Tomas Pueyo Profile picture
Feb 19, 2024 24 tweets 9 min read Read on X
Germany just became the 3rd largest economy
But why is it so rich?
Work ethic?
Here's a huge factor: Geography 🧵
If there was something special about 🇩🇪, we should be able to tell it in the regional GDP numbers: It should stand out. But no: regions of neighboring Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, England, and Northern Italy are as rich or richer Image
Why are Denmark and the Netherlands richer than Germany in terms of GDP per capita if Germany is so well run? Image
If the country's productivity was exceptional, we should see it on satellite maps of nightlights—strong proxies for wealth. But see how Germany compares to Haiti/Dominican Rep or North/South Korea:
Can't tell the border in 🇩🇪, it's obvious in the others!

Image
Image
Image
It's not 🇩🇪, it's the region. Something is making it rich. What might it be?
Let's look at a map: What do these regions have in common?

Flat
➡️Cheaper infrastructure
➡️Easier to irrigate & produce food
➡️More ppl
➡️More wealth

But Poland & France are also flat but poorer. Why?
There is something else: navigable rivers.

The region of northwest🇩🇪/🇳🇱/🇧🇪 has the highest density of inland navigable waterways in the world. And also the highest density of wealth in the world. Is it a coincidence? Image
Lots of these waterways today are artificial canals, but the region also has the highest density of naturally navigable rivers
➡️irrigation
➡️sediments (more fertile land)
➡️Cheap transportation
➡️Trade
➡️Wealth
➡️Infrastructure
➡️Cheaper transport
... Image
The importance of inland waterways was known a long time ago. Eg, the Emperor Charlemagne built the 1st canal in the region... in 800 AC! (Fossa Carolina, pictured below)

It connected the Rhine basin with the Danube basin
Image
Image
But why are there so many navigable rivers in this corner of the world?

The Earth's rotation create, warm currents ("Gulf Stream") from the Caribbean toward Northern Europe, warming it up
The Earth's rotation also pushes warm winds in the same direction
Warm ocnea + warm winds➡️They load up on moisture, which falls as rain on Europe. That's why this region has so much rain and so little sunlight

Red: no rain
Blue: rain
Purple: lots of rain
🇫🇷🇧🇪🇳🇱🇩🇪 get lots of rain
More rain➡️More farming productivity➡️More wealth Image
But notice where most of the rain falls?
On the many mountain ranges—especially the huge Alps
They stop the winds and catch their moisture, which falls as rain or snow, stored in snowpacks

The snowpacks slowly release the water through the year, stabilizing the rivers Image
And why are there so many mountains there? Because of plate tectonics: The African Plate hits on the Eurasian Plate Image
Southern Europe has more mountains & less flatlands ➡️It's poorer
It's not work ethic (northerners work less, as you can see)
It's geography Image
And why is the north so flat? Because it's very old terrain, flattened over eons—especially in the last few ice ages Image
Flat lands with rain
Rivers bringing sediments and water
Perfect conditions for an amazingly fertile land
Germany has among the most productive fields in Europe!

The tech revolution of the Middle Ages improved its productivity with the heavy plow, horseshoe, & horse collar Image
Flat also means it's much cheaper to build infrastructure: roads, railroads, housing... So ppl can build faster and cheaper, accelerating growth Image
So:
🌍Rotation of Earth➡️Rain🌧️
🌋Plate Tectonics➡️Capture rain & store in snowpacks
❄️Ice Ages➡️Flat northern plain
➡️Navigable rivers+Cheap infrastructure➡️ Trade ➡️ Wealth💰
➡️Easy irrigation & sediments➡️Food surplus➡️Population🧑‍🤝‍🧑
Population + Wealth➡️Huge economy
And that's not it! See the Ruhr region here, one of the wealthiest in the world?
It has one of the best coal mines in the world

So when the Industrial Revolution arrived to 🇩🇪, it had the coal, the workers to mine it, and the rivers to transport it
Image
Image
And it's not just the Ruhr's coal! Germany has had great mines throughout history, because the same mountains that gave it water also gave it mining resources
Image
Image
Many of these assets are shared by 🇳🇱🇧🇪🇫🇷, and hence why they're also very rich (and even richer than 🇩🇪)
It's also not a coincidence that Poland, just to the east, is growing the fastest in Europe, now that it's unshackled from bad mgmt & occupations
So why is Germany so rich? Many factors, but the huge one that few mention is that it got lucky with its geography

Enjoyed this? Follow for more! Soon Poland, France, Mexico & more!

