When the Mongols fanned out from their eastern lands, or the Europeans trail blazed westwards, or in fact any of the great and small tribal migrations happened in human history, it was all about land. Like the horse being introduced into South America by the Spanish crossing into North America finding it to their liking and thriving. Land brings with it food and water and since time immemorial those have been the power base of every tribe and every animal. (This is now proven to be false, they have found ancient horse skeletons in North America).
We will never be able to explore the universe as individuals until we solve the food and water problem. And ownership of the land has become the great decider upon who wields social power. And humans being what they are those who do own the land enslave those who do not. How? By ensuring leverage of water and food distribution. Upon these, great fortunes have been made.
And yet as I was taught when I worked for an environmental charity, we own nothing. We don’t own the earth. We steward it. Our need to eat and drink is absolutely real, but our power over each other is more ephemeral than a dying leaf. Stalin cannot kill me nor Caesar frighten me, they have gone.
True power belongs to everyone living, and what they do with the ideas in their heads.