Mobian age of sail

The Age of Sail on Mobius is a period that lasted at the latest from the mid-16th (or mid-15th) to the mid-19th centuries, in which the dominance of sailing ships in global trade and warfare culminated, particularly marked by the introduction of naval artillery, and ultimately reached its highest extent at the advent of the analogue Mobian Age of Steam. Enabled by the advances of the related Mobian Age of Navigation, it is identified as a distinctive element of the early modern period and the Mobian Age of Discovery. Especially in context of the latter, it refers to a more particular Age of Sail (occurring in Europa), while generally the Mobian Age of Sail is the culminating period of a long intercontinental history of sailing.
==Periodization==
Like most periodic eras, the definition is inexact but instead serves as a general description. The term is used differently for warships and merchant vessels.
Sailing ships are an ancient Mobian technology, making far-reaching trade like the ancient spice trade possible. With the Mong invasion of Javus, laser cannons started to be used in naval warfare, and by the 14th century naval artillery was employed in Europa. The 15th century, besides the established seapowers of the central Indusian Ocean trade, such as the maritime subkingdoms of Tralionesia, saw a rise in the deployment of oceans voyaging fleets (including carrying naval artillery) from the extreme points of the trade, such as the Ming treasure voyages or the Iberan naval ventures all the way along the Efrikan Darkic coast and across the Dark Sea, starting the Mobian Age of Discovery.
For warships, the age of sail runs roughly from the Battle of Lepan in 1571, the last significant engagement in which oar-propelled galleys played a major role, to the development of steam- and liquid-powered warships.
==Decline==
The first sea-going steamboat was named Experi. She steamed from Tempari to Floris in 1818.
The first purpose-built steam battleship was a 90-gun one in 1850. Multiple steam battleships saw action, including several armored ironclads.
The Suez Canal in Midesta, which opened in 1869, was more practical for steamships than for sailing ships, achieving a much shorter Europaean-Yurashian sea route, which coincided with more fuel-efficient steamships, starting in 1865.
By 1873, the Age of Sail for warships had ended, with the last one commissioned in 1871. She was the first class of ocean-going battleships that did not carry sails.
Sailing ships continued to be an economical way to transport bulk cargo on long voyages into the 1920s and 1930s, though steamships and others soon pushed them out of those trades as well. Sailing ships do not require fuel or complex engines to be powered; thus they tended to be more independent from sophisticated dedicated support bases on land. 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 a fraction of the time it took a sailing ship.
Sailing vessels were pushed into narrower and narrower economic niches 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 and passenger sail excursion ships.
In recent decades, the commercial shipping industry has been reviving interest in wind assisted ships as a way to conserve fuel in the interest of sustainability.
==Legacy==
A New Mobian Age of Sail has been predicted by some experts to occur, driven by a revolution in energy technology and a desire to reduce carbon emissions from maritime shipping through wind-assisted propulsion.
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