This article explores how the development of transportation for human survival has influenced civilization, economics, and warfare, describing the progression from simple transportation in the earliest times to the revolutionary transportation technologies of the Industrial Revolution and beyond.
Unlike other animals, especially predators, we humans do not have the muscular strength that is associated with survival, and as a result, we have a smaller radius of action. For example, polar bears have a home range of about 300 square kilometers, lions about 100 square kilometers, and our ancestors only about 20 square kilometers. According to anthropologists, unlike other animals that can go without food for days once they have enough nutrients, humans needed a regular supply of food. Therefore, when they exhausted the resources within their radius of activity, such as through hunting or gathering, they had to move quickly to other areas to survive, which led to the development of transportation. That’s when the need for transportation was fulfilled.
In this process, humans didn’t just develop a means of transportation to survive. Over time, they gradually sought different tools and methods to increase the efficiency of their travels. For example, early humans made simple sleds by bundling branches from nature, and devised rafts using wooden barrels or floating materials to cross rivers. These inventions allowed us to move beyond simple transportation and efficiently transport more resources and food, which ultimately contributed to the formation and development of larger communities.
The advent of farming technology made settled life possible. No longer did people have to wander through forests and fields to hunt free-roaming animals, or be disappointed by inconsistent harvests. The use of increasingly sharpened tools created surpluses. New materials and processing techniques, from stone to iron, gave crop production greater resilience. Humans produced too much for immediate consumption, and the technology of the time was limited in storing it for long periods of time. The most innovative method was “transportation,” i.e., sending it to other parts of the world on already developed means of transportation for barter.
Transportation began as a way of bartering, but over time, it came to mean “carrying things” rather than traveling for exchange. As people realized the efficiency of transportation over time, their communities grew larger and nations emerged, the horizontal movement of ubiquitous resources became essential. As societies became increasingly sophisticated, controlling the flow of logistics gave each individual, region, and even nation an edge in their interactions with other entities.
This is especially true for large-scale, high-stakes events like war. In many cases throughout history, good transportation of war supplies has been the key to efficient victory, or cutting off transportation routes has been a defensive strategy. For example, during Napoleon’s expedition to Russia, the Russians destroyed all of their food and supplies as they retreated, preventing Napoleon’s army from securing them. Ultimately, with transportation routes cut off and supplies depleted, the French were doomed to defeat. Thus, the importance of transportation played a huge role in determining the outcome of the war.
In the beginning, transportation was very simple. The first basic means we can think of is the human body. In ancient Egypt, the transportation of stones from quarries to build the pyramids was mostly done by slaves. They used tools. They used tools: round wooden benches called rollers to carry heavy rocks. Of course, even more efficient than the human body is the use of animals that can be easily handled: oxen and horses. Moving things directly with oxen and horses was not easy. In search of a more efficient way, people came across the wheel, which was a major advance for humanity. The wheel was first used in Mesopotamia, one of the four ancient civilizations. It soon became a cornerstone of civilization and had a huge impact, not only in transportation, but also in things like chariots and watermills. The transportation of goods with these animals and the wheel was essential to the development of ancient nations.
When Rome invaded its neighbors and even distant countries, its engineers laid roads. This ensured a steady supply of munitions for the duration of the war, and made it easier to fight larger battles with the advantage of having more resources than their opponents. This was the beginning of the Roman Empire’s rise to global dominance. Even today, you can still see the tire tracks of chariots that traveled through the city of Rome thousands of years ago.
In the Middle Ages, there were no major advances in science and technology, so transportation was still mainly by horse and oxen. However, even in medieval warfare, the transportation of munitions was crucial to the survival of a nation, which can be seen in how the Swiss defended their country. Austria, the dominant power at the time, invaded Switzerland several times, but the Swiss army cut off all Austrian transportation from the Alps, so the Austrians couldn’t fight back. The Swiss, who controlled the land routes, ultimately won.
In addition to these land routes, the Middle Ages also saw many advances in transportation by sea. As Western powers rushed to develop colonies, the question of how to transport the resources they exploited back home became a major problem, and eventually was solved by the use of ships. This was a time of great advances in the accuracy and convenience of maritime transportation technology, such as nautical maps, compasses, and ship steering, as well as in the search for safe routes.
The invention of the steam engine led to the Industrial Revolution, and like dominoes, it rippled through many different sectors before reaching transportation. Steam trains and steamships replaced horse-drawn carriages and sailing ships. The old methods were labor-intensive and relied on the certainty of transportation, which meant the risk of accidents in the middle. Inventions that harnessed the power of the steam engine, on the other hand, brought about numerous changes with much greater speed and continuity. In particular, the explosive increase in the amount of load that could be carried was a bridgehead to the era of mass production. Increased production and decreased relative transportation costs inevitably led to a change in the nature of transportation.
Globally, long-distance transportation, which had traditionally been horse-drawn carts and wind-driven sails, was largely owned by the state. Individuals couldn’t afford it. Now, transportation has become less expensive and more of a service industry. The transportation was now less expensive and more of a service industry.
After the Industrial Revolution, there were still many advances in transportation technology. In fact, the pace of progress was unparalleled. In the middle of the 19th century, people began to manipulate the landscape to create “sea routes” that would make transportation as easy on the sea as it was on land. Examples include the Panama Canal and the Suez Canal. This dramatically reduced the amount of resources brought from the colonies and the cost of transporting them, and control of these transportation systems was one of the essential conditions for Western nations to become great powers.
On the other hand, countries that were slow to develop their colonies or faced obstacles in the movement of logistics were unable to join the ranks of the great powers, and the first and second world wars were the culmination of this discontent. The wars brought tragedy, but the aviation technologies developed during the wars soon found their way into civilian hands, paving the way for widespread transportation applications.
One of the most characteristic features of modern transportation is the use of the sky. Compared to land and sea transportation, air transportation has shortened a lot of time. If we look at the evolution of this technology in stages, we can notice one characteristic. In ancient times, traveling from one point to another was a straight line. The majority of logistics traveled only on established roads between towns and villages, small states and small countries. In the Middle Ages, transportation capacity was able to cover large areas by sea. By sending ships out to sea, they could reach a wider area than traveling over land. In modern times, the invention of the airplane allowed us to take to the skies. From one dimension to two and then three. In the modern era, the roads, land, sea, and air that will be used as mediums are expected to become wider and faster.
For example, the highways that are being built as part of national infrastructure have made much of the land mass accessible, and trains are getting faster and faster. The world is becoming more connected, and these changes are making human life easier.
The importance of transportation in the modern world is no secret. Even if you look closely, transportation is an important part of our lives. We can place an order online and have it delivered to us by a courier while sitting at home. If I want to send something, I send it via courier, and nowadays it is almost always received by the other person in less than 2-3 days. In the distance, there is trade between countries. With globalization, trade has become a very important national business, and without transportation, especially shipping, none of this would be possible.
However, transportation is not a magic trick that moves anything you want where you want it, and it comes at a price, and so far, technology has been blindly looking in one direction: efficiency. However, the conflicts, waste, and environmental pollutants that arise from the limited resources of energy, most notably oil, are a constant problem and will only get worse in the future. If transportation, which has advanced humanity, is to be further developed, these issues must be resolved.
