Analysis Of Spacious Skies And Tilted Axes

Jared Diamond discusses the reasons why geographical and environmental factors lead to a more rapid progression of certain civilizations throughout history. The book Guns, Germs and Steel portrays an argument that due to some societies’ access to an area witch contains sufficient amounts of wildlife and climates that are easily inhabitable, these societies developed into more advanced ways of living much easier and also earlier than societies who lacked these geographical attributes. These beneficial geographical attributes promoted the growth of technological improvements in weapons, religion, and farming.

Chapter 10: DIfferences in axis orientation affect the diffusion of both inventions and food production. America’s major axis is north-south while Eurasia’s is east-west. According to Diamond a continent with an east-west axis has an advantage over one with a north-south axis. This, in theory, means that a crop developed somewhere can spread East to West but will have difficulty spreading from North to South.

Having now roughly outlined the various kinds of frontiers and their modes of advance, chiefly from the point of view of the frontier itself, we may next inquire what were the influences on the East and on the Old World. A rapid enumeration of some of the more noteworthy effects is all that I have time for.

Throughout Guns, Germs, and Steel, Jared Diamond explains the importance of geography in the ways ancient civilizations grew and spread and how some areas were more advanced than others. He began his research when he was asked a question by a Papua New Guinea residence, Yali. Yali had asked Diamond “[w]hy you white man have so much cargo and we New Guineans have so little?” At that point Diamond had no answer and he was curious to find out why Eurasia had a head start in civilizing people meanwhile the other continents were behind. As a result, several differences were made between countries that did not have the same resources as those who were advanced. Some of the developing countries were poor and they had to rely on whatever was given to them through nature. When Diamond went to Papua New Guinea, he discovered that the residences of the island had the same routine as those in the ancient civilizations of Eurasia. They would often hunt for animals and used stone weapons instead of metal.

Many geographers have attempted creating a unified theory explaining why cultures advance much more readily than others. Very few have actually reached mainstream society and even fewer seem reasonable. However, Jared Diamond shines where most do not. His book, Guns, Germs, and Steel, proposes an idea that has long been established called environmental determinism. Most view environmental determinism as a racist theory attributing a peoples’ intelligence only to their oppressive climates and geographical barriers. Diamond instead has created a theory that applies environmental determinism to only a peoples’ technology—not the people themselves. This has given researchers valuable tools that allow them to explain why some nations have

Areas would have to keep up with the competition or they would be taken out by neighboring nomads like the mongols. Asia realized that they had the geological advantage and used this to grow crops that other areas were not able to. It was so much of an advantage that Europeans went all the way to America or the new world to grow crops like sugarcane so they could make money and sell it were they came from were it was hard to make. It happened because if you could not keep up with the neighboring areas you taken over or you would be paying tribute to others until you ran out of things to give

This linkage gave a rise to mutually dependent and unity around the globe.  One of the long-term effects of European linking Afro-Eurasia with the America introduces the wide diffusion of technology (Bentley 376).  These technologies was an advantage to because most of the technology affect to warfare worldwide. Another thing that was considered as a long term effect was the technology of transportation. During the time, the widespread diffusion of technology enriched the animal and maritime transportation. In which, induced both more trade and industry integration through long distances as well as more financial growth. (Bentley 377). These technologies was an enormous plus to because some of the technology pertain to warfare and the economic growth and transportation that help increase military power and

The argument begins with a brief summarization of Diamond’s theory. The main point being that the distribution of wealth or success to countries or continents is decided geographically. And within the geographic category is the importance of farming and domestication of animals. Diamond says Eurasia’s advancement happened because of their

For one the continent contained the largest amount of wild mammals. Another reason is that Eurasia has had the least extinction in the last

Differences in axis orientation affected the diffusion of both food production and inventions by altering the rate that crops and livestock spread. The major axis of the Americas is north-south, while the major axis of Eurasia is east-west. According to Diamond, a continent with a long east-west axis has an advantage over a continent with a long north-south axis. A crop that has developed in one place can spread east to west rather easily, but it would have difficulty spreading north to south because some areas are more ecologically suitable for the origins of food production.

Food is one of the many factors that determine a population. The use of big, domesticated animals helped in the production of food and while Eurasia had 13 of the 14 main species, the Americas only had one (llamas and apachas). In addition to having most of the main animal species, the geographic location of Eurasia (west to east) had helped in the expansion of the domesticating of animals and plants because of the similar environment and climate where in the Americas (north to south), the climate and environment made it hard to move the animals and plants for domestication. Already in the lead with having the most species and their location, domestic animals in Eurasia provided labor; plowing and manure which helped produced faster and more crops. In the Americas though, the llama/apacha could not be used for labor. The rate of food production In the Americas was a much more painful and slow process because it was picked and planted by hand while Eurasia had machinery and animals to help increase food production. For the production of plant food crops, both Eurasia and the Americas had widespread agriculture but Eurasia had more farmers and land so they could tend to the farms, whereas the Americas had limited land (due to environment and barrier issues) and more hunter-gatherers. Because of their easier and faster labor system, the

The geography of early Western civilizations greatly affected their development economically, politically, and socially. There are a Number of different first wave and second wave civilizations. The ones that I will be discussing include Mesopotamians, Egyptians, and Greeks. Each of these civilizations proved a number of different ways that their geography affected their development.

Jared Diamond starts off his book, Guns, Germs, and Steel with stating his attempt to answer Yali’s question, “Why is it that you white people developed much cargo and brought it to New Guinea, but we black people had little cargo of our own.” Diamond elaborates and brings to simpler terms how Yali’s question relates to many questions on the origins of humans, but more specifically, how Eurasians, the white people mentioned by Yali, came to successfully dominate the rest of the world. In the prologue, Diamond mainly drives his point of the “effects of continental environments on history over the past 13,000 years” as to what he believes is the main root to why Eurasians came to dominate so successfully. Alongside of continental environments,

Diamond states “Technology, in the form of weapons and transport, provides the direct means by which certain peoples have expanded their realms and conquered other peoples.” Most significant inventions in this field (firearms, ships, steel equipment, printing presses, glass, and steam engines, to name a few) were all of Eurasian invention. Diffusion, the author argues, either didn’t exist or didn’t unfold as quickly or efficiently as other areas. Geography, the main factor Diamond argues about history’s development, is included here in the fact that Eurasia is continuous and Europe/Asia is easily accessible to its included North African region through the Suez Canal. The Americas don’t apply in this situation as the connect between the two, the Isthmus of Panama, forty miles wide, “virtually transects the Americas geographically”, and ecologically the Isthmus separates the Darien rainforests of South America and the northern Mexican desert, Diamond explains. The lack of continuity in this case does not allow for a fast, fluid spread of ideas and communication for obvious reasons. Australia, for example, as the most isolated continent, and located so the weather pattern doesn’t allow for proper support of large populations, is why Australia is “the sole continent still without metal artifacts in modern times.” Additionally, Johann Gutenburg’s invention of the

For millennia, civilizations on either side of the Eurasian Continent exchanged both products and ideas through the complex networks of the Silk Route. Central Asia, given its strategic position on this route, long served a critical role at the crossroads between East and West. However, while cultures on both ends of the networks have by and large been extensively researched, Central Asia — despite its centrality — is frequently ignored or marginalized; rather than claiming a separate area of study, it oftentimes retreats to the peripheries of a larger grouping, whether the Islamic world, the Sinosphere, or the Russian Empire. Yuri Bregel, on the other hand, proposes an alternative perception of the region. He contends that Central Asia