Environmental History Resources

The Role of Wood in World History

By: K.J.W. Oosthoek

The destruction of the world's forests is a major concern in our age. According to the UN about 40 percent of central America's forests were destroyed between 1950 and 1980. During the same period Africa lost about 23 percent of its forests. A whole range of environmental problems are associated with deforestation, among them severe flooding, accelerated loss of soil, encroaching deserts and declining soil productivity¹. Sometimes we get the impression that these problems are unique to our time, but vast areas of surface of the earth were stripped of their tree cover well before the modern period.

The ancient Middle East

Today it is hard to believe that once vast tracts of forests were growing in the Middle East. However, during the early part of the third millennium BCE, the mountain slopes of this region were covered with massive cedar forests. These forests disappeared in the millennia before Christ's birth about two thousand years ago. The destruction of the cedar forests of the Middle East is told in the oldest know, surviving written story in the world: The epic of Gilgamesh. The epic was written in Mesopotamia sometime during in the 3rd millennium BCE. The second episode of the epic is known as The forest Journey and tells us the story of deforestation in the Middle East².

The forests of the ancient Near East were the resource for the construction of temples and palaces in the kingdoms and empires in the Fertile Crescent of the ancient east. The rulers of these kingdoms and empires undertook massive building programmes to display their power and wealth. In doing so they needed large amounts of, mainly, cedar timber. The story of Gilgamesh is the story of the ruler of the city-state of Uruk, in what is now present day Iraq. Gilgamesh wished to make for himself "a name that endures" by building "walls, a great rampart and the temple of blessed Eanna"³. To realise his ambitious construction plans he needed large amounts of timber and, fortunately for Gilgamesh, the primeval forests of Mesopotamia remained almost untouched at that time. But it was not an easy task for Gilgamesh to enter the forests and cut down the trees he needed for his temples. The cedar forests were the gardens of the Mesopotemian gods and it was protected against humanities need for timber by a guard named Humbaba. The gods understood very well that human beings never recognised the limits of their needs and their resources. Therefore the chief Sumerian deity appointed a guard, Humbaba, to prevent humans to enter the forests. But Gilgamesh was determent to get his hands on the timber and went "to the land where the cedar is felled"⁴. When Gilgamesh and his companions arrived at the forests a fight with the formidable Enlil for control over the forests followed. After a heavy struggle Humbaba was killed by the king of Uruk: "Then there followed confusion; for this was the guardian of the forest whom they had struck to the ground: he at whose words Hermon and Lebanon were used to tremble. Now the mountains were moved, the ranges of the hills were moved, for the guardian of the cedar lay dead"⁵. The author of the epic knew that once humans started to exploit the forests, nothing could stop them from cutting down all the trees: "So Gilgamesh felled the trees of the forests and Endiku cleared their roots as far as the bank of Euphrates"⁶. Gilgamesh and Enkidu cut down the cedar forest and in particular the tallest of the cedar trees to make a great cedar gate for the city of Uruk. They build a raft out of the cedar and float down the Euphrates river to their city.

The fate of the cedar forests was sealed. The Phoenicians, one of the oldest sea-trading nations in the world, needed timbers for their ships and used the cedars of Lebanon to construct them. Writers such as Homer, Pliny, and Plato, along with the Old Testament provide us with well documented descriptions of the once richly forested mountains of Lebanon. The Bible vividly describees the practice of rulers in the Ancient Middle East to fell cedar trees to build massive monuments. The account of the construction of the first temple in Jerusalem tells us that king Solomon sends a message to the king of Tyre with the request to provide him with timber: "so give orders that cedars of Lebanon be cut for me". What follows is a detailed account of how the trees are taken down from the mountains of the Lebanon and floated in rafts by the sea to Israel⁷.

The Hellenic period

According to Perlin has most of the Ancient Middle East lost its forests by the end of the third millennium BCE. This removed one of the fundaments under the ancient civilisations in the Middle East and as a consequence the centre of trade and power in the Mediterranean moved to Crete and the Greek world. The kingdoms and empires in the Middle East started to import wood for timber and fuel from the island of Crete. However, in the early second millennium BC, the Minoan civilisations developed on Crete and this civilisation was based on the abundant availability of wood. This was used as fuel in the copper furnaces for the production of bronze, the major export of Crete at that time. The Minoan civilisations flourished for about 600 years, but by 1450 BC it collapsed almost entirely caused by the massive deforestation of the island. The Minoan civilisation had to turn to Greece for its timber and fuel supplies and soon the centre of gravity moved to the Greek world⁸.

