>>17820834 (OP)it was population density and geography (which are external factors) paired with low vs high-time preferences (of which individuals are genetically predisposed toward one or the other)
for example :
North America - particularly the east coast and Mississipi valley - was quite frankly a shithole before thousands of generations of injuns migrated all over the place and practiced slash-and-burn agriculture. Eventually the disgustingly dense woodlands and marshes were transformed over the generations into barely arable lands by the time the European came here. Give it a few centuries and I'd recon we could have had large confederations, federations and tribal kingdoms formed there eventually.
Of course, those are the middle of the Venn diagram injuns. There were top-tier low-time preference injuns called the Mound-Builders culture, for example. Not only did their forefathers start considering concentrating their population into urban centers, developping small towns and a notable city in Cahokia; but this attitude survived their calamitous collapse and persisted into the Muskogee/Mississipian people right back until Europeans showed up. Theyw ere still fucked over by poor geography and their abysmal population following their collapse, so the low-time pref mound-builders could not recuperate from their unlucky circumstances.
Another example or a low-time pref precursor civilization, this one blessed by terrain, is the Andean-Chacha culture complex of the Andes. They suffered multiple culture collapses - including a major one as Tiwanaku and the Wari confederation waned, probably due to local autonomous polities undermining either's influences, but were able to easily recuperate as petty kingdoms due to the frankly isolating nature of the Andean mountain range, leaving everyone to recuperate on their own time. The same thing happened in the transition from Mycenean to Archaic Greece.
