Guns, Germs and Steel.

Diamond provides a simple argument that the distribution of wealth and power throughout the world is rooted on basic and vital resources that allowed for specialization and time for more in depth thought to occur. He believes that farming, despite the fact that it developed separately in different parts of the world, was most wildly successful for those who could grow the most productive crops that could be stored and mass produced and also provided the best nutrition. Simple enough. He goes on to assert that regions with animals that were 1) friendly to humans 2) of a certain strength 3) lived socially and 4) fed on vegetation became the cornerstone for modern agriculture and allowed much of society to free themselves from food production and concentrate on other things. This eventually led to more sophisticated tools, weapons and thinking which propelled some societies into wealth and power while leaving other struggling to simply feed themselves.