Jared Diamond
Jared Diamond posits that the historical dominance of Eurasian civilizations stems from environmental advantages rather than biological or intellectual superiority. The Eurasian landmass contained a high concentration of domesticable plants and large mammals. This ecological luck facilitated an early transition from hunting and gathering to sedentary agriculture. The east-west orientation of the continent allowed these agricultural practices to spread rapidly across similar latitudes, accelerating population growth and the development of complex societies.
The shift to agriculture acted as a catalyst for technological and political advancement. A stable surplus of food supported dense populations and freed individuals to specialize in non agricultural roles, such as toolmaking and governance. These specialized classes drove the invention of writing, advanced metallurgy, and sophisticated political bureaucracies. Consequently, societies with early access to productive agriculture naturally developed the organizational tools necessary for expansion and conquest.
The domestication of large mammals provided Eurasians with more than just muscle power and food. Living in close proximity to livestock exposed these populations to animal pathogens, leading to devastating epidemics over millennia. Over time, Eurasian populations developed genetic resistance to these infectious crowd diseases. When Europeans later expanded into the Americas and Australasia, they unknowingly carried these pathogens with them. The resulting virgin soil epidemics decimated indigenous populations lacking prior exposure or immunity, clearing the way for European colonization.
Critics argue that attributing global inequalities entirely to geographic luck relies on a flawed environmental determinism. This framework strips human beings of their historical agency, reducing them to passive actors swept along by ecological currents. By framing the conquest of the Americas and other regions as an inevitable outcome of continental shapes and crop distribution, the theory overlooks the deliberate political decisions and cultural ideologies that drove imperialism. The focus on ultimate geographic causes obscures the intentional actions of colonizing powers.
Historical analysis challenges the claim that advanced technology independently secured European victories. In the Spanish conquest of the Aztec and Inca empires, steel weapons and firearms played a secondary role to political maneuvering. European invaders successfully allied with tens of thousands of indigenous fighters who were eager to overthrow local tyrannical overlords. The narrative of a small band of technologically superior Europeans defeating massive native armies ignores the indispensable military and strategic support provided by these breakaway indigenous factions.
Scholars identify a glaring contradiction in the broader theoretical framework applied to societal success and collapse. The geographic determinism used to explain European prosperity frames imperial domination as an accidental byproduct of environmental fortune, absolving colonizers of moral responsibility. Conversely, when analyzing the decline of indigenous societies, the focus abruptly shifts to human agency, suggesting these groups actively chose to fail through poor environmental management. This shifting logic excuses the victors of history while blaming the vanquished for their own demise.
While geographic factors might explain why the broader Eurasian landmass developed advanced agricultural societies, they fail to explain the specific rise of Western Europe. Other regions within Eurasia, such as China and the Middle East, shared the same environmental advantages and historically possessed larger, more advanced cities. The ultimate causes of crop and animal distribution cannot account for why European nations, rather than their Asian counterparts, eventually launched global empires. Understanding this specific historical divergence requires an analysis of recent political, economic, and cultural dynamics rather than ancient agricultural origins.