It is interesting to see that all the underdeveloped countries lie in the hot regions. To ward off heat and humidity(due
to heavy rainfall) they tend to be lazy. Their slothfulness evolved into a national trait in many areas. The masses as a whole evolved sluggish and compromising. Even their thinking was affected. Passive and non-violent religions like Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism evolved and flourished in the hot regions. Predeterminism pervaded the thoughts of the people of the South Asian countries. Doing one’s duty without attachment and the exhortations to feel hot and cool alike and pain and joy alike all emanate from this attitude. The passivity seems to have so far retarded their material
progress. Backwardness and poverty made them breed faster dragging the nations still downward. The belief in fatalism and pre-destiny made them accept whatever happens in life as inevitable and not to challenge an adverse situation or set back.
Apart from the above, rugged and inaccessible shore lines and absence of
navigable rivers have cut off many regions for millions of years from the outside contact. Large continents like Africa was a dark region until recently. It was the adventurous Europeans who brought light into their dark lives. They could not know what was happening outside and they could not develop trade and commerce. With the presence of natural food and water those who stayed back in the interiors of Africa did not develop at all. They remained more or less like the primitives until very recently.
The Europeans, especially the northern Europeans, learnt to work hard with the difficult soil (of the tough terrain) to produce food and to keep away the ambient cool. This led them in the course of thousands of years to develop an enterprising and confident nature. The nearness of seas and the presence of navigable rivers coupled with a resourceful land prompted people to engage in trade and industry with the other nations. Later they mastered the seas and colonized distant lands. Enriching themselves from the colonial trade they marched towards the industrial revolution and economic prosperity.
Milder climate, nearness of sea, the presence of navigable rivers seem to have provided the chemistry of progress.
Extreme climate, rough and inaccessible terrain far away from the seas or navigable rivers have retarded material advancement.
All the advanced nations are in Europe or are inhabited by the Europeans who settled in them long back. USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand all fall under the latter category. The only two nations which do not come under the above are Japan and South Korea. Well, both of them are in the temperate zones. They have plenty of shore lines and access to the outside nations to develop trade and commerce. No country lying in the extreme hot areas have progressed. No country inhabited by people from the tropical areas have substantially developed either.. Singapore, a progressed state, is not controlled by people from hot climate areas.