I don’t think it’s unique in that. Before oil, we fought over land, food, spices, tea, steel, gold, and silver.
Recall that the modern nation state came out of the Peace of Westphalia that followed the Thirty Years’ War. Just over 2 centuries before that was the Hundred Years’ War.
Think of all the wars Romans fought trying to colonize and subjugate everyone. As well all the wars trying to defend themselves from the Carthaginians and the Persians and even the many uprisings of their slaves.
Let’s not forget all the wars in Asia! The Warring States period of Chinese history lasted over 250 years. The Sengoku period of Japan was also marked by over a century of frequent warfare.
The Egyptians and their many wars against the Nubians. The Zulu Empire of Shaka. The Aztecs and their wars to obtain sacrificial victims. The Mongolian Empire. The Comanche Empire. The Inca Empire. The Babylonian Empires. The Assyrian Empires.
On and on and on and on it goes. Empires and wars all the way back to the beginning of organized society (even before agriculture). Humans fight. It’s why we form gangs and get visceral thrills from violence. Violence is taboo in modern society for a reason: it’s not just dangerous and damaging to social order, it’s addictive.
I’d agree but oil is absolutely next level to all of that. Entire countries are basically held hostage by energy supply which was never the case before. You could cut off trade and that’s the worst thing you could do but now you can fundamentally disable the entire country as oil is so fundamental to everything.
Oil was such a massive security mistake that we’re still collectively recovering from it.
Oil is a force multiplier, definitely. But any nation that declined to pursue an oil-based economy during the oil boom years would’ve been swept aside or doomed to irrelevance. It’s like someone throwing a loaded gun into the middle of a prison riot. You either grab for the gun and start shooting or you take cover and try not to get shot.
Totally and it’s a great illustration how diversification is crucial for any organized system. If we started to diversify earlier we not only would have more economic power now but avoided thounsands of conflicts as well.
Though a bit of optimisim here - seems like we learned this lesson and most countries are taking energy hedging very seriously these days. I don’t think we’ll ever have a new resource like oil again.
I don’t think it’s unique in that. Before oil, we fought over land, food, spices, tea, steel, gold, and silver.
Recall that the modern nation state came out of the Peace of Westphalia that followed the Thirty Years’ War. Just over 2 centuries before that was the Hundred Years’ War.
Think of all the wars Romans fought trying to colonize and subjugate everyone. As well all the wars trying to defend themselves from the Carthaginians and the Persians and even the many uprisings of their slaves.
Let’s not forget all the wars in Asia! The Warring States period of Chinese history lasted over 250 years. The Sengoku period of Japan was also marked by over a century of frequent warfare.
The Egyptians and their many wars against the Nubians. The Zulu Empire of Shaka. The Aztecs and their wars to obtain sacrificial victims. The Mongolian Empire. The Comanche Empire. The Inca Empire. The Babylonian Empires. The Assyrian Empires.
On and on and on and on it goes. Empires and wars all the way back to the beginning of organized society (even before agriculture). Humans fight. It’s why we form gangs and get visceral thrills from violence. Violence is taboo in modern society for a reason: it’s not just dangerous and damaging to social order, it’s addictive.
I’d agree but oil is absolutely next level to all of that. Entire countries are basically held hostage by energy supply which was never the case before. You could cut off trade and that’s the worst thing you could do but now you can fundamentally disable the entire country as oil is so fundamental to everything.
Oil was such a massive security mistake that we’re still collectively recovering from it.
Oil is a force multiplier, definitely. But any nation that declined to pursue an oil-based economy during the oil boom years would’ve been swept aside or doomed to irrelevance. It’s like someone throwing a loaded gun into the middle of a prison riot. You either grab for the gun and start shooting or you take cover and try not to get shot.
Totally and it’s a great illustration how diversification is crucial for any organized system. If we started to diversify earlier we not only would have more economic power now but avoided thounsands of conflicts as well.
Though a bit of optimisim here - seems like we learned this lesson and most countries are taking energy hedging very seriously these days. I don’t think we’ll ever have a new resource like oil again.