Geographic Determinism and Rise of Civilization Research Paper

Geographic Determinism on the Course of Historical Events

Historical studies often highlight the qualities or actions of specific civilizations, or focus on the choices and errors of a certain significant personality. Sometimes, however, the real determining factor with regards to events in history is basically a nation's geography: the climate, the mountains, the rivers, and other elements of terrain. This historically themed paper will focus on nature itself - revealing the role of land layout on some among history's most significant outcomes. Social scientists maintain that the development process has to be derived from civilizational dynamics that have shaped particular geographic areas and their peoples. Thus, from the social perspective, the development process is evaluated within and across various civilizational "ecumene" of the world. In this context, ecumene refers to an area of continual cultural exchange and interaction (Woods, 2003).

Analysis of Geographic Determinism on the course of historical events

Some scholars view the geographic environment as the primary explanation behind the present-day gap between poor and rich countries. They declare that the early environmental context determines the circumstances and resources with which civilizations grow and progress. "Historical time," from this viewpoint, is crucial as geographical areas that developed in favorable environments secured an advantage that persists to this day. Although the substantive and theoretical factors of these two views are applicable to every geographical region, this paper deals with Sub-Saharan Africa for the following reasons: (1) the poorest continent in the world is Africa, and the economic and educational gaps between Africa and other, richer regions of the globe continues to broaden; and (2) literature available on Africa does not suggest any consensus regarding the medium- and long-term reasons behind this increasing gap. Regarding the latter reason, some researchers concentrate on medium- and short-term aspects like economic policy-making and poor leadership or colonialism to shed light on the differences. Others state that even if inadequate economic policies, elite mismanagement, and corruption are considered, a mysterious gap still exists in the economic development of Africa as compared to the remaining continents (Woods, 2003). Literature that is reviewed in this paper presents additional information to help focus and sharpen the debate regarding the medium- and long-term causative dynamics that account for the development difficulties associated with Sub-Saharan Africa.

In the past several decades, environment and geography, in the form of explanatory concepts, have begun regaining prominence. A seminal study conducted in 1999 explored the relation between civilizational ecumene, geography, and consequent divergence in development levels, providing a parsimonious account of the way in which development is affected by geography (Diamond, 1999).

Diamond (1999) does not go down into the theoretical trap of choosing from an exhaustive list of the countless environmental influences that could have an effect on the course of human communities; instead, he concentrates on four groups of differences. They are: (1) continental differences in species of wild animals and plants obtainable as the preliminary domestication material; (2) factors that affect migration and diffusion rates of animals, plants and persons within continents; (3) factors that influence diffusion between continents; (4) continental differences with regards to area and size of total population. All these factors explain the kinds of economic and social opportunities existing in a particular geographical region. Collectively taken, they account for the discrepancy in development levels between continents and civilizations (Woods, 2003).

Natural environmental conditions make a significant difference concerning how and where agricultural civilizations initially arose. As stated by Diamond (1999), geographic differences in when, or whether, individuals of various continents became herders and farmers, to a great extent, explains their succeeding contrasting fates. Geographic regions having animals and plants that could be domesticated earned an edge over regions that didn't. Eurasia had a strong advantage with regards to both animal and plant domestication. Settled agricultural societies are believed to have first arisen in the Mesopotamian-Mediterranean stretch, as this region possessed favorable soil and climatic conditions for domesticated animals and crops, like sheep and wheat (Woods, 2003).

Productive wild plant and animal domestication largely led to sedentary agricultural civilizations being established, which, in turn, played a role in improved population densities. Then, over time, urban centers arose, as did development of script for keeping trade and commerce records, in many instances. Eurasia dominated the development process, as the people belonging to the Fertile Crescent could domesticate far more valuable productive species and a wider array of different kinds of crops; these regions developed increased food production and dense populations more swiftly (Diamond, 1999).

