Why did Eurasia rule over the rest of the World?
A short answer to a big question then. The long answer is written beautifully in a book called "Guns, Germs and Steel" by Jared Diamond.
There are some proximal reasons which led to the demise of non-Eurasian civilizations which can be summarized as guns, germs, and steel. But Diamond set out to find the reasons of the reason, the root causes and it seems that most of the reasons point to one main factor.
Geography
First reason is that the majority of the staple crops and big herd animals lived in Eurasia. Wheat and barley in Middle East, rice in East Asia, maize in Central America. The existence of big herd animals made use of the energy stored in grass and provided calories and supported the farm output. But from animals germs came as a gift to humans. This was the first factor related to geography, how your cards of domesticatable plants and big animals are dealt to you.
Second big factor is the orientation of the continents. Eurasia is a roughly horizontal land mass where as Americas are a vertical land mass reaching from pole to pole. Crops, animals, germs and technology moved easily across the horizontal Eurasian continent. It also allowed for the diffusion of ideas, whereas in Latin America and Africa, the diffusion of domesticated plants and animals in the vertical lying continent were blocked by tropical forests, and travel slowed down by changing climates as one moves up or down through tropical or subtropical zones.
References
1. Diamond J. Guns, Germs and Steel
There are some proximal reasons which led to the demise of non-Eurasian civilizations which can be summarized as guns, germs, and steel. But Diamond set out to find the reasons of the reason, the root causes and it seems that most of the reasons point to one main factor.
Geography
First reason is that the majority of the staple crops and big herd animals lived in Eurasia. Wheat and barley in Middle East, rice in East Asia, maize in Central America. The existence of big herd animals made use of the energy stored in grass and provided calories and supported the farm output. But from animals germs came as a gift to humans. This was the first factor related to geography, how your cards of domesticatable plants and big animals are dealt to you.
Second big factor is the orientation of the continents. Eurasia is a roughly horizontal land mass where as Americas are a vertical land mass reaching from pole to pole. Crops, animals, germs and technology moved easily across the horizontal Eurasian continent. It also allowed for the diffusion of ideas, whereas in Latin America and Africa, the diffusion of domesticated plants and animals in the vertical lying continent were blocked by tropical forests, and travel slowed down by changing climates as one moves up or down through tropical or subtropical zones.
References
1. Diamond J. Guns, Germs and Steel
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