Since human beings left Africa and migrated to all parts of the earth, due to the change of climate and environment, human races have emerged (this is not to preach racial superiority). The north temperate zone and subtropics gave birth to many civilizations, such as Chinese civilization, Indian civilization, Mesopotamia civilization, Egyptian civilization and ancient Roman civilization. These civilizations are all powerful countries without exception, but in the tropical areas near the equator, human beings have neither bred civilizations nor powerful countries, which is determined by the environment! The equator is rich in real estate and has a pleasant climate. People on the equator enjoy everything given by the earth, so they don't pay much attention to development and survival, so it is inevitable that there will not be a powerful country.
There are no strong countries in the tropics and no weak countries in the temperate zones. This seems to be an eternal theory. Since 5000 years of human civilization, world culture has made more or less progress. Why can't the tropics get rid of the title of weak country?
In fact, the main reason lies in human laziness. Where there is no stagnant civilization, it is just that after human beings are satisfied, they lose the psychology of development and progress and the creativity inspired by challenges, resulting in no powerful countries in the tropical region.
In fact, there is a reason for this. Before the era of great navigation, the tropical region has always been a paradise for human life on earth. At that time, the tropical region was rich in biological resources. Drink mountain spring water when you are thirsty, and eat animal meat and fruit on trees when you are hungry. Besides, in the tropics, all seasons are warm, so there is no need to wear clothes to keep out the cold. At this point, the two major problems of food, clothing, housing and transportation have been greatly solved. Over time, people living in the tropics have lived a comfortable life of fishing, hunting and gathering, and have no worries about food and clothing. Slowly, they are lazy for a long time, have no labor and creativity, so they can't produce a strong civilization. It is not only difficult to accumulate spiritually, but also difficult to accumulate materially. The hot climate and backward technology have no ability to store materials, which directly leads to backward development.
Of course, there are other external reasons. The tropical region was cut off by the rain forest, which was impossible for the technology at that time. Human beings cannot gather on a large scale and there are few people, so it is difficult to give birth to a strong civilization. Not only that, but also the influence of Quaternary glacier movement. During the glacier movement in the 4th century, Eurasia was eroded by ancient glaciers, forming soil. For the uncovered areas in South America and Africa, the soil layer is particularly thin and the soil fertility is very poor, which is not conducive to agricultural production at all and can only become savanna. The productivity is insufficient, and it is impossible to form large-scale agricultural production. These factors limit the development of tropical areas and cannot breed advanced civilization.
There is no powerful country in the tropics, and this theory has a certain theoretical basis. Objectively speaking, there is no geographical advantage, agricultural productivity is weak, and there is no large-scale accumulation of wealth civilization. Subjectively speaking, the early stage is easy to survive, not challenging, unable to stimulate creativity at all, and lazy for a long time. Under the double-layer restriction of subjective and objective factors, the tropical region can not breed advanced spiritual civilization and material civilization at all, so it has created a real tropical non-powerful country.
Maybe you will understand after reading what I said.
Geographically, we have an understanding of the tropics, that is, the tropics will be exposed to the sun for a long time, and the precipitation is more abundant than some temperate regions. Many crops flourish, but why is there such a good natural environment? There was no great power in ancient times, mainly because of these three points.
First, the superior environment makes it impossible to establish a strong civilization in the tropics.
The natural resources in the tropics are very rich, so this makes the tropical people's character weak and timid. People living in the tropics can harvest a lot of crops without doing anything, because a professor once studied this land. The crops produced in tropical areas are 2-3 times higher than those produced in temperate areas, so it is because of such a unique tropical attribute. People who live here are content with the status quo. Although they have abundant resources, they will not fight for them, but this prevents them from developing civilization, gestating civilization and preventing the emergence of a powerful empire.
Second, the high temperature makes the disease break out here.
Tropical areas are always very hot, so many pathogens live in this land, and the sanitary conditions here are poor, which leads to the backwardness of people's health and economic level in tropical areas. This deadly disease not only harms people's health, but also makes it difficult for tropical countries with relatively backward civilizations to establish new social forms. Therefore, there can be no strong countries in the tropics, only some poor and backward small countries.
Third, modern history doomed its position here.
