How Does Geography Affect A Civilization?

The world is extremely unequal, not because of race, but because of geography. Few of the main ingredients of inequality are agriculture which affects the kind of animals and specialists a civilization has, domesticated animals that can extremely benefit a nation, germs which can kill off an entire population, and steel which is the strongest man made metal. Without certain geography, civilizations would not be able to benefit from those aspects. These factors or lack thereof can lead to one civilization advancing further than the others. Geography dictates the type of climate and the climate controls agriculture. With agriculture, a civilization will be able to advance easier because of the easy access to food. In the Fertile Crescent, the …show more content…
When there aren’t domesticable animals accessible in their region, that civilization won’t be able to develop as quickly because of their lack of animal resources. To be domesticated, animals must have the right diets, disposition, growth rates, and social structures. Some animals, for example the elephant take too long to reach adulthood and consume a huge amount of food. Because of this, it would be much too difficult to domesticate an elephant. Many animals also need certain diets and climates, not every geographic location will have the required resources for the animals to inhabit the area. Civilizations that have the right resources to domesticate animals are able to use them effectively. The animals can eliminate a large amount of human labor, provide food, clothing, transportation, and power. When a civilization has access to animals that will benefit them, they have many opportunities to become more advanced. This ‘free time’ helps these civilizations so they will be able to use these animals while other populations can’t. In the Fertile Crescent, there were many domesticated animals and the people were able to advance further. While in Papua New Guinea, there were no domesticated animals besides the llama, and they were left behind. Both civilizations could have had domesticated animals, but only the Fertile Crescent had the right climate and resources to have access to …show more content…
Civilizations that had a surplus of food were able to focus more on steel and feeding the non-food producing specialists who made the steel. In order to make steel, they needed the right climate to be able to burn a fire long and hot enough to melt the two ingredients needed. Last of all, they needed the access to the ingredients, Iron and Carbon. With the power of steel, Spain had many more advancements than other countries including stronger sharper weapons, which they could use to easily defeat other civilizations that had weapons made of softer metal. Many countries coveted their steel weapons and would go to war with them because of it. This constant fighting over metals led the Spanish to have the best fighting skills. On the other hand, the Incas didn’t have steel because of many reasons. One of the most important reasons is that they had no Iron, which is the main ingredient in steel. They also didn’t have the right climate to burn a fire long or hot enough to melt the metals to make steel. The Incas’ lack of steel caused them to not have the same level of fighting skills as the Spanish. When the Spanish came to conquer them, the Incas didn’t have weapons as strong or fighting skills as advanced as their enemies. This made is easy for the Spanish to conquer the Incas. Without steel, a civilization will never be