Historians and political scientists say that peace is a pause between wars. As cynical as it may sound, sometimes it seems that they are right. Humanity has always waged wars. The only difference for ancient wars is that weapons and tactics have become more sophisticated since then.
How does business rule the world? Where, how and why may new wars broke out? Eugene Antipenko, an expert form will try to answer these questions.
Past Wars
People have always killed each other since the very beginning of the humankind history. First, they fought for the right to own the best territories to live and hunt. Later, some kingdoms tried to enslave others and deprive them of their land. These days, people wage wars for recourses such as crude oil, natural gas etc.
Wars for natural resources started during the times of great geographical discoveries (the end of the 15th century). They continued as maritime powers went on consolidating their position, status and influence around the globe. Spain was the first country to discover the New World. The conquerors started exporting gold, silver, cocoa, tobacco and other commodities from America to Europe. Therefore, Spain became the 1st monopolist by selling these commodities to other European countries and making unbelievable income. Other European countries followed Spain ’s example. Britain and Portugal were the most successful ones (That is why the USA and Canada speak English while Brazil speaks Portuguese, not to mention the rest of Latin American countries that speak Spanish). The list of other conquerors includes the Netherlands, Russia, Turkey, France and Denmark .
Russia and Turkey conquered new territories mainly by land. Yet this expansion was fairly successful. Just recollect the size of the Russian Empire and the Ottoman Empire. By the way, Russia is still the world’s largest country.
The first re-division of the world took place in the 18th-19th centuries when it became obvious that the resources weren’t enough for the Old World. The British Empire was in the prime of life. It managed to conquer India consolidate their position in Hong Kong , Australia, Canada and other countries of the present-day Commonwealth of Nations. It gained control over the world’s major maritime trade routes.
However, the British Empire’s major loss was the independence of the USA (which later turned into the world’s major superpower).
Later, the diamond and gold fever throughout the world resulted in the colonization of the USA’s Wild West, vast Canadian territories, South African territories, Alaska, Siberia, Australia.
That was the start of the second re-division of the world (the 19th century), which ended after World War I, the first major war in history. It was then that coal, crude oil and iron ore became so valuable. Everybody needed colonies. However, there were no free territories left apart from the North and South Pole. Therefore, major powers had to fight each other for the right to own the existing colonies.
Since the beginning of the 20th century, oil has been the world’s most valuable commodity as the global production and even the entire global economy became too dependent on it. Since then, European powers along with the USA have tried to gain control over the oil-rich regions in the Middle East.
World War II was the consequence of a failed attempt to re-divide the world between the strongest nations. Germany, Italy and Japan were over-ambitious. So were the USSR and the USA.
The wave of independence in the 1950-60s undermined the power of Great Britain (ex-British Empire) and France. The USSR and the USA, the new world leaders, supported the wave of independence in order to deprive the UK and France of their colonies and resources. That is how the oil-rich Middle East turned into the world’s major hotspot. Just remember the wars in Iraq, Kuwait and Libya. These countries are major players in the global market of cured oil. Now it is Syria. Iran is on the verge of a major war with Israel and its Western allies.
As you can see, the chain of wars for crude oil and natural gas continues. Apart for the Middle East, you have probably heard about the island dispute between Japan and China. The major reason for the conflict is not the islands themselves but the offshore territories that are rich in crude oil. By the way, China became another major player in the international arena several decades ago. The recent war in Sudan has revolved around oil-rich regions.
And finally, all major countries have headed north in order to take as large piece of the “North Pole” pie as possible. The region is also rich in natural resources, though they are harder to extract and transfer to the mainland.
Anyway, the political and economic balance in the world is changing. However, the essence behind the confrontation of the world’s major powers is the same – the desire to dominate the world and to gain control over the global reserves of natural recourses (oil, natural gas, diamonds, precious metals, iron ore etc.). Without these recourses, the present-day economy cannot exist. If (God forbid!) there is another major war, we will know the real reasons for it…