After hundreds of years of historical development, the already backward tropical areas were not only destroyed by the war, but also made many tropical countries completely colonized, making many tropical countries unable to become world powers.
The above is my own answer. Do you have any different views on this?
To explore this problem, we should first understand three points:
1. Tropical
Located on both sides of the equator, between 23 26' north and south latitudes, it accounts for about 40% of the global area.
2. Major tropical countries
China (Hainan Island, Yunnan Province, etc. ), India (part), Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, etc. (Most countries in Southeast Asia are in the tropics), Australia, New Zealand, Africa and most countries in Latin America.
3. At present, the world's eight recognized powers
So from the above list, it seems too absolute to say that "there has been no strong country in the tropics since ancient times". At present, China and India are also among the great powers; In addition, the ancient great Mayan civilization was born in the tropics and belongs to the jungle civilization.
Relatively speaking, however, it seems that civilizations are more likely to appear in the middle and high latitudes. For example, the four ancient civilizations are all located at about 30 degrees north latitude (although the geographical position of the four ancient civilizations is relatively special and the dividing line with the tropics is relatively close). Not to mention the four ancient civilizations, take the world's major empires (Rome, Alexandria, Persia, Arabia, Mongolia, the United States and Britain), or the powerful countries such as Gome, Russia, Britain, France and Germany are really not in the tropics, but at relatively high latitudes.
So, why are these areas more likely to breed civilized powers? I think the main reasons are: (1) environmental factors: tropical climate is hot and humid, with abundant sunshine and rain, and rich natural resources, which makes it easier for people to get food, such as vegetables, fruits, fish and shrimp, meat and so on.
There is food all the year round, so the pressure of survival is small and life is comfortable, which leads to the weakening of people's enterprising spirit, as Mencius said: "Born in sorrow, died in happiness." For example, people in some tropical countries or regions are still in the primitive stage of slash and burn, or still live a primitive tribal life. Most of them collect wild fruits and hunt for a living.
Temperate regions or cold regions with higher latitudes do not have such good conditions.
For example, in temperate regions, although the conditions are not as bad as in cold regions, they are not as good as in tropical regions. Temperate regions generally have four distinct seasons, including spring, summer, spring and winter. At this time, people are required to "be punctual", be good at grasping the opportunity to plant crops, produce and store food, and actively do a good job in coping with seasonal changes.
In addition, there are relatively few wild animals in temperate regions. If people want to get more meat food, they will try to domesticate animals, such as cattle and sheep. All these have greatly improved people's working ability, promoted people's continuous thinking and efforts, and resulted in the emergence and development of civilization.
For example, in cold areas, because of the cold climate, people need to try their best to survive, which is easy to breed ideas and wisdom. However, limited by natural conditions, cold areas are generally not easy to be civilized, and most people will take the initiative to choose the south to find a warmer and more comfortable place to live.
(2) Diseases and Disasters ① There are many kinds of plants and animals in tropical areas, and there are also many poisonous creatures, such as poisonous snakes, scorpions and poisonous spiders. And people are more vulnerable.
The tropical climate is hot and humid, which is easy to bring tropical diseases. For example, there are many mosquitoes, mosquitoes and infectious diseases in tropical areas, such as dengue fever and malaria. In the case of relatively poor medical and health level, once infected with these infectious diseases, its mortality rate is relatively high. In addition, the weather is hot, the climate is humid, and bacteria multiply quickly. Once people are injured and infected, if they are not treated in time, it is easy to be disabled and die.
Due to the frequent occurrence of diseases, it means that people need to invest more energy, financial resources and material resources in medical and health care, which will bring a heavier financial burden to the country.
Relatively speaking, this kind of trouble is less in temperate or cold regions with higher latitudes.
(3) People with human factors at higher latitudes, such as nomads, will think of ways to plunder resources because of bad weather conditions and limited production conditions, so many conquest activities have appeared. In history, many countries or regions have had many wars, especially in Europe, which were basically waged for land resources and material resources.
On the one hand, war has brought heavy harm to people, but on the other hand, it has also promoted cultural exchange, development and dissemination.