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If you’re going to write “no it’s because Japan went down”, do a favor to yourself and pause for a second to think a few steps ahead

Why was 🇩🇪 4th to begin with?
Why so resilient in the longer term?
Think for than months. Think centuries.
Also: No, geography is not the ONLY factor
It's the most UNDERRATED factor
If I thought it was the only factor, I wouldn't have made this gif last week, showing how different political mgmt can have heavy consequences:

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More from @tomaspueyo

Jun 25
Why did 🇮🇱Israel strike 🇮🇷Iran now, and not months or years ago or in the future?

A unique combination of a dozen factors converged to make the moment unique for 🇮🇱Israel: 🧵
1. No Hamas to its southwest
2. No Hezbollah to its north
3. No Assad threat to the northeast
4... Image
4. No more Syrian army to attack 🇮🇱Israel's planes: As the new forces of HTS took over Syria, Israel bombed all the existing Syrian military. No more fighter jets or surface-to-air missiles to threaten 🇮🇱Israel Image
5. Ability to fly over Syria to refuel
This is critical, because 🇮🇷Iran is ~600-1000 miles away from 🇮🇱Israel, so 1200-2000 miles round trip

The range of Israel’s stealth F35 is only about 1,350 mi
To operate inside 🇮🇷Iran, 🇮🇱Israel needed refueling over Syria Image
Image
Read 7 tweets
Jun 23
Was 🇮🇷trying to get a nuclear bomb?

1. From Feb 2025 to Jun 2025, it increased its amount of enriched uranium by 50%
2. It now had 400kg of highly enriched uranium, enough for 9-10 bombs
3. This is 60% enriched uranium. Fuel only requires 5% enrichment.
4... 🧵
4. It's easy to go from 60% to 90% (weapons grade), it only takes weeks
5. The only country on Earth with such enriched uranium and without a bomb is 🇮🇷Iran
6. The IAEA (nuclear watchdog) found 3 secret nuclear sites
7. When 🇮🇷Iran didn't respond to this accusation, the IAEA censured it
8. 🇮🇷Iran responded to the censoring by saying it would open a 3rd enrichment site in a secret spot
Read 9 tweets
Jun 22
Now that the 🇺🇸US has bombed 3 of 🇮🇷Iran's nuclear sites, where will the war go from here?
It depends on 🇮🇱Israel: 🧵
🇮🇷Iran never wanted the war, and its forces are being decimated. Its ability to send missiles to 🇮🇱Israel is being degraded every day. If it could sign a ceasefire while saving face, it would Image
Meanwhile, 🇮🇱Israel has kept striking Iran non stop. Its daily airstrikes didn't go down substantially in the first few days. Its ability to keep striking 🇮🇷Iran remains unabated

So when will it stop? Image
Read 13 tweets
Jun 19
Can there be an invasion of Iran? Hardly. Two maps explain why, and also why Iran is the way it is today, whether its regime will fall, what other superpowers will do, and in general why Iran is the way it is today

1. Iran is a mountain & desert fortress Image
Here's a topograhic map
West: Zagros
North: Caspian Sea + Caucasus, Albroz, & Kopet-Dag mountains + Karakum Desert
East: Mountains + Dasht-e Kavir / Lut Deserts
South: Sea

The only truly exposed area is the southwestern corner of Khuzestan, which is a swamp Image
The biggest superpowers lie to the west, and there the very broad Zagros make it really hard to conquer Iran. The mountain range is tall and wide, making logistics similar to Afghanistan. Very hard.

Iraq learned it the hard way when it tried to attack there in 1980 Image
Read 20 tweets
Jun 19
Was 🇮🇷Iran trying to develop nuclear weapons?

Listening to the debate, it looks like 🇮🇱Israel & the 🇺🇸US intelligence community disagreed, but that's not really the case!

Both thought Iran was weeks to months away from being able to develop the bomb

So what's the disagreement?
Here are more facts:
• Tehran had just announced a 3rd enrichment site in an undisclosed place
• The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) had recently produced a report censoring Iran for the 1st time in 20y
• It accused Iran of 3 undisclosed nuclear sites
• It claimed Iran had enough enriched uranium for 9-10 nuclear bombs
• All the other countries in the world who have enriched uranium at the same level also have nuclear weapons. Iran is the only country that doesn't have these weapons yet enriches uranium as much
Read 7 tweets
Jun 3
Nuclear is the best source of energy across nearly all the factors that matter. It's the safest, cleanest, densest, most sustainable, geopolitically stable, predictable, dispatchable, and can be cheap.

1. SAFEST
It kills 1000x less than coal Image
Living close to a nuclear power plant for one year gives you less radiation than eating a banana (graph is logarithmic) Image
Image
2. CLEANEST
Accounting for all the lifecycle of all energies, it's the one that emits the least CO2 Image
Read 22 tweets

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