This study compares Europeans to Europeans by colony location. I’m talking about the de novo development Stone Age -> Bronze Age -> Iron Age, but all these Europeans are coming with advanced tech from their country of origin, so it’s not really what I’m talking about at all.
All people are equally smart, but if you don’t develop iron tools, because there is no iron, you’re not going to win a fight against a guy who has iron weapons. So while say, Polynesians don’t seem very “advanced” on their surface, cause they don’t have metallurgy, they also explored and populated micronesia using canoes and astral navigation. Chinese weren’t particularly smarter than their neighbors, but they had wheat and better protein intake, which made their soldiers stronger than ones living off rice and millet.
I’m hoping you can link me to some essay with a title like: Jared Diamond is wrong and this is why. Got anything relevant like that?