These evaluations of agricultural societies, and their early influences, leaves out another key example of geography's impact. This relates to the early discovery of copper, copper-smelting, and then on to bronze and the bronze age. It is generally accepted that it was not until the onset of the Bronze Age that 'civilization', and in particular large-scale agriculture, first occurred. This has been traced to the development of the first bronze plow. At any rate, areas that had the natural supplies of ore, such as copper, were likely candidates for early 'civilizations', as compared to those that had no ore within the vicinity. Metals and tool-making were dependent upon geography (Cramb, n.d.).

The early advantages stated above were shaped not by culture, but by the environment. Evidence supporting this statement can be obtained from the fact that, in most cases, when domesticated animals and crops came from somewhere else, they were immediately utilized, often resulting in enhanced production of food and population densities (Woods, 2003).

Advantageous conditions are essential, but not enough, to explain the growth of settled agricultural civilizations. The increase of domesticated animals and crops is another. Geography matters in the diffusion process. It influences the timing and pace of diffusion of innovative technologies (crops, animals and techniques) and populations (mankind or animals). The Eurasian continent, once again, possessed an edge over other regions of the earth. Spreading of new ideas, populations and crops took place in Eurasia along an east-west axis, while in the Americas and Africa it took place on a north-south axis (Woods, 2003).

In order to simplify a complicated dynamic, it can be considered that the spread mentioned above was a lot easier owing to climatic and topographic conditions for the spread of technology along an east-west axis rather than one that spanned north-south. Domestic animals and crops, like horses and wheat, spread faster from their regions of origin across Eurasia than elsewhere. It was observed that communities distributed east-west of one another along a common latitude share precisely the same length of day and seasonal variations (Diamond, 1999). To a smaller degree, they are also likely to share similar rainfall and temperature regimes, diseases, and biomes or habitats (vegetation types). This, however, cannot be said for regions that lie along a north-south axis (Woods, 2003).

Sub-Saharan Africa's Bantu civilization spans across Africa from its primary base in the continent's northwest, overpowering earlier communities like Sans and Pygmies. Together with their spreading, they introduced novel crops like African yams and sorghum into new geographic territories, forcing natives to either adapt themselves, or leave (Woods, 2003). The Pygmy community fled into central Africa's dense forests, while the Sans went either to Southern Africa or to present-day Botswana and Namibian deserts. However, in spite of their successful spread, the geographical obstacles encountered by the Bantu affected their technology and crop diffusion (Woods, 2003).

All domesticated animals introduced throughout the Sahara in the African continent were rendered useless in the area of dense forests both by tropical diseases and the Tsetse fly. It is no accident that Sub-Saharan Africa's great Islamic nations were restricted to the continent's grasslands or Sahel, where animals that were domesticated could survive, and prove useful (Woods, 2003).

Even in the present day, several African countries' histories reflect the barriers of the north-south axis. Muslim societies north of Nigeria and Cameroon had their advance hindered by the continent's tropical forest. Though Eurasia's open steppes enabled waves of "barbarians" on horses to continuously change the continent's civilizational ecumene, given the east-west axis of the continent, the same didn't work with Africa (Woods, 2003).

It was very aptly stated that comparing with Eurasia's steppes, the Sahel of Africa was a restricted link; across this, an obstacle such as the Bornu Empire was difficult to outflank. While Eurasians could ride their horses in all directions far beyond their native habitats, those in the Sahel couldn't brave the African deserts or Savanna's malarial southern boundaries for long (Fernandez-Armesto, 2001).

The difficulty of diffusing domesticated animals and plants in the Americas and Africa left the two continents, along with their populations, disadvantaged. Indeed, they usually developed along parallel lines, but isolated from other societies or civilizations on their continent. For instance, the alphabetic writing principle developed by 1500 B.C. In the western Fertile Crescent, spread to Carthage in the west and to the Indian subcontinent in the east within roughly 1000 years. However, the Mesoamerican writing system that flourished for more than 2000 years in the prehistoric era never spread to the…