What is expansion in nature and human civilization

The expansion of the range of the biological species occurs due to the innate instinct of all the representatives of living life on the planet.

Animals tend to increase the habitat, in order for all to have enough food, which is required more with the increase in the number of livestock. Birds also, reproducing themselves, face the problem of food, and plant seeds initially have natural adaptations to be carried as far as possible by the wind or taken away by themselves other living beings.

On the example of a common anthill, one can understand what expansion is. The word expansio in Latin means expansion and quite reflects the desire of all living things to capture as much territory as possible. While the construction created by insect-workers is small, the area on which they produce edible and building materials is also relatively small. But from the outset, strangers here do not favor, and if the representative of another tribe wandered for a conditional, but clearly delineated and marked line, he will not get well.

Humanity, divided into races, peoples and tribes, has been behaving this way since ancient times. Constantly at war with neighbors, many ethnoses did not forget about distant, unknown countries. What is human expansion, and how does it differ from animal-plant?

Natural limitations for natural expansion

Any natural expansion of the habitat of a biological species presupposes rational prerequisites and limited natural barriers. For example, tropical plants, despite the inherent nature of the desire to sow large specimens of such specimens, can not survive in a temperate climate, not to mention the polar latitudes. White bears or penguins will be hot in the equatorial climate. Features of soils, and hence fauna, limits the movement of herbivores, and their livestock is regulated by predators. In the desert, the Arctic or the Antarctic, in turn, not all organisms can live.

What is expansion in the human sense?

Every schoolboy knows that the seaman Vespucci opened America. But there is an opinion that long before him the Scandinavian Vikings visited this continent, although the barrier was very dangerous and severe. Why did the unknown adventurers risk their lives, what did they seek beyond the ocean? Clearly, they wanted greater material wealth. In their understanding, the symbol of a better life was the wealth that other peoples might have possessed. There remained a trifle, reach an unknown edge and assign values. And if no one lives there, then the task is generally simplified to the limit.

What is military expansion?

Centuries passed, and white spots on geographical maps disappeared. Even small pieces of land, not to mention the vast territories, found their masters. But the historical realities to this day do not give rest to those who doubt the justice and finality of the established borders. Countries with a huge population sometimes occupy a relatively small area, which, moreover, is not always rich in resources. Territorial expansion seems to be a logical way out of this impasse, and to a people deprived of their living space, sooner or later some leader begins to inspire the idea of a possible expansion of the borders, accompanied along the way by the enslavement of the population of the occupied lands. Voluntarily, no one wants to share, so the war begins. For examples, you do not need to go far. The last two millennia with more or less intensity of humanity fought, the apogee of this process was the 20th century, and the hope that in this century it will abandon this habit is very modest.

There was, however, a precedent. Mao Zedong, the leader of the PRC, once tried to persuade the Soviet leader , JV Stalin, to send a small part of the population of the Middle Kingdom to the poorly developed eastern regions of the USSR, twenty million. He refused, he reasonably believed that two hundred million Soviet citizens, Siberia, too, is useful. The military expansion, attempted by Chairman Mao at the end of the sixties, also had no success.

Non-military expansion

Another matter is the expansion of the sphere of economic interests. The methods of trading expansion are old and do not differ in variety, but they do not become less effective from this. The main weapon is dumping, that is, the sale of exported goods at known low prices. The goal is to ruin the industry of the country on whose territory the commercial war is taking place. After that, you can dictate your terms, in general, the same as after the military seizure.

Summarizing the comparative observations of the biosphere, of which the human civilization is a part, we can only state that the intelligent beings of our planet behave in much the same way as their "smaller brothers", with only one difference: the limitations of people are much less.