With both land and sea, why did the ancient West choose maritime civilization while China chose agricultural civilization?

We know that the source of Western civilization is around the Mediterranean Sea, including ancient Egypt, ancient Babylon, Persia, the Aegean, ancient Greece, etc. These civilizations were not large in scale, and the Mediterranean provided them with trade convenience, which eventually led to the convergence of these places into the Mediterranean maritime civilization. The source of Chinese civilization is the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River, which was not close to the ocean at first, and was based on agriculture. Our agricultural civilization grew bigger and bigger like a snowball, and eventually included the "Nine Provinces".

The Mediterranean Sea, as its name suggests, is a sea in the middle of the land. It is surrounded by the North African continent, the West Asian continent and the Southern European continent. The South China Sea is also a sea between land. It is surrounded by the Philippine Islands, Kalimantan Island, the Malay Peninsula, the Indochina Peninsula and the South China Continent. Why didn't ancient China give birth to the South China Sea maritime civilization like the Mediterranean?

The area of ​​the South China Sea is similar to that of the Mediterranean Sea, which is about 2.5 million square kilometers and about 2.1 million square kilometers. The depth of the South China Sea is also similar to that of the Mediterranean Sea, which ranges from hundreds of meters to 5,000 meters and from hundreds of meters to 4,500 meters. In addition, the Mediterranean Sea is densely populated with small islands near the Anatolian Peninsula, and there are also large islands such as Sardinia, Corsica, Sicily, and Crete. The South China Sea is densely populated with small islands near the Philippine Islands, and there are also large islands such as Taiwan Island, Hainan Island, and Palawan Island.

Why did ancient China not develop a maritime civilization based on the South China Sea like the Mediterranean did, but chose an agricultural civilization? I think this has something to do with climate conditions, especially temperature conditions, and the depth of the land, especially terrain conditions.

1. The different climatic conditions determined that the ancient West could choose maritime civilization while the East could not.

The Mediterranean coast has hot and dry summers and warm and humid winters, which is called the Mediterranean climate. The Mediterranean and its surrounding land have little rain in the summer and abundant rainfall in the winter, which makes the rivers on land often dry up in the summer and flood in the winter. Therefore, the rivers along the Mediterranean coast can only form small alluvial plains, such as the lower Nile Delta, the Mesopotamian Basin, and the small river valleys on the Greek peninsula. These plains and valleys are the foundation for the formation of early land civilizations. However, these plains and valleys are blocked by mountains and deserts, are not large in area, lack depth conditions, and their civilizations cannot rely on themselves to develop into a huge slave empire.

Although the Mediterranean Sea is wider than the South China Sea, it is divided into several parts by the Peloponnese Peninsula, the Apennine Peninsula, Corsica-Sardinia, and the Balearic Islands. The sea surface, especially the sea surface in the central and eastern parts, is smooth, which is conducive to the development of navigation. The large and small islands scattered in the Mediterranean Sea help fleets to anchor for supplies, and these islands can also serve as cargo turnover centers. As a result, many civilizations along the Mediterranean coast can rely on the Mediterranean Sea to carry out maritime trade, and the Mediterranean maritime civilization was born and developed rapidly. The rapid development of maritime civilization is a prerequisite for the formation of the ancient Roman Empire around the century AD. However, although the ancient Roman Empire once ruled the surrounding areas of the Mediterranean and established a so-called huge regime spanning Europe, Asia and Africa, because this slave civilization was a forced merger of many small slave civilizations and lacked the cohesion that a unified civilization should have, the ancient Roman Empire was later divided into the Western Roman Empire and the Eastern Roman Empire, and eventually split into dozens of countries today. This is the inevitable result of the development and evolution of the Mediterranean maritime civilization.

The climate conditions of the Mediterranean are not available in the South China Sea. The South China Sea is also surrounded by land on all sides, but the limited land depth of the Philippine Islands in the east is not enough to block and greatly weaken the strong Pacific storms. This makes the islands and reefs in the South China Sea and the surrounding land often attacked by tropical storms, which is not conducive to the early civilization taking root. At the same time, tropical storms bring too much rainfall, which makes the land around the South China Sea too humid and full of miasma. Although this is suitable for the reproduction of some animals and plants, it is not suitable for the development of early human civilization. So, why can't the South China Sea use its numerous islands and reefs to develop marine civilization like the Mediterranean? Excluding the storm factor, we know that most of the islands and reefs in the South China Sea are small, lack fresh water, and are not convenient for ships to dock; in addition, there are far more submerged reefs than visible reefs. People in ancient times lacked means to detect submerged reefs, and sailing in the South China Sea was extremely dangerous.

Therefore, the South China Sea, whose climatic conditions are far worse than those of the Mediterranean, destined the ancient East to not be able to choose maritime civilization, while the West could.

