Two books have really tried to explain the history of the civilizations. 'Sapiens by Yuval Harari' and 'Guns, Germs, and Steel' by Jared Diamond. The main question in these texts is 'why did different parts of the world develop differently?' Here I try to summarize the research done by Jared and Yuval into how the current world came to be.
Jared Diamond's book begins by distinguishing between proximate causes and the ultimate causes. Proximate causes are easier and direct. Those regions that had more weapons, military and better organised were able to defeat and conquer when they came into contact with another population. 'Guns, Germs and Steel' tries to explain the ultimate causes.
Roughly 10,000 years ago humans decided that farming was better than moving from place to place. Initially starting from a region called Mesopotamia, present day parts of eastern Mediterranean (mainly Iraq but also parts of Syria/Iran). According to Jared, the expansive Eurasia region had favorable geographic and climatic conditions for agriculture. It was the first region for humans to change to agriculture. Initially, we were hunters and gatherers but changing to agriculture had both intended and unintended consequences.
Domestication: most of the wild animals found in the region were also suitable for domestication than other regions. Diffusion of domesticated crops and animals was faster and easier in Eurasia with longer east-west latitude: allowing for similar climatic conditions/day-length, an important ingredient for crops farming.
The whole Guns, Germs and Steel theory can be summarized as continental axis theory: Eurasia had better geographic conditions to gain upper hand in domestication and agriculture than Africa.
Agriculture propelled more population growth, leading to different but mostly centralized systems of governance, growth of larger communities, chiefdoms, conflict between people, military and growth of weapons. When Eurasians came into contact with other groups there was spread of germs and outbreaks such as smallpox eliminated majority of local populations. This coupled with better weapons contributed to European conquest in areas of Americas and Australia.
However, some points to note: Accounts by Jared on 'Guns Germs & Steel' are intriguing, but still fail to account for developments that existed in parts of Africa at the same time or even before European rise. Chinese were actually among the first to explore the old world. Major innovations such as gunpowder, paper money, wheelbarrow, windmills, block printing and paper are thought to have originated from the Chinese.
Also, some parts of Africa show some impressive old world progress and innovations. Some of the old kingdoms that existed in Africa include Great Zimbabwe - an impressive ancient Kingdom that had huge stone walls and was most powerful kingdom in the region. The robust architectural designs used at that time are incredible and exist today as ruins. There are accounts of how it grew even further with trade with the Arabs, Indians, with the Swahili coast serving as entry point. The great merchant trade existed between Egypt, India and coast of East Africa to the Great Zimbabwe. The enormous and expansive trade route was among the first published descriptions of ancient trades, centuries before the arrival of Europeans.
Based on this theory, the perfect recipe for building a civilization is: develop key competency in one area — spread it to as many people as possible — establish structures to enjoy the first mover advantage.