Vibrant cultures and economies belong to nations that sit in vast catchment areas, in which people and innovations flow from far and wide. The fountains of intellectual achievement have exclusively been those of trading cities on major crossroads and waterways. When people find themselves isolated, that which fuels growth is cut-off.

People who have studied inhabitants of mountainous regions found they lag behind nearby populations behind the plain. They become cultural “islands”, with little communication with people in neighbouring mountain valleys.

Horses and beasts of burden are necessary for transporting goods, people, and ideas. Loading and unloading large cargo ships is only an option where there is a way to transport the cargo once it is on land. Before modern forms of transport, horseback precipitated the conveyance of knowledge in the minds of travellers from one city to another - lack of these animals paralysed countries.

Perhaps the most upsetting form of isolation is that which is self-imposed. A culture that becomes resistant to learning from others will naturally fail to advance alongside them. The Arab Middle East was once more advanced than Europe, but once overtaken by a dogmatic ideology that reviled outside influence, it soon lost its lead and has not yet recovered.

Within a society, a majority can isolate its minorities and subsequently forfeit the potential of many of its people. They impose restrictions on the development and use of people’s talent and potentialities based on arbitrary differences will suffer. These handicaps are an effective way to make a nation less economically productive.