[ragaskar]

The popular book (and television series) Guns, Germs and Steel (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guns,_Germs,_and_Steel) addresses the reasons why technological advancements tended to occur in particular cultures and its title provides the short answer to your question.

You may also find it interesting to read up about colonialism -- some of the statements you've made represent attitudes that are considered somewhat dated by modern standards; it's almost as if they were cribbed from "The White Man's Burden" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_man%27s_burden).

[ars]

Thank you for those links. I don't fully agree with what Jared Diamond says, but it's interesting nonetheless. In particular he says that genetic differences had nothing to do with it without actually showing so.

But even more in particular it doesn't explain why nothing has changed today. All his arguments fall to the wayside today, and yet nothing has changed.

For example: both china and japan stopped progress because they were isolated. Fine, and it's a reasonable argument because today both those places have plenty of progress. So that makes sense.

But it doesn't answer about any other parts of the world.

As for your second link, I had never heard of it before (or even of that concept before), I cribbed from reading a book on the history of technology and nothing else. I just kept noticing the same countries over and over, and started wondering why.