# Why did South America never become as wealthy or developed as North America?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-south-america-never-become-as-wealthy-or-developed-as-north-america/303954>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [May 15, 2005, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-south-america-never-become-as-wealthy-or-developed-as-north-america/303954 "2005-05-15T19:15:33Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 4

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**Author:** ![Rashak\_Mani](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ea666f/32.png) [@Rashak\_Mani](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rashak_Mani)\
**Post date:** [June 2, 2005, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-south-america-never-become-as-wealthy-or-developed-as-north-america/303954/61 "2005-06-02T13:34:01Z")

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I think including ancient civilization can be misleading… Egypt and Mesopotamia jump started due to good access to water and fertile lands. These aren’t as important nowadays.

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**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\
**Post date:** [June 5, 2005, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-south-america-never-become-as-wealthy-or-developed-as-north-america/303954/62 "2005-06-05T00:47:19Z")

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Final point worth making is that the vast majority of South America is in the tropics, which is _in general_ not conducive to “developed” civilization – large heavy manufacture, family farms and multiple-crop agribusiness, etc. In fact, there is very little land area in the South Temperate Zone, and what there is, is generally as developed as in the North Temperate Zone.

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