Jared Diamonds Theory of Geographic Determinism, described in his book, is the idea that civilizations develop differently over time in response to environmental factors such as climate, soil fertility, the presence of large animals, and physical barriers to travel. He says that although people and culture make up these civilizations, it is their surroundings that have the largest impact on their development.
If one societies climate is more suitable than another’s, that society can feed themselves much easier. Surpluses of food trigger an explosion of growth. Extra food attracts more people to their society. More people means some can focus on specialized skills. Social specialization promotes agricultural growth with the discovery of new technologies. This gives their society a huge advantage over more basic, hunter-gatherer societies when it comes to warfare. His theory also discusses that regular exposure to large animals tended to make those people immune to more deadly diseases. In other words, the more domesticated animals that were around, the stronger their immune systems were. This was very important when these societies clashed with ones that did not have domesticated animals. Having stronger immune systems meant that they could conquer other societies easier. Basic environmental differences and how societies developed allowed certain societies to be capable of conquering others.
Physical barriers and topography also have a large impact on how a society develops and expands. If the soil is fertile and there is an abundance of domesticated animals, in time it will naturally develop and expand their society. Depending on the topography, they can travel and trade with other cultures. Sharing technology and good allows those societies to benefit and expand even more. It allows trade routes to open up and thus attracting more people to join them.
One of the areas being examined is Eastern Asia. The topography of Eastern Asia created a captive, feeder population for the Chinese Empire. With natural boundaries such as mountains, deserts, and oceans the civilization was able to flourish within while protecting it from outside influence. Being so isolated, Imperial China remained self-sufficient and culturally isolated until the twentieth century. This meant that their religion, technologies and government were completely uninfluenced by western culture for hundreds of years. To sustain their empire, the Chinese developed sophisticated irrigation systems that allowed them to farm year round. With a surplus of crops, they were able to sustain livestock, a larger population and created a heavily centralized political authority. Rice, pigs, and soya were the agricultural foundation of this sophisticated empire. Although their geography was helpful to protect them from the outside world, they had very little trade going on outside the empire. Natural barriers prevented them from trading with the western world.
The second region being examined is ancient Greece. Europe’s temperate climate and proximity to the fertile crescent make it an ideal location for crop cultivation and the domestication of animals. Some of these include wheat, barley, goats, sheep and cattle. With these resources coming in from the middle east, the crops and animals created a foundation for a sophisticated agricultural economy. Furthermore, this developed a huge political power that allowed them to conquer, explore and trade with other parts of the world. With the Mediterranean Sea easily accessible, it provides a natural barrier as well as trade routes. It connects Greece with Asia, the middle East and Africa. This allowed natural resources and technologies to flow into Greece from the far east. Products like steel and writing came from Asia which advanced their culture even more. With the sea being so accessible, the people of Greece were very diverse in their beliefs and culture. They had a small centralized government and a large population of slaves. The diversity created an interesting religious spectrum. They were a polytheistic nation that practiced multiple religions and believed in many gods. The geographical location of Greece allowed it to benefit from everything that Asia and the Middle East had to offer.
The last civilization being examined is Ancient Egypt. It is situated in the northeast corner of Africa, bordering the Mediterranean Sea. Most of Egypt was a dry barren desert, but, along the Nile it was possible to sustain life. With the Nile as their life source, the yearly flooding and receding of the river determined how people lived their lives. With advanced irrigation systems, they were able to cultivate fields of crops. During the flood season. Those fields are submerged under water. When the flood recedes, fertile black silt was left ready for another crop season. The majority of the population lived on the edge of the fertile land so that the maximum amount of fertile land could be used for planting crops. Trade and commercial influence from Mesopotamia helped create their unique civilization. The desert was unifying to the Egyptians. They moved directly from sedentary agricultural communities to large governmental areas without experiencing any city states. With the Nile acting as the life of the civilization, the desert acts as protection. They could travel up and down the river with ease. No foreign nation could attack them because they cannot get through the desert. Once the Egyptians learned to take advantages of the Niles floods and not having to worry about attackers, they could focus on improving farming techniques. They also started thinking about other things like art, government and religion. They believed that the Nile was a gift from the gods. Their geography influenced their religion.
Part B:
Out of the three ancient civilizations examined, only one should be considered a core state. Eastern Asia should not be considered a core state. Although they had a strong centralized government, their lack of diversity would cause problems if they were to try and conquer new lands. They are extremely isolated from the rest of the world due to natural barriers. They were completely self-sufficient and barely traded with the western world. Greece, was also not a core state. Their population was largely made up of slaves. They lacked a strong central government and their army was not unified. If core states were based simply on their geographical location, Greece would have been one. The last and only core state, Egypt, was very successful. They had a strong central government with local rulers who controlled taxes and irrigation. They had a unified religion and army. Egypt also created technology like a system of mathematics, medicines, irrigation and unbelievable architecture. Due to their successful cultivation and surplus of crops, they were able to live comfortable and create specialized jobs. Egypt and Greece both had geographical advantages over Eastern China. They both had access to larger trade routes and that alone is a major factor to why Egypt was considered a core state, Greece was close to one, but Eastern Asia was far from it. Diamonds Theory of Geographic Determinism definitely has some validity but geography is never the sole reason why a civilization is not a core state.