Wen Wenjun
Geographically, people have an understanding of tropical areas: tropical areas have long sunshine hours, richer precipitation than temperate areas, lush vegetation and three crops a year, which can be called the best natural environment in the whole earth. However, it is such a tropical region with a unique natural environment. In the long history of millions of years of human development, the vast majority of poor countries in the world are concentrated in the tropics, so there is a saying in the world that "there has been no strong country in the tropics since ancient times." Why didn't a powerful country come into being in the tropical region, which is called "Paradise Eden"?
The superior environment makes it impossible to establish a strong civilization in the tropics. First of all, tropical natural beauty and rich natural resources, these excellent natural attributes, on the contrary, have developed the cowardly character of tropical people. In the works of many western political and philosophical thinkers, the mutual influence and relationship between geographical environment and human beings have been discussed many times. Finally, people draw a set of conclusions: the personality characteristics of people living in different latitudes are determined by their natural environment. The cold environment at high latitudes will make human beings stronger and more confident, while the hot environment at low latitudes will make human beings timid and timid.
Is this statement right or wrong? The answer may be yes. In the tropics, abundant rain and sunshine create an ideal place for agricultural development in the tropics. Cash crops such as coffee and rubber that many capitalists dream of can be harvested in the tropics without even doing anything. For example, a professor at Yale University's College of Forestry has studied and analyzed the fertility of tropical land and found that the yield per acre of tropical land is 2-3 times higher than that of temperate potatoes. It took England/kloc-0.00 years to produce oak barrels, and it took only 33 years to harvest them in tropical areas. It is this unique tropical attribute that makes people living here live a life of "opening their mouths to survive".
Nature gives free resources to the tropics, which makes the indigenous people living in the tropics form an enterprising and prosperous idea. Because of inexhaustible resources, there are many scattered indigenous tribes in the tropics. It is precisely because of the rich resources that there is no need for indigenous tribes to fight for resources. Although this saved the people in the tropics from severe war disasters, this lifestyle of being content with the status quo hindered the birth and spread of civilization and completely limited the possibility of a powerful empire. Natural resources make people in tropical areas have no fixed working hours, because the concept of enjoying benefits has long been ingrained in their minds, which makes it impossible for them to establish a civilized lifestyle in middle and high latitudes.
The high temperature environment makes the disease rampant here. Secondly, the tropical region maintains a hot and high temperature environment all the year round, allowing pests, parasites and pathogens to ravage this land for many years. In addition, the sanitary conditions here are extremely poor, and the health and economic level of people in tropical countries are low. This deadly disease not only threatens human health and life, but also makes it difficult for tropical countries with backward civilization to establish a highly developed social form and provide sufficient population and economic conditions for the journey of a powerful empire.
In ancient times, "illness" has always been synonymous with death. Even in today's highly developed medicine, there are still many diseases that cannot be effectively controlled and cured, so the struggle between human beings and diseases has lasted for thousands of years. Later, with the rapid development of human society and the establishment of civilized society, the prevention and treatment of diseases and the development of medicine became the top priority of every country and era ruler. However, people in tropical areas have been facing a serious threat of disease.
The high temperature environment here provides a hotbed for the rapid propagation and spread of pests and pathogens that spread diseases. A Panamanian poet once said that the tropical breeze is full of poisonous malaria, because there are a large number of mosquitoes living in the tropical rain forest, and these mosquitoes flying with the wind will unconsciously bring fatal infectious diseases to human beings. This will greatly shorten the life span of tropical indigenous people who have not established civilized countries, engaged in lazy agricultural activities for a long time and have low physical function. In addition, people living in tropical areas have no health concept at all. They can eat without washing their hands, or even take a shower all year round. This kind of bad hygiene habit invisibly increases the mortality rate of tropical aborigines. The rapid death of population makes it difficult to establish a social form, let alone a national form, so there is no so-called strong country in the tropical region, and only a few poor and backward small countries can be formed here.
Modern colonial history doomed this place to be a weak country. Finally, after the rise of the era of western great navigation, in the course of hundreds of years of historical development, the originally poor and backward tropical countries were not only in flames of war, but also completely reduced to colonial rule, making it extremely unlikely that tropical countries would become world powers. Before the start of the colonial war, even the natives in the tropics did not think that their unique natural advantages brought heavy aggression disasters to the human beings here. People living here have always lived a comfortable life with no worries about food and clothing, and tropical countries lacking social work have never had a strong civilization, which makes the tropical region a treasure place only suitable for human survival.
