• droans@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    It didn’t really have anything to do with fires. Pretty much every hardwood forest was cut down in Europe and any remaining were protected so they could be used to build ships.

    America was colonized late enough that it never really became an issue.

    • banneryear1868@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Yeah exactly they basically stripped their continent bare of lumber during that period and it’s all at the bottom of the ocean now. The materials used are just as much determined by economic conditions as practicality.