(Scenery of the middle reaches of the Yellow River near 35° north latitude)

2. The "35° North Latitude Phenomenon" determined that the ancient East could choose land civilization while the West could not

As mentioned above, the Mediterranean maritime civilization was built on the basis of the small-scale land civilizations scattered around it. It was precisely because those land civilizations were small in scale and could hardly survive on their own that they had to "gather together for warmth" to share what they had, so the Mediterranean maritime civilization was able to be born and developed greatly. In addition, the temperature in the Mediterranean and its surrounding areas, which is neither too cold nor too hot, is also an important condition for the birth of human civilization.

The average temperature in the Mediterranean region is 4-10° in winter and 20-35° in summer. Of course, the Mediterranean Sea is very wide. If we examine the land civilizations around the Mediterranean Sea, we might as well take Greece in the north of the Mediterranean Sea, Turkey in the east, and Egypt in the south as examples. The average temperature in Greece in winter is 0-13°, with the coldest not lower than minus 5°, the average temperature in summer is 23-35°, and the hottest is not higher than 41°; the average temperature in Turkey in winter is 5-10°, with the coldest not lower than 0°, the average temperature in summer is 15-30°, and the hottest is not higher than 35°; the average temperature in Egypt in winter is 5-20°, with the coldest not lower than 0°, the average temperature in summer is 20-35°, and the hottest is not higher than 40°. In summary, the maximum range of annual temperature changes in the Mediterranean Sea and its surrounding land is between -5° and 41°, and the Mediterranean civilization was born and developed under such temperature conditions.

Looking at the geographical latitude, we find that the 35° north latitude line crosses the central and southern Mediterranean Sea, passing over the coastal areas of Crete, Tunisia and northern Algeria. Most of the Mediterranean maritime civilization and its surrounding land civilizations are between 30° north latitude (central Nile Delta) and 40° north latitude (northern Greece), in the central and southern north temperate zone, which is a humid and semi-humid area.

The latitude of the South China Sea is between 2°N and 22°N, and the climate is very hot, which is completely different from the Mediterranean region. However, the central and northern parts of mainland China have the latitude conditions of the Mediterranean and the corresponding climate conditions, especially the temperature conditions. The middle reaches of the Yellow River, namely the section from Sanmenxia to Taohuayu, basically fluctuates around the 35°N line. The areas south of Heze and north of Shangqiu are also crossed by the 35°N line. The 35°N line also crosses the urban areas or northern suburbs of Kaifeng, Zhengzhou, Xi'an, and Xianyang. These areas are the birthplaces of my country's early civilizations, and these cities were later important political centers. The range from 30°N to 40°N includes the Hetao Plain, the Loess Plateau, the Yellow River Flood Plain, the Jianghuai Plain, and the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River Plain. These areas are the areas where the entire slave civilization of China was born and developed. The annual temperature changes are almost the same as those in the Mediterranean region, ranging from -5° to 41°. The temperature is neither cold nor hot, and the precipitation is neither too much nor too little, which is suitable for the development of agricultural civilization. The land plains along the Mediterranean coast are relatively small and the scale of agricultural development is not large, but China is dominated by large plains from the Yellow River Basin to the Yangtze River Basin. The major plains are connected by valleys, natural rivers or canals. This is the reason why Chinese agricultural civilization can achieve self-development without relying on maritime trade, and it is also the reason why Chinese civilization has always been cohesive and uninterrupted.

There are many other oceans surrounded by land similar to the Mediterranean and the South China Sea, but none of these oceans can give birth to marine civilizations. This is because they either lack thick continents to resist tropical storms like the South China Sea, such as the Gulf of Mexico, the Caribbean Sea, the Java Sea, the Banda Sea, etc.; or the climate is cold and it is difficult for humans to survive, such as Baffin Bay, Hudson Bay, the Barents Sea, the Sea of ​​Okhotsk, etc. The 35° North Latitude also passes through the central and southern parts of the North American continent, but there is no splendid culture like the Chinese agricultural civilization there. This is because the primitive ancestors of the Yellow River Basin, the source of Chinese civilization, migrated from the African continent, and it was difficult for these primitive people to enter the North American continent in large numbers through the high-altitude and frozen Bering Strait. Since there is the Chinese agricultural civilization of the "35° North Latitude Phenomenon", why is there no agricultural civilization of the "35° South Latitude Phenomenon"? If we look at the map, we will know that the areas crossed by 35° south latitude mainly include the southernmost tip of the African continent, the southeastern corner of the Australian continent, the North Island of New Zealand, and the narrow peninsula in the southern part of the South American continent. These areas have no land depth conditions, and the terrain is mainly mountainous and desert. There is a lack of rivers and alluvial plains, making it difficult for any form of early civilization to give birth, let alone agricultural civilization.

To sum up, specific climatic and geographical conditions determined that the ancient West could only choose maritime civilization, while ancient China could choose land agricultural civilization.