There is a lot in there, but my own personal view is that shape of the land has the biggest influence on what civilizations do over the long term and what they’

There is a lot in there, but my own personal view is that shape of the land has the biggest influence on what civilizations do over the long term and what they’re like in general as people. Europe is countless rivers and coastlines. Europeans learned how to do boats, how to do sailing, and learned how to float goods all over the place. This accelerated movement of ideas, production and development of technologies. Even if it was disjointed and ridden with conflict, it was just a matter of probability. This is what enabled the colonialism - after accelerating ahead of the rest of the world in technology, Europeans found it easier to just use that technology for slavery, conquest etc.