In the millennium that followed the Greek world developed into one of the major power centres in the Mediterranean. Two conditions were important for the growth of civilisation in this region: first of all Asia Minor's and Greece's long coastline and the many islands scattered along these coasts; secondly the availability of timber. The first condition made communication by means of the sea easy and the availability of timber made this communication possible because it ollowed the construction of ships. The forests in Asia Minor, on the Greek peninsula and in Macedonia were one of the main sources of the power and wealth of this region. It turned the different civilisations that developed of this region in formidable maritime and trading powers. It is not surprising that when Rome conquered Macedonia in 167 BC they prohibited the Macedonians from cutting timber. The Romans were aware of the role that wood had played in it's rise as a great power. The prohibition was a precautionary measure to prevent Macedonia from developing into a power that might rival Rome's and of course to satisfy its own timber needs ⁹.

The Roman period

For the Romans, as for other civilisations before, wood played an important role in their economy. The importance of wood is reflected in Pliny's Natural History. He devoted books XII to XVI of this work entirely to trees andrecognised the importance of forests for human existence:

the trees and forests were supposed to be the supreme gift bestowed by her on man. These first provided him with food, their foliage carpeted his cave and their bark served him for raiment"¹⁰.

At the time that Pliny lived Italy was almost completely stripped of its forest cover. The Roman's imported most of the timber form all parts of the Empire and metallurgic industries moved out of Italy. Pliny was aware that where ever humans came, the forests were under threat. In a world where trees were a scarce resource it is not surprising that Pliny wrote with awe about the massive forests in Germany

In the northern region is the fast expanse of the Hercynian Oak Forest, untouched by the ages and coeval with the world, which surpasses all marvels by its almost immortal destiny¹¹.

But it was not only awe that inspired Pliny since the Romans realised that these forests were an important resource for their industries. Unfortunately for them they never succeeded in concering the areas east of the Rhine and they had to turn elsewhere for timber, in particular to the Mediterranean. The Roman Empire's expansion into Syria had very harmful effects on the cedar trees in the mountains. It was not until the Emperor Hadrian put up boundaries around the remaining forests and declared them his Imperial Domain, that the destruction of the forests was slowed¹².

China and Venice

Now that we have explored the importance of wood and forests of antiquity, we make a giant leap in history to look at the importance of wood in the rise of the west. Without the abundant availability of wood, Europe had never been able to undertake the exploration of the world seas that led to the great geographic discoveries. This development was impossible in the Middle East, were the ancient forests were cut down in Antiquity.

In China, signs of wood shortage appeared in the 13th century. This was caused by the rapid growth of the population and thus heavy demand on the timber supplies at that time. But this did not prevent China from building sea going ships. The main reason why China did not circumnavigate Cape Hope is more of a political nature than ecological¹³.

At the same time at the other side of the Eurasian landmass, Europe woke up from its relative isolation of the Middle Ages. Trade and commerce started to expand and most of this trade was by sea. Europe has no long navigable rivers and transport by land was difficult because the massive woods, bad road conditions and unsafety made it very difficult to transport goods over long distances over land. Luckily Europe pocesses a long coastline and for this reason it was important to development seaworthy vessels that could transport bulk goods over long distances. The first areas where new vessels were developed was the Mediterranean and specially in Venice. To leave her Muslim competitors behind and establish maritime supremacy over de Mediterranean Venice developed superior ships. The city was very successful in building large numbers of high quality ships and for a considerable time Venice was the most important sea power in Europe. However, Venice paid the price for its rapid expanding sea power. The first signs of timber shortage can be identified by the end of the 15th century and by 1590 they had to import complete ship hulls. Soon Venice had to abandon the prominent position as a maritime power and the centre of maritime activity shifted for the first time away from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic and North Sea coasts¹⁴.

Spain

During the 15th and 16th centuries Spain was building an sea borne Empire. The expansion was a heritage of the struggle against the Moors in the late Middle Ages. In search for allies against their Muslim enemies the Spanish and Portuguese were exploring the coast of West Africa. In doing so they discovered the Azores in 1427 and in 1497-98 the portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama rounded the Cape of Good Hope and reached India by sea. He brought back a cargo of spices that netted a huge profit and opend up lucrative trade routes with the far east.

