Timber in World History

Sing C. Chew (Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research, Leipzig)

For the last five thousand years of world history, wood has been utilized continuously in the reproduction of societies, empires, civilizations, and nation states. From this, it is clear that wood has been put to many uses. It has fueled the socioeconomic transformation of every societal system, and has even provided the means for some to become major powers in world history. With the advent of the Neolithic civilization almost seven to eight thousand years ago, some parts of the world’s forests were cleared for the cultivation of crops and for other human use. As a result, deforestation has been going on for at least the last five thousand years, and therefore is not a new phenomenon.

Wood has many uses to the human community. One of the primary ones is in the area of energy. As an energy source, timber was not only used as a source of fuel for cooking and heating, it was also utilized in the fabrication of building materials, and in the production and manufacturing of commodities for trade exchanges. These uses facilitated economic expansion and socioeconomic development. Thus, as human communities grew and developed, wood consumption increased. For use in production and manufacturing in the early periods of human history, timber/wood formed the base material to fabricate consumable products in all aspects of economic life from cooking utensils, furniture, luxury ornaments, containers, farming implements, ships, and shoes to bracing mine shafts for minerals and natural resource extraction. Given this range of uses, wood was a constant feature of socioeconomic life.