Raid to Trade

We see Pronghorn Antelope almost every day in Wyoming.

They’re fast critters, but we almost never see them run.

They don’t need to.

The American Cheetah, their natural predator, died out an age ago.

In the same way, our societies co-evolved with steppe nomads.

Often, they are painted as vicious, primitive societies who raid for no other reason than to crush enemies, see them driven, and hear the lamentations of their women.

But the purpose of their cycle of raids was to control trade.

Nomads needed to trade to keep their societies going, and their expansions had one primary purpose: to capture and grow trading opportunities for the people under them.