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Oil

In today’s world, oil is the foundation for which society is run on. No matter where in the world one comes from, they, along with everyone else are directly affected by this precious resource. From Venezuela to Iraq, oil has had a huge impact on how these countries have developed. Without oil, today’s world would not be what humans have grown adapt to. Three points of interest in understanding oil would be imagining a world in which the technology for converting oil to an energy and a fuel source had not developed. How would the economic and political history of the last century have been different (particularly with regard to the Middle East)? Could a different energy source have produced the degree of industrial development that actually occurred?
To answer this question one must travel back in time to the nineteenth century, before fossil fuels began to play an integral part of daily life. In those days the primary means of travelling was by horses, horse drawn carriages, and by wind powered boats. The steam engine had existed for almost a hundred years at that point, if coal being another fossil fuel had not been discovered then the engines would have probably been powered by burning wood. This could in no way be as efficient as an engine powered by oil. Imagine having to collect bundle upon bundle of wood logs in order to power an engine. Fossil fuels and oil to be more specific, eased the age of inventing for humanity. There are those who argue that airplanes, cars, transportation and even steam powered vessels could not have happened without this fossil fuel making powering an engine easy. Some may argue that many cultures had existed for thousands of years without oil being such an integral part of their society, and they were able to thrive and make a mark on history. On the other hand in those times societal structure was way different. Humans had established cultures of great heights but they all shared different struggle, one to gain land. Land was...