how did europe's peninsulas help it expand, considering economics and ideas etc?

Answer 1

Humans' first sailing ships are thought to have been sailed only on rivers and right along coastlines until people learned how to navigate away from sight of land.

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Boat & ship types
The first Egyptian sailing ships existed around 3000 BC or even earlier. They were used on the Nile River, which was ideal for primitive sailing vessels. ...
http://www.abc.se/~pa/bld/shiptype.htm

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Ships: a Timeline
what were probably the first sailing boats. ... 1450 onwards: Three and four masted sailing ships were in service for several centuries. ...
http://www.kidcyber.com.au/topics/shipstimeline.html

Take a good look at a map of the Mediterranean Sea:
http://www.google.com/search?q=mediterranean+sea+map&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&client=firefox-a&rlz=1R1GGGL_en___US357

With all those peninsulas and islands, a great deal of sailing was able to to on within sight of land. That was just the beginning.