Now the cities, towns and farming lands became like very large tribal groups. They called themselves 'states' or 'countries'. Each country had its own rulers, religion and ways of doing things. Some traded with neighbouring countries but others began to compete with their neighbours to become bigger, larger and more powerful still. They built great symbols to show their power and status: statues, palaces, fancy buildings, giant ships, powerful armies... Of course, this meant more land taken, more trees cut down, more digging in the ground to find stone and metals for building. Not too bad so far.
Then people discovered first coal, then oil, gas and finally nuclear energy (and a new way of killing on a vast scale - hydrogen bombs). For the first time, people could build powerful machines to do work for them instead of relying on wind, water, horses and simple manpower. These machines meant that one person could do the work of hundreds just by pulling a few levers.
People could now travel easily just about anywhere - on land, on or under the sea and in the sky. Great, you might think. But all these machines meant pollution just about everywhere - in the air, on the land, in the water. They also meant the first really big wars . Powerful states built up armies of people trained to attack and kill other people, at first using simple weapons like swords and spears but later, using special machines like missiles and guns to help them.
With these armies, they could invade weaker states and take all their lands. The people who were beaten were often forced to be slaves or simply killed.
No comments:
Post a Comment