making something from nothing

...is impossible.

Thus, the importance of picking an appropriate location to establish a civilization. Like Diamond says, the availability of resources and overall development of a group of people is dependent on location.

So far, I have started my CIV games near a mountain (for protections from the barbarians) and an ocean (for trade and fish and because I like the bonus points that you get for being the first to circumnavigate the globe, and living near a major port makes it easier to do so).

This time however, I started my settlements on land that was very rich in mineral resources, but not as rich in agricultural ones. The problem here? My people were not able to make us of the mineral resources for centuries. Which definitely salted my game.

Even though I knew that there was so much wealth ready to be unveiled, right underneath my settlements, I could do nothing to harvest it.

This is like when oil was first refined for kerosene lamps. The people who harvested the kerosene regarded the "leftovers" as something that could potentially be useful, but had no idea what to do with it. These "leftovers" are the basis for what use today as petrol.

There were all these resources and no means of using them. A huge economic no-no. And to add to the problems, I had little of the resources that my people were capable of harvesting. Next time, I'll go back to picking a location next to the beach.