Why are Western colder-climate countries richer and more advanced than tropical countries?

Answer 1

Natural selection over hundreds of thousands of years favors intellectual thinking, sharp wit and mental resourcefulness.

People living in colder climates couldn't merely accustom themselves to protecting their families from natural predators; They had to become predators in order to stay alive (hunting other large mammals such as giant mammoths for food, bears for fur etc.)

As time passed, less able individuals died out and the ones continuously finding ways to survive in brutally chilling weather and scarce nourishment, went on to continue the gene pool in those territories.

While people in warmer climates can also produce a certain percentage of intellectuals, the challenges of livelihood were never restricted by their environments as harshly as up north. Surviving in warmer climates was not a matter of brain capacity.

For millions of years it has been possible to live in warmer climates without significant threats to the food supply in the form of tropical fruits, vast access to fish and other pools of marine animals, massive fertile fields for farming etc.

As it stands today, the cranial capacity of the East-Asian people has developed to the highest degree on average, followed by Caucasian people, then by African people. These are of course, only averages and mean nothing on their own. But the reasons above go a long way in opening the issue on why people of northern descent are finding it easier in general to make a living in the world & create wealth in it.

Sources:

http://www.charlesdarwinresearch.org/Rushton1992.pdf

http:// www.onelife.com/evolve/manev.html

http://mitglied.multimania.de/ae9abjhcf/foreckd/intelle6m.html

Answer 2

Colder climates can support agriculture and industrial activities better, which historically have been key to economic development. Additionally, colder regions have had more stable political environments and less exposure to diseases. However, it's important to note that there are many factors at play and generalizations may oversimplify the complexities of development disparities between regions.