This was the start of the rapid expansion of Europe overseas. The Spanish and Portuguese were the first, but they were soon followed by others, not in the least the English and the Dutch. Spanish ships in the New World and Africa were being raided by English pirates, and explorers such as Francis Drake were trading openly in Spanish territories. This brought Spain into conflict with England and other Nations. After years of preparation Philip II ordered in 1588 The Armada to attack and invade England. The invasion failed and the Armada was destroyed. The construction of The Armada in the 1580's left large parts of Spain devoid of trees. It was the end of Spanish supremacy at sea. The countries around the North sea had access to abundant forests in Scandinavia, the Baltics and Germany. But also in the south of England were some reserves of wood available. This allowed England, France and Holland to build large fleets to take advantage of the opening up of the world seas¹⁵.

The rise of Britain

Because of the relative late development, during late Middle Ages and early Modern Period, of large scale shipping and industry around the North Sea basin, shortage of wood only appeared in the modern period. In England the first signs of timber shortage were noticed during the wars against France in the 1620's. In order to obtain enough timber for its fleet, England started to import wood supplies, first from the Baltic's and Scandinavia, later from the Colonies in North America. In the middle of the 18th century Europe faced an acute shortage of wood, and as a consequence, an energy crisis. The response to the energy shortage was the increasing use of an inferior fuel: coal. The change from wood to coal as major energy source had far reaching consequences¹⁶.

This development took at first place in England, where the shortage of wood was most acute. Wood was not only used for the construction of ships but also for heating and cooking as well as industrial processes. In order to provide enough charcoal woodlands in England were managed with coppice rotation schemes but over time these woodlands could not suppied enough fuel for the growing demands of dometic users and industry, in particular the iron industry. Iron was scarce and costly, and production was falling off because England's forests could not supply enough charcoal for smelting the ore. The problem was that mineral coal was useless for iron smelting so the industry desperately needed wood. However, in regions where wood was scarce but coal abundant Iron masters had long been experimenting with coal as a fuel for smelting. Finally the Darby family in the early 18th century, after three generations of effort, succeeded with coal that had been transformed into coke. However, the severity of shortages differed significantly from region to region and areas with abundant wood or peat the transition to coal was slow¹⁷. But the knowledge how to make coke spread slowly but surely and soon the production of iron rose because of the abundant availability of the new fuel in many localities, especially Northern England and the Midlands. Coke is a clean fuel that produces superior iron and therefore over time wood was replaced by Iron and coal as the chief construction material and major energy source. This process was reinforced when the railways, also depending on coal, could transport the fuel all over the country making the production of iron independent of the location.The coal revolution in England made it the first country to leave the wood era, and enter the true iron age¹⁸.

The present and the future

Nowadays steel and concrete are the predominant materials used to construct high buildings and long-span bridges. But wood is still used as a major material in houses, low buildings, for decorative purposed and furniture. It is also a raw material for pulp-based products such as paper. Although wood is, in many cases, replaced by stronger and lighter materials, it is still in great demand. The present world-wide depletion of forests and reafforestation is a new chapter in an old story. A better understanding of what happened with forests and woodlands in the past, might help us to preserve forests for the future.

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Notes

1. Perlin, John, A Forest Journey. The Role of Wood in the Development of Civilisation (Cambridge, MA; London, 1989), p. 15.

2. Ibid., p. 35.

3. The Epic of Gilgamesh, English version by N.K. Sandars (London, 1960), p. 59.

4. Gilgamesh, p. 68

5. Ibid., p. 82

6. Ibid., p. 82

7. 1 Kings 4: 6-10

8. Perlin, Forest Journey, pp. 44-55.

9. Ibid., p. 101

10. Pliny, Natural History, edited by E.H. Warmington (Cambridge MA, 1968), Book XII . I . 2

11. Ibid., Book XVI . II . 6

12. Mikesell, Marvin W. . "The Deforestation of Mount Lebanon", The Geographical Review, Volume 69, 1( 1969), p. 21.

13. Ponting, Clive, A Green History of the World (London, 1991), p. 278.

14. Perlin, Forest journey, 145-161; Ponting, Green History, p. 278

15. Ibid., p. 278

16. Ibid., pp. 279-281.

17. Rotherham, Ian D & David Egan, "The Economics of Fuel Wood, Charcoal and Coal: An Interpretation of Coppice Management of British Woodlands", in: Mauro Agnoletti, Marco Armiero, Stefania Barca and Gabriella Corona (eds.), History and Sustainability. Thiord International Conference of the European Society for Environmental History: Proceedings (Florence: University of Florence/ESEH, 2005) , pp. 100-101.

18. Perlin, Forest Journey, pp. 227-245