Geographic Luck BLOG assignment

After reading Learning Objective 1(and partly into LO² by accident) in the text book, I think that Jared Diamond’s theory of geographic luck is accurate. First, before we look at the historical evidence for this theory, it may help to review what Jared’s theory was. Diamond’s theory of geographic luck states that the ultimate reason to why some civilizations are so successful and some aren’t, is not because some races are genetically superior, but rather, due to how geographically lucky a particular group of people were. Those groups were lucky because the plants and animals that led to a successful civilization just happened to thrive in one area, the Middle East. Now let’s take a look at the evidence that I read in the textbook. In LO¹, I read that the first permanent settlements that actually thrived were generally located in the Middle East. The key word here is “permanent,” because in the hunting and gathering life style, you can move to different areas as the food and resources move, whereas with a permanent settlement, you need the required resources to be able to handle the climate which you are living in. It just so happens that these resources include wheat and animals such as pigs, cattle, camels, etc. What do these species all have in common? They are all able to be tamed and they can all survive in the Middle East! These lucky nations are some of the prosperous civilizations that you read about in your history text book that have influenced our society today. These civilizations include Mesopotamia, Rome, Greece, Egypt, etc. However, Mesopotamia did not have as great of an impact on history as Rome or Egypt did because many of their villages were abandoned due to a major climate change in the area, causing the failure of crops and other resources that had the climate requirement.