Of course it could be added later (there's urllib that almost no one uses), I meant that Python is older than HTTP and HTTP evolved a lot during that time.
Once you create an API, it's hard to change it. HTTP initially was very simple and evolved over time. Things like REST, JSON encoded messages, cookies, authentication (albeit rarely used), keep-alive were added incrementally. Today's HTTP is used completely different than 30 years ago. Python already had urllib, then urllib2 which was renamed back to urllib in Python 3, but its API is still behind how HTTP is used right now.
Once you create an API, it's hard to change it. HTTP initially was very simple and evolved over time. Things like REST, JSON encoded messages, cookies, authentication (albeit rarely used), keep-alive were added incrementally. Today's HTTP is used completely different than 30 years ago. Python already had urllib, then urllib2 which was renamed back to urllib in Python 3, but its API is still behind how HTTP is used right now.