And what did the Haitians do after winning their freedom? They murdered everyone they could find who they even suspected of carrying White blood (except, oddly, the Polish) and then promptly began starving.
That is a brilliant point, easier to think of improving things to make life easier when you don't need to worry about some random person trying to kill you.
Because they lived in parts of the world so shit you needed to be good at it or you died, so both the methods and technology for farming needed to be improved to survive.. Meanwhile areas like the "Fertile Crescent" could piss about and not worry about inflicting mass starvation anywhere near as often.
Technical point, but I disagree. There's a reason some of the earliest known highly organized civilizations arose in semi-arid lands. Across Turkey, the Middle East, Egypt, Iran, etc., you HAD to have things like wells, irrigation systems, dams, or you were 100% at the whim of nature and you died if there was a flood or a drought. Canals, qanats, dams, locks, etc. are just vital to life in these areas.
The German historian Wittfogel termed these empires "hydraulic empires." The government controlled water and access to water, therefore the government controlled the lives of its citizens. He also believed this is why there was such a despotic and autocratic impulse in these areas.
And what did the Haitians do after winning their freedom? They murdered everyone they could find who they even suspected of carrying White blood (except, oddly, the Polish) and then promptly began starving.
Yeah....Rhodesia and South Africa copied that tactic and it's worked out SO well for them...
Don't know why, Whites seem the best at farming, closely followed by non commie Asians so dumb idea to kill/drive them out.
When you have a high trust culture and society, it gives your brightest people the time and space to iterate and improve society's functions.
If you spend all your time under the threat of violence from wildlife (including your neighbors) then you don't have much time for anything else.
That is a brilliant point, easier to think of improving things to make life easier when you don't need to worry about some random person trying to kill you.
Because they lived in parts of the world so shit you needed to be good at it or you died, so both the methods and technology for farming needed to be improved to survive.. Meanwhile areas like the "Fertile Crescent" could piss about and not worry about inflicting mass starvation anywhere near as often.
Technical point, but I disagree. There's a reason some of the earliest known highly organized civilizations arose in semi-arid lands. Across Turkey, the Middle East, Egypt, Iran, etc., you HAD to have things like wells, irrigation systems, dams, or you were 100% at the whim of nature and you died if there was a flood or a drought. Canals, qanats, dams, locks, etc. are just vital to life in these areas.
The German historian Wittfogel termed these empires "hydraulic empires." The government controlled water and access to water, therefore the government controlled the lives of its citizens. He also believed this is why there was such a despotic and autocratic impulse in these areas.