What went wrong in the region were the first civilizations were born?
Why did they stopped being at the top of the world and were soon surpassed by East Asians, Indians and Whites?
One big reason is that the fertile crescent went from being fertile to being a desert.
Also, the models of government that were good in 3000 BC became progressively less competitive as time went on, so naturally the parts of the world that were the most advanced during the bronze and iron ages fared worse later on.
Also, Arabs, Ottomans, Mongols, and European colonialism.
But most of that was a symptom of weakness rather than a cause.
>>1160059
How did just like the most fertile region on Earth become a desert? Was it just poor knowledge of Agriculture? Because, If I recall correctly Italy managed to increase Libya's grain production to Roman levels again,
>>1160076
I believe the Mongols also helped fuck it up, but that might just be ancient Islamic propaganda.
>>1160069
Apparently over millennia of agriculture, salt deposits that had been buried under the fertile sediment gradually made it to the surface, increasing the salinity.
The Mongols didn't help by wrecking all of the irrigation systems that supported the population and then killing so many people that they couldn't be repaired, dooming the region to low population.
The region was always prone to despotic empires that would impose dominance via force. The Arabs and Ottomans were a continuation of this pattern, that dated back to the Akkadians. These empires probably hindered the political development of the region over the long run, especially in the period after the Arab renaissance ended and stagnation set in.
Also, Europe went through a gradual period of improvement from 800AD to like 1945, that left them ahead of most of the world.
Even civilizations like China and India ended up totally unable to compete with them, let alone the depleted Middle East.
>>1160069
Could have also been due to irrigation with brackish water.
Also the incursion of Indo-Iranian tribes from the North and the Akkadians probably being used as a proxy by Egypt also lead to Sumer's downfall.
