Blog Post #6

 EOTO #1

The postal service is a very important part of any modern-day culture and has helped humans advance a lot. The postal service was used before we had technology like our phones and was the only way to communicate with people very far away. Instead of being able to instantaneously message someone people would have to wait weeks for their first message to even show up to their receiver and they would have to wait even longer to get a message back. The word postal service comes from the Latin word "ponere" which means to place or to post, making the postal service a service that takes things and places them somewhere else.

The postal service comes from the Chinese in 900 BC during the Chaing of Xiang dynasty, it was created so that government officials could send information around the empire and could get letters to other government outposts. His postal service reached 1,200 Km and was relatively fast even though they did not have automobiles to get from place to place.

The next use of the postal service was in Roman time back in 100 AD. Since ancient Rome was a giant empire they had to find a way to communicate to small villages on the other ends of the empire. The Romans were an advanced empire and so was their postal service, they used series of forts and stations throughout the empire to make the service fast. Their posts and uses of roads made their system better than any other in the ancient world. Their postal service was called the Cursus Publicus and was the biggest compared to all other ancient empires.

(this image shows the old Roman buggies delivering letters)

The postal service is a big part of America and has been used since the signing of the declaration of independence. Back in 1775, Benjamin Franklin brought the postal service to America. Benjamin Franklin became the first Postmaster General in American history and is the reason we have the USPS today. He greatly improved the American postal service, while he was in office he was able to get a reliable postal route from Florida all the way to Maine. 

The postal service was improved when the pony express branch was implemented into the service. The pony express was a series of mainly different posts and towers throughout America making it easier to move mail. This was a lot like the old roman's Cursus Publicus with the way the mail was moved showing how advanced the Romans were for their time. The pony part of the pony express was thousands of horses that would constantly be moving from post to post. 

The postal service has come a long way from the old Chinese system, today there are around 31,000 USPS stores in America and have almost 5 half a million workers. Unlike the old days, we don't use horses and buggies to get mail across the country, today we use planes and trucks to deliver people's mail. Yearly the USPS sends around 10 billion letters to all 50 of the states. 

History of America's Postal Service

Pony Express facts

Quick Facts on Postal Service