisation decided to seek the indigenous status after becoming disillusioned and worried by decisions taken on behalf of the crofters by a government in Edinburgh which he says "knows very little about crofting". And he added that the crofters could even follow the example of the Sami people of Norway, who after decades of cultural repression established their own parliament in 1989. Mr Krause said: "Indigenous-people status would recognise crofters as a people that has its own unique culture and who deserve a certain amount of autonomy. In the past, central government has called all the shots - but they have always used a central belt benchmark. "What we are saying is that the Highlands and Islands are different and have a distinct culture which should be recognised as different. Urban people making rules for rural people doesn't work. There is a risk that cultural values can be swept aside in the name of progress." He added: "Crofters have always had a very strong and unique cultural identity. Many crofters speak a different language [Gaelic] and our whole culture is based upon the land and our livestock. We sing about it in our songs and tell about it in our stories. The Government in Edinburgh knows little about our culture, so why should they be making decisions about our lives? We are capable of making them ourselves. The first step away from that would be to be recognised as indigenous, but the ultimate aim would be to have our own parliament." The report is due to be presented to the United Nations in April next year, in the hope that it will pave the way for crofters to be given more rights under international law. The UN already has a draft declaration on the rights of indigenous people, which says that indigenous people should be free from discrimination and their rights should be respected and promoted. The draft goes on to say that the only way this can be done is by those people "exercising control over the developments affecting their lands and resources based on their needs". A copy of the report has also been sent to the Inverness-based government body, the Crofters Commission - which the report says should be abolished. Drew Ratter, chairman of the commission, has agreed to respond to the report, but he has already said: "I remain to be convinced that this indigenous people's thesis they are developing is the right one."
Explain land use pattern in India and why has the the land under forest not inreased much 1960-61?
AGRICULTURE HAS ALWAYS BEEN INDIA'S most important economic sector. In the mid-1990s, it provides approximately one-third of the gross domestic product and employs roughly two-thirds of the population. Since independence in 1947, the share of agriculture in the GDP has declined in comparison to the growth of the industrial and services sectors. However, agriculture still provides the bulk of wage goods required by the non-agricultural sector as well as numerous raw materials for industry. Moreover, the direct share of agricultural and allied sectors in total exports is around 18 percent. When the indirect share of agricultural products in total exports, such as cotton textiles and jute goods, is taken into account, the percentage is much higher.Dependence on agricultural imports in the early 1960s convinced planners that India's growing population, as well as concerns about national independence, security, and political stability, required self-sufficiency in food production. This perception led to a program of agricultural improvement called the Green Revolution, to a public distribution system, and to price supports for farmers . In the 1980s, despite three years of meager rainfall and a drought in the middle of the decade, India managed to get along with very few food imports because of the growth in food-grain production and the development of a large buffer stock against potential agricultural shortfalls. By the early 1990s, India was self-sufficient in food-grain production. Agricultural production has kept pace with the food needs of the growing population as the result of increased yields in almost all crops, but especially in cereals. Food grains and pulses account for two-thirds of agricultural production in the mid-1990s. The growth in food-grain production is a result of concentrated efforts to increase all the Green Revolution inputs needed for higher yields: better seed, more fertilizer, improved irrigation, and education of farmers. Although increased irrigation has helped to lessen year-to-year fluctuations in farm production resulting from the vagaries of the monsoons, it has not eliminated those fluctuations.Food-grain production increased from 50.8 million tons in fiscal year 1950 to 176.3 million tons in FY 1990. The compound growth rate from FY 1949 to FY 1987 was 2.7 percent per annum. Overall, wheat was the best performer, with production increasing more than eightfold in forty years. Wheat was followed by rice, which had a production increase of more than 350 percent. Coarse grains had a poorer rate of increase but still doubled in output during those years; production of pulses went up by less than 70 percent. The increase in oilseed production, however, was not enough to fill consumer demands, and India went from being an exporter of oil-seeds in the 1950s to a major importer in the 1970s and the early 1980s. The agricultural sector attempted to increase oilseed production in the 1980s and early 1990s. These efforts were successful: oilseed production doubled and the need for imports was reduced. In the early 1990s, India was on the verge of self-sufficiency in oilseed production. After independence in 1947, the cropping pattern became more diversified, and cultivation of commercial crops received a new impetus in line with domestic demands and export