A developing civilization must have three things in order to be successful. Those three are good climate, good location, and nutritious natural resources. These three things are the reasons why some civilizations have fallen behind others.
Climate is very important because it is the average weather in an area over many years. There needs to be good weather in order to have good farming. If there isn't enough precipitation, the crops will take longer to grow, and everyone will have to be a farmer because there is no surplus of agriculture. Surplus of agriculture means that there is an extra amount of food. If there is no surplus of agriculture, there will be no division of labor. Division of labor means that not everyone has to farm because there is a surplus of agriculture. That is one reason why many civilizations are still farming.
The second part of physical geography is location. Location is very important. If the location of a civilization is bad, it will probably take a long time to grow or not grow at all. For example, if it is too cold, your crops will not grow because the ground will become frozen and hard to farm. If it is too hot, it would be very hard to farm all day because the farmers would become fatigue.
Another part of location is nearness to a body of water. If there isn't enough water, the civilization might not survive because people would die of dehydration. You also need water to water your crops in case of a drought. So, if a civilization has good location, they could have a surplus of agriculture which would lead to a division of labor.
The last part of physical geography is the natural resources. There has to be nutritious natural resources around a civilization in order for there to be a division of labor. For example, the people of Papua New Guinea are still farming because of natural resources. The main source of food for New Guineans is the sago tree. The sago can be turned into dough and cooked. The problem is that the sago in not very nutritious and one tree only produces about 70 pounds of sago. That is why New Guineans have fallen behind as a civilization. If there aren't any nutritious natural resources near a civilization, the chances are they will not have a surplus of agriculture.
So, the reason why other civilizations are still very far behind others is because of two words, physical geography. The formula is simple. Good climate + good location + nutritious natural resources = Surplus of agriculture = Division of labor = Improved conditions = More surpluses = Wealth = Cities and technology.
