Benjamin Franklin once said that "freedom of speech is a principal pillar of a free government: When this support is taken away, the constitution of a free society is dissolved." What did Benjamin Franklin mean by this statement?

What I think that Ben Franklin meant that if a government restricts your freedom of speech they restrict 1 of your basic human rights and then they also restrict your freedom of thought which leads to restricting all of you rights

Like for example what Hitler did he took away guns and no one could speak against the government

the effect of the ming leaders banning ships with more than two masts was that there was no further construction of ships masts, because there was a surplus. ming emperors disallowed foreign exploration

well the fact it is basically a peninsula allowed trade to come from many places, thus allowing cultural diffusion to take place. india has seasonal monsoons that merchants travel back and forth from india using the monsoons wind patterns