While the civilization in the tropical region lags behind the world, the colonists in high latitudes firmly controlled the global economy in the world war in order to rapidly develop the economies of various countries, and finally extended the tentacles of the war to the backward and closed tropical region. Those insatiable white colonists regarded the tropics as huge reserves of their own economic and industrial raw materials, and then they set off crazy colonial rule.
As a result, the indigenous people in the tropics became slaves that the colonists could trample on at will under the long guns and cannons of the western colonists. After centuries, these tropical countries have basically become colonies of western powers. Under the oppression and exploitation of colonialists, the economic development here has been lagging behind. The so-called superior natural and geographical conditions have become a dividend for western colonialists to pre-empt economic development, while tropical countries are difficult to prosper. This historical change has made tropical countries secure their position as poor countries, and it is really difficult to break the law of "no tropical powers".
References:
Modern colonial history
Neglected tropical diseases: global impact and control countermeasures
Influence of geographical environment: Raphael-based man-land system
Strange to say, when we open the map of human history in the world, we can see that human footprints have almost spread all over the earth, even in the extremely cold areas at high latitudes, there are Eskimos. However, under such a large-scale distribution of human beings, there has hardly been a powerful country in the sense of human beings in the tropical region since the exquisite history of human beings. This law has not changed in the past and today. As an amateur, I think there are probably several reasons.
1. Climate Tropical climate is usually understood as high temperature and rainy. Climate itself is innocent, but the consequences of climate on the environment will be different.
The high temperature and rainy environment makes the soil fertility in tropical areas insufficient, and the crops planted can not meet the conditions for promoting human development. Simply put, using this land to grow vegetables may starve to death. Moreover, in this tropical environment, the decomposition of organic matter in the soil will be accelerated, and trees will grow more luxuriantly, forming a tropical rainforest. Snakes, mice, insects, ants, etc. all like this environment very much, and viruses in tropical areas were born under this circumstance.
Second, it is impossible to form an agricultural civilization. As mentioned above, the soil fertility of tropical rain forest is not enough to grow enough crops and raise enough livestock to survive.
However, when God closes a door for them, he also opens a window for them, so they can't be self-sufficient. However, forests are enough to give tropical areas enough things, such as bread trees. But most products of the forest are vegetarian. An indispensable link in the evolutionary chain of the human brain is to eat cooked food and meat. People in tropical areas eat vegetarian dishes for a long time, and their physical functions cannot be better developed. Moreover, on the road of relying on land, people in tropical areas have no motivation to move forward and have not created agricultural civilization.
Third, the road to the tropical rain forest is hardly a road, because the dense trees have exceeded the exploitation of primitive humans. Most tribes in tropical areas do not have the concept of "going out" and lack communication with other tribal populations, which leads to occlusion. As a result, they can't follow the established development track.
On the other hand, tribes in temperate and even cold regions have gradually formed modern civilization in order to survive, grow plants, raise animals and exercise their brains.
There are no great powers in the tropics. Some people say that Brazil counts? Actually, Brazil doesn't count Brazil's share in the world economy, political and military influence, etc. , not a powerful country, it seems that the economic lifeline is still in the hands of others.
The formation of a country or civilization needs territory, population, culture, wealth, political ability and other factors. A strong country is a country that integrates these resources and uses them to reach the world's leading level.
Modern powers show nothing but two things to the outside world. One is hard power, such as how many powerful troops and projection capabilities a country has, whether a country can produce competitive products and so on. The second is soft power, such as a country's international discourse power, political and economic influence, cultural attraction and so on. Generally speaking, it is the relative development and accumulation degree of material civilization and spiritual civilization in all countries of the world.
With hard power and soft power as the standard, let's see why tropical countries can't form strong countries.
First of all, tropical countries lack historical accumulation, including material and spiritual accumulation, and it is difficult to form. The geographical advantage of being located in the tropics is that the temperature is high, the fruits are relatively richer than those in temperate and cold zones, and people are easy to survive.
