Society's potential for advanced development may have been determined by simple geography.

The first episode examines how a society's potential for advanced development may have been determined by simple geography. Diamond shows how a few lucky societies in places like the Fertile Crescent benefited from access to animals that could be domesticated and plants that could form the basis of agriculture. As Diamond and several experts show, geographic advantages such as surpluses of food allowed those cultures to trade and develop technologies that gave them an ever-increasing edge over their neighbors, leading in turn to the development of successful civilizations.