DBWI: West-East empires as common as North-South empires?

OOC: I don't have any specific POD in mind, the way I see it is that there's a gradual cascade of small changes. It is also a parody of geographic determinism arguments (although there is a little bit of validity to them)

OOC: Of course they have a lot of validity. I think Diamond's argument is brilliant and explains why the civilization that emerged to dominate the world was vastly more likely to come from Eurasia and not the Americas or Australia, and to a lesser extend his argument explains why Africa was unlikely. Where he fails is explaining why East Asia and India fell behind. I don't find his arguments there to be all that convincing, though state competition in western Europe may have had something to do with it. One still needs to explain the relative weakness of eastern Europe as well, and then from there the relative weakness of southern Europe compared to northwest Europe.
 
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