Civilisation Is Built on Energy

There is something interesting about the word energy. Today we recognise it as electricity, oil, gas, coal, geothermal, wind, solar, or various forms of resources that drive the economy. But long before energy became a term in physics, the idea of energy had already been present in human thought.

Aristotle used the Greek word energeia, which relates to activity, functioning, and the actualisation of something that was previously merely potential. In Aristotle’s thinking, energeia relates to the difference between what might happen and what actually becomes reality.

There is an interesting irony there. More than two thousand years later, when we speak of energy in the context of national development, the problem is still similar: a nation can possess enormous potential, but power is only born when that potential is successfully converted into a real capacity to produce prosperity, technology, industry, and bargaining power.

If human history is read from that perspective, the history of civilisation is essentially the history of how humans found ways to master ever-greater amounts of energy. Initially, humans depended on the energy of their own bodies, fire, wood, water, wind, and animals. The sun became the main source of energy for life through agriculture. Food surpluses then allowed part of society to no longer spend all its time searching for food.

From that surplus emerged cities, trade, bureaucracy, science, armies, and the state. Energy in its simplest form had become the foundation of civilisation long before humans knew power plants.

We can see this in the great civilisations of the past. The Roman Empire, for example, is often understood through its military strength, legal system, administration, and political networks. But behind all that lay a very material problem: how to provide food for the city, move armies, manage water, build roads, and send goods across a vast territory.

Rome’s power was ultimately also the ability to organise resources and human energy on a large scale. Civilisations that could produce a surplus and channel it efficiently had the ability to build more complex institutions. In other words, behind the glory of a state there was always an energy system, even if it was not called that at the time.

The greatest leap occurred when humans found ways to access energy far greater than the muscle power of humans and animals. Britain became the most important example.

In the 18th century, coal began to play an increasingly large role in the British economy, while the steam engine developed from a technology originally used to pump water from mines into a machine capable of driving various industrial activities. Coal and the steam engine then became an important part of the Industrial Revolution.

Interestingly, Britain did not become an industrial power merely because it happened to have coal reserves. Coal became power because humans found a way to convert it into mechanical work. Machines turned energy into productivity. Productivity gave birth to large-scale manufacturing.

Manufacturing strengthened trade. Trade expanded capital accumulation. Infrastructure such as railways and steamships then accelerated the movement of goods, people, and capital. From there, energy was no longer merely an economic input. Energy began to become the foundation of national power.

This is one of the most important lessons from the history of energy: possessing resources is not the same as possessing power. What matters is a country’s ability to convert resources into economic and strategic capacity. Coal became Britain’s strength because it was connected to technology, capital, institutions, industry, and infrastructure. Energy then turned into productivity, and productivity turned into geopolitical power.

The 20th century brought the next transformation through oil. If coal drove the Industrial Revolution, oil transformed mobility and the scale of the modern economy. The internal combustion engine allowed cars, lorries, ships, and aircraft to develop rapidly.

Oil also became a raw material for the petrochemical industry and produced various products that are now part of everyday life. At that point, energy was no longer merely an economic matter. It became a geopolitical matter.

The Middle East became one of the world’s strategic centres because its oil reserves met global trade routes and economic interests. Straits, ports, pipelines, and energy distribution routes became part of national security calculations. Countries with energy reserves gained influence, while countries that needed energy had to build strategies to secure supply. In the modern world, energy became one of the languages of power.

But again, history does not only speak of who owns resources. Japan offers a different lesson. The country does not have fossil energy reserves like many other countries, but that limitation drove the construction of a more efficient system to secure supply, develop technology, strengthen industry, and manage external dependence.

Singapore even shows that a country does not have to possess large energy resources to become an important player in the energy system. With its geographical position, infrastructure, trade, processing, and finance, Singapore has been able to become one of the important energy hubs in the region.

This means that energy power does not always come from resource ownership. It can also be born from the ability to manage an energy system.