Why we need to require module in order to gain information from API?

// Problem: We need a simple way to look at a user's badge count and JavaScript points // Solution: Use Node.js to connect to Treehouse's API to get profile information to print out

//Require https module const https = require('https'); const username = "chalkers";

//Function to print message to console function printMessage(username, badgeCount, points) { const message = ${username} has ${badgeCount} total badge(s) and ${points} points in JavaScript; console.log(message); }

// Connect to the API URL (https://teamtreehouse.com/username.json) const request = https.get(https://teamtreehouse.com/${username}.json, response => {

                      console.log(response.statusCode);

                      // Read the data
                      // Parse the data
                      // Print the data

                      });

In the video tutorial, I notice that when you do not require https, you cannot get information from API. I wonder why that happens. Could anyone please explain to me about that and the importance of the module? Thank you!