requirements. Nontraditional crops, such as summer mung (a variety of lentil, part of the pulse family), soybeans, peanuts, and sunflowers, were gradually gaining importance.The per capita availability of a number of food items increased significantly in the post-independence period despite a population increase from 361 million in 1951 to 846 million in 1991. Per capita availability of cereals went up from 334 grams per day in 1951 to 470 grams per day in 1990. Availability of edible oils increased significantly, from 3.2 kilograms per year per capita in FY 1960 to 5.4 kilograms in FY 1990. Similarly, the availability of sugar per capita increased from 4.7 to 12.5 kilograms per year during the same period. The one area in which availability decreased was pulses, which went from 60.7 grams per day to 39.4 grams per day. This shortfall presents a serious problem in a country where a large part of the population is vegetarian and pulses are the main source of protein.There are large disparities among India's states and territories in agricultural performance, only some of which can be attributed to differences in climate or initial endowments of infrastructure such as irrigation. Realizing the importance of agricultural production for economic development, the central government has played an active role in all aspects of agricultural development. Planning is centralized, and plan priorities, policies, and resource allocations are decided at the central level. Food and price policy also are decided by the central government. Thus, although agriculture is constitutionally the responsibility of the states rather than the central government, the latter plays a key role in formulating policy and providing financial resources for agriculture.Land UseIn FY 1987, field crops were planted on about 45 percent of the total land mass of India. Of this cultivated land, almost 37 million hectares were double-cropped, making the gross sown area equivalent to almost 173 million hectares. About 15 million hectares were permanent pastureland or were planted in various tree crops and groves. Approximately 108 million hectares were either developed for non-agricultural uses, forested, or unsuited for agriculture because of topography. About 29.6 million hectares of the remaining land were classified as cultivable but fallow, and 15.6 million hectares were classified as cultivable wasteland. These 45 million hectares constitute all the land left for expanding the sown area; for various reasons, however, much of it is unsuited for immediate cropping. Expansion in crop production, therefore, has to come almost entirely from increasing yields on lands already in some kind of agricultural use (see table 26; table 27, Appendix).Topography, soils, rainfall, and the availability of water for irrigation have been major determinants of the crop and livestock patterns characteristic of the three major geographic regions of India's Himalayas, the Indo-Gangetic Plain, and the Peninsula--and their agro-ecological subregions (see fig. 5; Principal Regions, ch. 2). Government policy as regards irrigation, the introduction of new crops, research and education, and incentives has had some impact on changing the traditional crop and livestock patterns in these subregions The monsoons, however, play a critical role in determining whether the harvest will be bountiful, average, or poor in any given year. One of the objectives of government policy in the early 1990s was to find methods of reducing this dependence on the monsoons.
What convinced Europeans to accept the power of reason?
Scientific successes convinced educated Europeans of the power of human reason
What convinced educated Europeans to accept the powers of reason?
Scientific successes convinced educated Europeans of the power of human reason
What is a true statement about Columbus?
He convinced Europeans he had discovered a North and South America.
Which early explorer convinced Europeans that there was a New World across the Atlantic?
Amerigo Vespucci
Which American explorer got convinced that Antarctica was a continent?
christoph Columbus i believe
During the Philosophy in the age of reason What convinced educated Europeans to accept the power of reason?
Educated Europeans in the Age of Reason were convinced to accept the power of reason due to the influence of Enlightenment thinkers like John Locke and Voltaire, who advocated for rational and critical thinking as a means to understand the world and improve society. The scientific advancements made during this period also demonstrated the effectiveness of reason in explaining natural phenomena, further reinforcing the importance of logic and empiricism. Additionally, the skepticism towards traditional authority and religious dogma also played a role in promoting the value of reason as a guiding principle for knowledge and decision-making.
What was a long term affect of the crusades?
The war convinced Europeans of the superiority of Christian art, literature, and science.
Which revolution first convinced US officials they had to stop the spread of communism in the Western Hemisphere?
Fidel Castro's revolution in Cuba
What convinced James cook a polar continent must exist?
When he saw huge iceburgs after crossing the Antarctic Circle.
What role did the scientific revolution play in the start of the enlightenment?
It convinced many Europeans to value logic and reason over religion and tradition
What role did the scientific revolution play in bringing on the enlightenment?
it convinced many europeans to value logic and reason over religion and tradition
What were the three important results of the American victory of saratoga?
It ended the British threat, lifted Patriots spirits and convinced Europeans that Americans had sound a chance of winning
