How adversity has guided the path of Chinese civilisation through the ages

Places well-endowed with natural resources don’t usually become great powers or world-conquering empires. If anything, many suffer from the “resource curse”, which corrupts the domestic elite and invites foreign intervention, exploitation or outright colonisation.Like people, communities or nations that have fought to overcome adversity and disadvantages often become the most successful. Challenges – whether natural, geographical, social or military – make them fighters and winners.New findings by archaeologists in central China make an analogous claim: early humans might have evolved towards making sophisticated tools in response to environmental challenges, not out of the Garden of Eden.The site’s discovery in Henan province of remarkably inventive tools suggests that a harsh ice age drove technological innovation for an extinct human species, hypothetically named Homo juluensis.Yuchao Zhao, lead author of a paper in the Journal of Human Evolution, noted that: “People often imagine creativity as something that flourishes in good times. Finding out that these stone tools were made during a harsh ice age tells a different story. Hard times can force us to adapt.”