There is one earthly resource that has a greater luster than gold, a higher energy output than coal, and has more military applications than the highest technology. It is a simple word, a thing taken for granted by all but the wisest: ‘manpower’.

The sting of a slap is sometimes felt for years or even decades after such an event. Perhaps a fight with a loved one, or even an altercation with a bully, and certainly things graver than that. Such it is with the history of nations and peoples. Take the nation of Poland, for example, which at its height in the early 1600s controlled over a million square kilometers.