However, the disadvantages are also obvious: high temperature and high humidity in tropical areas make it difficult to preserve and accumulate labor results. Especially in ancient times, there was a lack of storage means.
This brings a problem: without large-scale material accumulation, it is impossible to produce advanced cultural and artistic, political organization and other spiritual civilization content; Without large-scale material preparation, the country cannot use its strength on a large scale.
So these congenital constraints led to the failure of the leading civilizations in ancient South America and Africa.
Therefore, when the Spanish landed in South America, only a few people could defeat the large-scale army of South American aborigines because of the advantages of material equipment and organizational wisdom.
This kind of granary in ancient China could not guarantee the dryness of food in tropical areas.
Secondly, when people are easy to survive, they lack the creativity to meet challenges. Historian Toynbee defined a model of civilization development, mainly the "meet the challenge" model. Only when a civilization responds to the challenges of natural and human environment with a certain intensity can it stimulate the extraordinary creativity and wisdom of the group.
Looking at the tropics with this model, it is difficult to stimulate people's creativity because it is extremely difficult to survive in the tropics and there is no survival challenge.
Without continuous creativity, civilization cannot continue to develop to a higher level.
Third, tropical areas are blocked by rainforests, so it is difficult for people to gather on a large scale and form a more advanced civilization. Tropical natural conditions, such as tropical rain forest, plateau, prairie, etc., have a great barrier to population gathering, which makes the population gather only in a small range, making it difficult to form a larger population settlement, city and more advanced civilization.
The dense tropical rain forest was difficult for the ancients to cross.
Fourthly, the Quaternary glacial movement did not cover South America and Africa, resulting in thin soil layers and poor soil fertility in these areas, which is not conducive to agricultural production. During the Quaternary Glacier Period, the Eurasian continent was eroded by ancient glaciers, and the rocks on the surface were eroded into soil, which made the surface soil thicker and generally fertile. The earliest and most advanced civilization appeared in the crescent land of Asia. However, the African continent and South America continent have basically not experienced Quaternary glacial erosion activities, so the soil layers in these two places are very thin and the soil fertility is very poor. You see, most of Africa's vast land can only be turned into savanna, and South America also has rich pastures. Of course, under the condition of modern science and technology, the influence of these problems is as serious as that of ancient times.
Without the favorable conditions of agricultural production, it is impossible to form a long-term large-scale accumulation of agricultural production, and of course it is impossible to produce enough material accumulation, which is not conducive to the advanced development of civilization.
Conclusion: Objectively, limited by geographical and climatic reasons, it was difficult for tropical regions to form large-scale wealth accumulation in ancient times, so it was difficult for civilization to develop to a higher level.
Subjectively, because the personal survival challenge is very low, people do not need to exert more creativity to meet the challenge, which also limits the sustainable development of national civilization in tropical areas.
Due to the limitation of subjective and objective conditions, countries in tropical areas can not form sustainable development and accumulation in both material civilization and spiritual civilization. Therefore, it is difficult to have a strong civilization like Eurasia in the tropics.
Subjectively speaking, people in tropical countries and regions are more free and loose. Because the environment they live in is full of sunshine and rich in products, they can pick any fruit to satisfy their hunger, but they are not hungry at all. A common baobab tree in Africa, a big tree can even feed a family, and residents in Southeast Asia can even eat bananas as their staple food. Because of the warm climate, there is no need to worry about keeping warm in tropical areas. So there is no motivation for them to worry about their survival.
Warm zones and cold zones are different.
Objectively speaking, the temperate zone, because of its rich climate variability, has stimulated the desire of human beings to conquer nature. It was invented to improve life through continuous manufacturing, and with the passage of time, it has the foundation for future generations to become a powerful country.
Later power always came from the temperate zone.
In the future, anyone who is sent to Sri Lanka will first suffer from thoughts, strain his bones and muscles, and starve his body and skin. ...
This is Hainan's ↑ (or China's system is good)
The objective factors in the tropics are too superior, and people will have inert thoughts and lose the motivation to struggle.
