The connection between geography and technology has been tackled by Diamond.
In his thesis the availability of resources that can be domesticated and the extent to which they are nutritious and able to support growth contributes to which tribe will develop technology first.
Of course this seems to ignore the historical significance of migration and of common ancestry and studies populations as isolated entities that simply appeared in their geographical areas without having migrated there or shared in past intermediary environments.
In my view the harshness of an environment is a fundamental motive for progress.
Pain and suffering appear to be not only inexorable characteristics of life in general but decisive participants in evolution and development.
It is popular, in our equalitarian, political-correct world, to downplay all differences between people, except cosmetic ones – and those because they cannot be so easily denied or ignored – and to only consider external differentiations as being linked to environmental conditions.
We, in particular, prefer explaining ourselves as being the product of immediate environmental conditions, completely ignoring past historical environmental effects upon our being and potential. We do this to maintain the illusion of self-determination and to render all of nature’s cruelty and “unfairness†as “correctable and reversible.
Nature becomes the enemy we must tame and harness to our ideals, thusly redefining ourselves and our place in the universe.
In this way everything from race to gender becomes strictly artificial, superficial elements of our being, which can be overcome through reason. In recent times the very notion of physical divergence, as well, is being threatened as being detrimental to human harmonious coexistence, and so we involve ourselves in correcting nature and her vicious ways. In time we mean to eliminate all hints of divergence or differentiation. The very idea of individuality is now interpreted under the guidance of socialization.
We easily accept the notion that environment is to be found behind skin pigmentation, for instance, but we ignore the environments challenges and conditions as being decisive in creating an intellectual alteration along with a physical one.
Given the time periods involved in human history and the current inter-mingling, it is evident that any divergence must be slight and, now, quickly diminishing and so easily painted over and ignored or labeled primitive or terrifying. (See Iraq)
Nevertheless we cannot completely disregard the effects of environment in civilization and human creativity. No matter how slight the alterations might have been or how small the consequences must have been upon human mental development and creativity, they were enough to create a technological gap which has resulted in dominance and subjugation.
The necessity for leisure in contemplation and experimentation presupposes a rapid technological development that would free the mind from its original function and enable it to explore its possibilities. This development, in turn, presupposes a harsh and unforgiving environment to bring about the mind’s full function in survival.
Need is what drives the mind.
The degree of need determining its expenditure of energy.
As such the current dominance of a particular tribe over another can be traced back to starting weakness which necessitated population migrations and the habitation within less hospitable environments. This nurtured creativity and ingenuity, which sparked a mental development and resulted in technological progress, and which created the possibility for leisure time.
Granted, the correct conditions must be present for this development to take hold and succeed.
Yet, when and if it does, the resulting consequences, no matter how slight, must have been more than merely cosmetic.
In the case of the Hellenic phenomenon, the causes can be found in that geographical areas infertility and roughness. The populations there were forced to improvise and become resourceful.
One way they did so was in turning to the sea which, inevitably lead them to distant shores, not only physically but mentally, as well.
Their seafaring ways, as a way to compensate for their less than adequate environment, brought them in contact with a variety of alien lands and peoples and resulted in a human intellectual phenomenon, unparalleled in history.
