ART AND CULTURE.
What would the world be like if the wheel had not been invented?
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What would the world be like if the wheel had not been invented?
Have you ever tried to imagine a world without the wheel? This invention has not always existed in human history, but humans had still been able to colonize the entire world. However, we often make an initial mistake: we are used to thinking of the wheel only as a means of transportation for cars, trains and the like, but there are many other uses of this form that many philosophers call perfect. Think, for example, of gears, which are typically circular in shape, or pulleys for pulling water up from wells, or rotors in airplanes. A world without wheels would be a more disunited world, less global and much larger for everyone. Focus has tried to imagine a modern world without the wheel, and the conclusions they come to may surprise you.
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Civilization would still have existed
Let us first dispel a myth: human civilization would have, and did, exist even before the invention of the wheel. In fact, the U.S. archaeologist Kris Hirst claimed that, for example, the Americas were colonized by humans from 20,000 years ago, and in general almost all areas of the planet were already inhabited before the invention of this tool, which was useful for travel only along with another invention, namely the axle.
The first wheel was not invented for movement
According to scholars, the first wheel understood as a circle rotating around a fixed axis was not designed specifically for transportation. About 5500 years ago, in fact, it was used to shape clay with the potter's wheel. This new tool was crucial for humankind, which learned the rapid manufacture of containers and objects of a precise shape. From here to thinking about using it for movement, then, it was a very short step.
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The wheel alone is a useless invention for travel
This is one of the greatest explanations of why the Spanish conquistadores faced a people who did not use wheels to get around. In fact, the wheel was only used as a means of transportation, before the engine, because of the presence of trailing animals. The combination of wheels and trailing animals was fundamental to human history. In the Americas, horses were introduced by conquistadors. In pre-Columbian civilizations, the only "domestic" animals were goats, pigs, sheep and the like. So, wheels as transportation could be of no use unless used through human force (talk about slavery).
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Transporting objects without the wheel: only with sleds or pack animals
Methods of transporting heavy loads without wheels would, therefore, be only sleds or pack animals such as horses, mules, oxen, etc. In the north perhaps they would use sled dogs, and camels in the desert. The only other driving form would literally be man. More simply, we are talking about slaves. A society without wheels to get around therefore would be at much greater risk of turning into an exploitative, slave-owning society.
A less globalized and more lonely planet
However, it is not enough to think about the feasibility of transportation, but also about the speed of these movements. As mentioned, without the wheel, virtually all gear-based mechanical technology would not exist (more on this later), and therefore travel between different places would be almost impossible. The slowness and difficulty in trade and cultural exchanges would also have caused a greater difference among the peoples of the world, as for example happened with Native Americans, where tribes had very little contact with each other.
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Inland more uninhabited: populations would live near water
In fact, in the absence of the wheel, the vast majority of humanity would live near the sea or navigable rivers, and these would become the new highways and expressways (a typical example is some Southeast Asian peoples, who still travel this way today). But that is not all: water as the center of travel would have ended up favoring other peoples than the currently dominant ones, such as Phoenicians and Vikings. This therefore could have caused a total imbalance of power, and led to the formation of a world profoundly different from the one we have today.
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Wheels and nature
Some evolutionists have asked a very interesting question: why are there no plants or animals with wheels in nature? There are basically two hypotheses. First, a wheel outside the body would still have to be connected to the organism by ligaments, nerves, etc. It goes without saying, that such a thing would be really difficult and would disrupt the whole apparatus, both animal and plant, since these wheels would precisely have to turn. Second, the "human wheels" would need mainly flat surfaces, and on earth these areas are not many. It would, therefore, have been a completely foolish evolutionary choice.
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The power story would also be very different
Having said that seafaring peoples would probably have emerged as the true rulers of the world (much more so than, for example, Venice and Genoa were), other worlds also could not have existed in the way we know them. For example, the Roman Empire based much of its success on how quickly it could transport its troops from one part of the battlefield to another, but also across different regions and areas.
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The industrial revolution of the 19th century would not have been there
Most of the refined technologies that came out of the nineteenth-century industrial revolutions would not have been there. For example, the first steam engines for mining minerals were wheel-based. Or even the first propellers for steam-powered ships. The very concept of the propeller, (for both ships and airplanes), a wheel that screws on itself, would never have come into being. Other things would never be realized, speaking of transportation. Think for example of the Panama Canal or the Suez Canal, all of which were dug mechanically, albeit with the help of manpower.
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Even cities as we know them would not be there
So, we understood that displacements would still be possible, albeit slowly, but vertical constructions would instead be just science fiction. Elevators, pulleys, tie-rods, etc., are based on the concept of the wheel. Constructing a building higher than 2-3 stories, therefore, would be impossible. Goodbye skyscrapers, for example. Recall, just out of curiosity, that the birth of the elevator (especially the one with safety brake) was presented at the New York World's Fair, and it gave a huge impetus to the expansion of the Big Apple
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Other things that would not exist without the wheel
Think for example of the production of electricity, which in most cases requires huge turbines, which are nothing more than large wheels. In case of this shortage, we would still resort to either horses or slaves. It follows that our cities would still be overrun with animals, with consequences, for example, for public health. Also, think again of gears, simple wheels that turn on a pivot or axle. Or the astrolabe, used anciently by sailors to track their course. Or the clock, made up of many small wheel gears (we would measure time, then, with the hourglass or sundial). Or even the marine chronometer, the basis for the precise calculation of latitudes.
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