Foreign tropics =
Tropical areas are rich in products, and you will never have enough to eat. For example, in Heilongjiang, crops are cooked once a year, and in tropical areas, crops are cooked three or even four times a year! In Heilongjiang, as a farmer, you don't farm? What to eat and drink? In tropical areas, you can eat meat and raise a pig every day without farming. If you don't feed pigs for a year, you will starve to death. You can eat all kinds of fruits and vegetables, and you don't have to repeat them. Tropical fruit trees don't need fertilization, because thunderstorms make crops strong and there is nitrogen fertilizer in the rain. There is really no reason for tropical people to struggle.
Therefore, there has been no powerful country in the tropics since ancient times.
Tropical region has been one of the most important habitats for human beings since ancient times. The sunshine time is long, and the precipitation is more than that in temperate zone. It is precisely because of the unique natural environment that crops that can only be harvested in temperate zones can be harvested in tropical regions for two or even three seasons a year, which makes tropical regions an ideal place for agricultural development. However, has such a superior geographical and natural environment cultivated a strong enough human civilization and power?
Unfortunately, no. Let's look at the tropical countries around the equator first. Only tropical countries with a population of hundreds of millions include Nigeria and Ethiopia in Africa, Indonesia in Southeast Asia and Brazil in South America. However, all these countries are developing countries without exception, and none of them are developed countries. Not only now, but also in the long history, there has never been such a powerful empire and civilization in the tropical region. Therefore, people have also formed the cognition that there is no strong country in the tropics since ancient times. Most of the powerful countries born in human civilization come from temperate or even cold regions, rather than tropical regions with abundant products and superior natural environment. What is the reason?
Tropical area map
First of all, the hot climate in the tropics really makes it an excellent growth area for crops and cash crops. However, this superior environment has led to the fact that the indigenous people in the tropics can obtain resources without a lot of labor, which has led to the people in the tropics generally living a leisurely life. Nowadays, with more and more information flowing, many people have a deep impression on Africans who "die of thirst without digging wells and starve to death without farming". Although not everyone is like this, most people are obviously not wronged. Those black people who live in rich areas but are extremely lazy really make countless hardworking people in China stunned.
Of course, such living habits also have a certain relationship with the environment. The tropical hot environment makes people living here have to rest for a long time to dissipate heat. As a result, people in tropical countries lack sufficient labor intensity in temperate countries, the pace of work is slow, and their brains are not good at thinking, which makes it difficult for human civilization to continue and expand in this land, and naturally it is impossible to promote the birth of a powerful country.
tropical grassland
Secondly, the high temperature environment in the tropics leads to the rampant tropical diseases in this area, and the indigenous people in the tropics live in poor and backward sanitary methods, so human health can not be guaranteed, and naturally there is no extra energy to build a harmonious society and a powerful country. On the one hand, the high temperature environment has brought superior natural resources to the tropics; On the other hand, the high temperature environment has also become a greenhouse for the reproduction and spread of various germs and fitness insects. In the news reports related to tropical areas, it is often seen that these countries are entangled in diseases such as malaria, schistosomiasis and typhoid fever all the year round. When temperate countries have eliminated these diseases, these infectious diseases in tropical countries still cannot be effectively controlled.
Tropical indigenous people
Under the influence of this disease, the health level of people living in tropical areas is extremely low, and they have never been able to get rid of the ravages and torture of the disease from the past to the present. The short life span and struggling living environment have led to the formation of tropical indigenous lifestyles, not more civilized countries. Living in a tropical environment, these indigenous people have neither good living habits nor adequate medical standards, which makes the disease spread faster in the tropics. Tropical indigenous people who have been fighting diseases all the year round have been in a state of low health and economic level for a long time. How to build a strong country?
forest
Finally, the abundant but irregular rainfall in the tropics makes tropical countries unable to be strong. Rainforests are mixed in the tropics. Rainfall in this area can even affect 40% of the global population and the stability of the global ecosystem. Rainfall here also nourishes all kinds of tropical creatures. However, the rainfall in tropical areas is not balanced, which is a typical "drought leads to death, and waterlogging leads to death". This irregular precipitation is not conducive to the planting and growth of crops at all, nor to the development of mankind. In this way, the local aborigines will become losers in the face of nature. Since survival is a problem, people in tropical areas naturally don't think about how to develop and strengthen their country.