Have you ever heard northern Europeans telling southern Europeans they're lazy?
It's false.
So why are northerners richer?
Small thread 🧵
1. Northerners work substantially LESS than southerners
2. Northerners make substantially MORE money
Here's GDP per capita PPS, indexed at 100=EU average
Which mean Northern Europeans are substantially more productive.
Why? If you ask a Northerner, he might tell you it's because they're better educated, have better institutions, the protestant work ethic, it's colder so ppl work harder...
Suspicious.
Alternative: geography.
This is Europe's topography map.
Look at it and try to figure out the biggest patterns.
Do you see any?
The biggest one: the north is made up of the gigantic Northern European Plain, while the south is mostly mountains.
Why?
Because the African tectonic plate hits the Eurasian plate.
Looking at the details, you can see the formation of Southern Europe due to these tectonic plates.
A bit like the Indian plate forms the Himalayas hitting the Eurasian Plate
But mountains don't create wealth. Plains do. Wherever there's a plain that is well irrigated, there's ppl. Where there's ppl there's wealth.
Why?
Flat :
➡️ you can irrigate. Water doesn't run away.
➡️ build up of sediments from rivers, so +fertile
➡️ Rivers are slower, easier to control. +irrigation
➡️ easy to trade (walk, roads, navigable rivers)
➡️building is much cheaper
Now look back at the map of Europe, this time with navigable rivers. What do you notice?
1. So many mountains in the south, you can't develop agriculture as well, grow a big pop, create much wealth. And everything is + expensive
2. The mountains stop the water from the clouds, which falls quickly into the mediterranean in the south (mountains), but very slowly in the Northern European Plain, creating lots of navigable rivers, amazing for irrigation and trade.
Remember all of this when you hear northern Europeans calling the southern neighbors "lazy".
Many details in my series of articles on geohistory. Eg:
unchartedterritories.tomaspueyo.com/p/geography-is…
unchartedterritories.tomaspueyo.com/p/world-chessb…
unchartedterritories.tomaspueyo.com/p/a-space-craf…
To clarify: I’m not saying geography is the only cause. I’m arguing it’s a big one
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