One of Diamond's major arguments in this book is that long
east-west axes allow crops to diffuse -- to move from place to place. This is because
places on one east-west axis tend to have similar climates and can support similar
crops. Along with the crops, technology and culture can diffuse as well. This helped
China "Sinify."
Because China had a long east-west axis, it
was easy for one culture to come to dominate China. If China had been broken up by
rivers and mountains the way Europe was, diffusion would have been much harder. Instead
of having a unified Chinese culture and state, there might have been a situation more
like that of Europe where there were many small
countries.
So, because China had this type of axis, one
culture was able to diffuse and make China a fairly homogeneous place -- to make China
Chinese as Diamond says.
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