This blog post explores how the development of transportation has driven the 21st century global village era and what changes it has brought to the economy and daily life.
The 21st century is often called the global village era. What made this era possible was the advancement of transportation and communication. Among these, the development of transportation has enabled us to reach any place in the world within 24 hours. Furthermore, it has become easy to access agricultural and marine products from all regions of the country, and the convenience of daily life has increased, such as using computer components manufactured in Taiwan. This expansion of our lives to a global scale was made possible by the continuous advancement of transportation methods. Transportation forms one of the most fundamental pillars of social and economic activity in our daily lives.
Transportation began simply from the need to move goods from one place to another. Before settled life, animals hunted or plants gathered along migration routes were consumed on the spot. However, with the start of settled life, consumption became fixed to specific locations. Consequently, the need arose to transport hunted game, gathered plants, and fish caught in rivers or seas back to the settlement. This separation of production and consumption sites led to the early development of transportation centered on land and sea routes.
In early land transportation, the primary method was porterage, relying on human physical strength. Initially, people carried items by hand or slung them over their shoulders, but gradually began crafting carrying tools. These included pottery, baskets, and sacks. In traditional Korean society too, auxiliary tools were used depending on the item: cloth bundles or sacks for grains, and wicker baskets or jars for herbs or water.
As society developed and urban infrastructure emerged, methods for easily transporting large quantities of goods arose. The invention of the wheel, in particular, led to a dramatic advancement in transportation. Early methods involved laying logs on the ground, placing heavy objects on top, and pulling them with ropes; the wheel replaced this. The handcart was one of the earliest wheeled transport methods. At the Ur archaeological site in Babylon, illustrations of an early two-wheeled vehicle dating back approximately 6,000 years were excavated.
While the invention of the wheel made transporting goods considerably easier, there were limits to how far and how much could be carried using only human strength. This led to the development of draft animal-powered transport. Animal-drawn transportation evolved in various forms and was actively used from the 16th century until the advent of the automobile.
In the 18th century, James Watt’s steam engine was applied to vehicles, allowing humans to move beyond transportation relying on animal power and enter the era of fossil fuel use. The automobile has continuously evolved, becoming an essential part of modern society, while rail-based trains brought revolutionary advancements in transporting people and cargo. From the mid-20th century onward, alternative transport methods like pipelines and waterway transport developed, complementing truck and rail freight.
Early societies formed near the sea developed maritime transport. This began with the raft, the earliest known vessel constructed around 5000 BC. Initially, people simply used the ability to float to cross rivers, but later they began weaving logs together to make rafts, allowing them to cross rivers without getting wet.
In ancient Egyptian civilization, one of the great ancient civilizations, water transport via the Nile River was more important than land transport. Initially, simple boats propelled by oars were used, later evolving into larger vessels with rowers on both sides. Furthermore, sails were first employed as a means of transportation, harnessing the power of nature—specifically wind—to replace human or animal strength. Subsequently, maritime transport evolved into various forms like Viking ships, cog ships, and galleys, depending on the geographical and social characteristics of local communities.
After the 15th century, the advent of ocean-going vessels enabled intercontinental transport, and Columbus’s discovery of the New World also occurred during this period. In the 17th and 18th centuries, the East India Company utilized large ships, larger than the warships of the time, to conduct maritime trade across the globe. From this period, a distinction began to emerge between warships and merchant ships, and maritime transport established itself as the core means of trade connecting the world beyond neighboring nations.
Maritime transport, which evolved as an intercontinental means of transportation, has developed into various forms tailored to specific purposes in the modern era. Large container ships and tankers are used for intercontinental cargo transport, cruise ships for passenger transport, and military vessels like Aegis destroyers, aircraft carriers, and submarines are built for military use.
While the history of transportation development has centered on land and sea transport, air transport has also become a crucial mode in modern times. Following Leonardo da Vinci’s conception of flying machines in the 15th century, the first successful human flight using a hot air balloon occurred in the late 18th century. Subsequently, airships equipped with propulsion systems were developed, enabling their use as a transport medium. However, numerous technical limitations prevented air transport from replacing land and sea transportation, and attempts were limited to gliders that simply utilized wind.
In the early 20th century, the Wright brothers developed the first powered aircraft, enabling humanity to achieve powered flight. This event served as the catalyst for expanding the scope of transportation from land and sea to air. In 1911, powered aircraft began transporting mail between London and Windsor. During World War I, aircraft advanced dramatically, becoming the fastest means of transport alongside the development of jet engines.
Today, various aircraft are manufactured, including large passenger planes, supersonic aircraft, fighter jets, and helicopters. With the development of rocket propulsion systems, air transportation is expected to expand beyond the globe into space.
The advancement of transportation not only made the movement of goods easier and faster but also brought changes to the socio-economic structure. First, the development of transportation accelerated changes in living areas. In the era of pack animal and draft animal transport, long-distance travel was difficult, leading to the formation of living areas centered around cities within a certain radius. Cities developed in a circular pattern, surrounded by fortified walls, with people living within these walls. The 19th-century development of railroads and trams increased travel distances by about tenfold. As transportation costs decreased, people began to live near railroads. Major cities formed at points where multiple railroads intersected, and living areas expanded around the rail network. However, accessibility to areas without railroads remained limited. The popularization of automobiles solved this problem and broadened the urban structure back into a circular pattern. Commercial and business functions, previously concentrated only at railway intersections, began to develop around road junctions where multiple transportation routes converged. In modern times, the advent of highways and high-speed rail further invigorated inter-city transportation, leading to the formation of metropolitan areas composed of central cities and surrounding satellite towns.
Economic structures also transformed alongside advances in transportation. Unlike land transport, which merely expanded economic activity to adjacent regions, the development of maritime transport in the 16th century extended economic activity beyond continents to encompass the entire world. This facilitated the spread of new European goods and ideas to the Americas and enabled the import of raw materials from Africa and the Americas into Europe. The 20th-century development of railroads and automobiles enabled factories to relocate to outlying areas and facilitated the easy nationwide distribution of goods produced locally. Consequently, specialized industries began to develop according to the economic characteristics of each region. The 21st-century advancement of air transport enabled rapid logistics delivery and, combined with the internet, provided a business environment unconstrained by time or location. The combined effects of transportation and communication advancements connected the entire world into a single economic sphere.
The development of transportation has made our lives more convenient and contributed to the formation of new cultures as regional economic characteristics and commercial spheres changed. However, this also brought problems such as regional economic imbalances, environmental pollution, and increased traffic accidents. Moving forward, more efficient and sustainable transportation methods must be developed while addressing these issues.
