Summary of Peter Zeihan's The End of the World is Just the Beginning

By IRB Media

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Book Preview:

#1 We were wanderers because we were hungry. We wandered with the seasons to places with more abundant roots, nuts, and berries. We followed the animal migrations because that’s where the steaks were.

#2 The first rule of geopolitics is location matters, and which locations matter more changes with the technology of the day. The first Geography of Success was all about range and variety. Good nutrition meant being able to tap multiple types of plants and animals.

#3 Rivers that flow through low-latitude and low-altitude deserts are the only places on Earth that have all three of the following: long, sun-filled days, multi-cropping, and fast-flowing, straight rivers.

#4 The first stages of agriculture were difficult, and required a lot of labor. Rivers helped us flush this problem, as they enabled us to transfer a bit of a river’s kinetic energy to a milling apparatus. With the farm-to-table process becoming less labor intensive, we began generating food surpluses.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: Jul 13, 2022
• ISBN: 9798822546783

IRB Media

With IRB books, you can get the key takeaways and analysis of a book in 15 minutes. We read every chapter, identify the key takeaways and analyze them for your convenience.

Book preview

Insights on Peter Zeihan's The End of the World is Just the Beginning

Contents

Insights from Chapter 1

Insights from Chapter 2

Insights from Chapter 3

Insights from Chapter 4

Insights from Chapter 5

Insights from Chapter 6

Insights from Chapter 7

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

We were wanderers because we were hungry. We wandered with the seasons to places with more abundant roots, nuts, and berries. We followed the animal migrations because that’s where the steaks were.

#2

The first rule of geopolitics is location matters, and which locations matter more changes with the technology of the day. The first Geography of Success was all about range and variety. Good nutrition meant being able to tap multiple types of plants and animals.

#3

Rivers that flow through low-latitude and low-altitude deserts are the only places on Earth that have all three of the following: long, sun-filled days, multi-cropping, and fast-flowing, straight rivers.

#4

The first stages of agriculture were difficult, and required a lot of labor. Rivers helped us flush this problem, as they enabled us to transfer a bit of a river’s kinetic energy to a milling apparatus. With the farm-to-table process becoming less labor intensive, we began generating food surpluses.

#5

The first good choices for sedentary agriculture-based civilizations were the Lower Tigris, Euphrates, and Nile, the mid-Indus, and to a lesser degree, the Upper Yellow. None of these were insulated from their neighbors, and they all fell prey to unrelenting competition.

#6

The shift from water power to wind power favored different sorts of lands. The trick was to have as big an internal frontier as possible with easy distribution. River valleys were still great, but any sort of large, open flatlands would work.

#7

The first phase of sedentary agriculture took place around 11,000 BCE, and the first phase of windmill technology was in the last couple of centuries BCE. The jump to watermilling finally happened in the last couple of centuries CE.

#8

The first deepwater cultures were Portugal and Spain, which were based on peninsulas. When armies can only approach you from one direction, it is easier to focus your efforts on building a navy. But countries based on islands are even more defensible.

#9

The collapse in per-unit shipping costs opened up opportunities to ship far less exotic goods such as lumber, textiles, sugar, tea, or wheat. This created urban centers where no one was involved in agriculture.

#10

The harnessing of fossil fuels upended the world’s economy. It allowed humans to generate energy when and where they wanted, and in the quantities they desired. Everything about this new era was new, and it replaced the infrastructure of the previous millennia with something lighter, stronger, faster, and better.

#11

The logic of Geographies of Success, which states that it is better to be by a river, did not change with the shift from hunter/gatherer economics to the age of the waterwheel. But it no longer was enough to fund local development, so trade became more important.

#12

The American story is the story of the perfect Geography of Success. That geography determines not only American power, but also America’s role in the world.

#13

The American colonies were agricultural in nature, and their economies were based around farming. The soil was poor in many colonies, and the natural result was roving production, with farmers clearing land, growing crops on it for a few seasons, and then moving on to a new patch.

#14

The Greater Midwest by itself boasts 200,000 square miles of the world’s most fertile farmland. Midwestern soils are thick, deep prairie soils, laden with nutrients. The Midwest is squarely in the temperate zone. Winter brings insect