hm, I really don't see any reference to race here. climate and environmental factors have indeed come to be regarded as very important in determining what culture thrives. and, cynically speaking, it *is* practical, since I'm rather at this side than a poor black african dude with a life expectancy of about 35 yrs. it's practical because you belong to supremacy; still, for how long? I don't know if His Julianness actually counted the number of chinese.
he does miss out on several other factors, because if latitude were the thing, the indians would have found something. there's also population density and cultural diversity. it's not a coincidence that the earliest civilisations started at the spot where europe, asia and africa met, is it? you got this huge bottleneck along which it's fairly hot, but has some seriously huge rivers running through it. same in india, where you have a bunch of people all ending up squeezed against this huge wall called the himalayah, hot weather and some huge rivers...
and he forgets the religion thing. it's no coincidence tha it's *protestants* conquering the world (though catholics made a very successful attempt, which in the end didn't last since they were to much goth and too unpractical :-))
anyhow, me personally I think it's the celtic gene thing. those celts. being driven out of europe by a bunch of spaghetti-dudes until they practically have no more than this piece of near-flat island out in the west. then they decide to take scotland as well and get those picts out, and sit and wait, while the iberian peninsula and the entire mediterranean gets the idea that they rule the world. but then finally these celt-decendants force each other or themselves out west (a habit?), under the motto "do to indians as romans did to us" and end up conquering the whole world. now that's what I call a successful gene. :-D germanic tribes didn't do too bad, but the lack the subtlety and inventiveness to last. and they don't learn from mistakes.
of course, then those celts go get some folk from the black continent, who end op conquering the cultural world with this filth called the boogie, which leads the whole west into decadence, leaving world hegemony in the hands of people who while the whole west was trying to get more land (exemplified in those pinheads wanting 'lebensraum') simply made more people. and that's what counts in the end. those chinese. keeping quiet in their Middle Earth, and when the world thinks they don't count come back with their ultimate weapon: sheer mass.
tune in next week for an equally profound and insightful journey: history of the world, part II: is chinese women getting bigger tits the consequece or the cause of china's force? the future's at stake, and as usual only tits will tell.
-arf
