A World Askew

Let me frame a hypothetical situation for you... Imagine a world in which Africa reigned supreme. Let's say that Africa was like Europe as it is today, or arguably, America. In this case, it would more or less be Africans ruling the world. Can you imagine a world where Africa is the center of commerce? The center of this Earth?? Perhaps I would not even be living here, but instead, in some country in Africa.

This is of course an unfathomable idea, but more importantly, a question can arise out of this fictional situation. How and why did we end up the way we did and how did they end up the way they did?? Most of which is purely a of game of chance so to speak.

As we all know, the beginnings of human species started on the continent of Africa. It was the cradle of civilization as we know it. From said cradle of human civilization, spread our ape like ancestors into the wild. As our early ancestors spread across the globe, separate evolutions occurred all at once. Some of our early ancestors ended up dying out, their kind too weak and unfit for said world. On the other hand, we as a species grew finding our ultimate niche.

You would think that the evolution of purely human traits such as reading and writing evolved in one location and spread to the rest, but in fact, most of these were independent inventions of our kind. Of course some of these more formal human traits did indeed spread via trade routes and what not, but it is amazing how such things as writing is a unique human evolution. There has been evidence of writing starting on its' own in such places as Mesopotamia, China, Egypt, etc. The question remains as to why would writing start in these places but not others?

This goes back to why and how some countries or continents excelled over the rest. Some of which developed the civilizations to be able to create the tool of writing, while others found it unnecessary to cultivate it into their civilization. Perhaps it was not needed in the more simplistic of societies, versus a more advanced one required such a tool. Again I may be going in circles, but such advancements as writing is what sort of propelled some of these civilizations to the power houses that they are today. Simply enough, what created the groundings for said civilizations to develop?

I give it a simple word, resources. The reason why certain boundaries on this planet are blessed with more of an abundance of pertinent resources is due to latitudinal and longitudinal boundaries. In sum, luck or chance more than anything else. If you were to cut the world into separate regions, especially in terms of latitude, some regions are more climatically enriched in comparison to others. Furthermore, it becomes easier for one civilization to communicate with others due to geographical boundaries. We as humans are best when in communication with other civilizations. It is an age old story, we learn and progress, as we learn to give to others as they progress. Simply put, the reason why some triumph over others is as simple as geographical boundaries. Luck of the Irish so to speak.