Film Analysis: Guns Germs And Steel

“Ender did not hesitate. He stepped on the head of the snake and crushed it under his foot. It writhed and twisted under him and in response he twisted and ground it deeper into the stone floor… And in the mirror he saw a face that he easily recognized. It was Peter.” (117)

Guns, Germs, and Steel starts off with an interesting conversation in the Prologue between the author, Jared Diamond, and a friend he made in New Guinea, a politician named Yali. Yali raises the question that why the rest of the world has so much of what he refers to as “cargo”, or in a broad sense technology, compared to his homeland of New Guinea which becomes the central focus for the entire book. The first chapter begins with the origins of humans and what Diamond calls the “Great Leap Forward” where the first tools, writings and paintings began to appear, as well as watercraft in aboriginal Australia and New Guinea. Then discussing the Ice Ages, leading up to the recent era and extinction of many large animals globally as humans began to spread out. Next Diamond uses the example of The Maoris and the Morioris in the Chatham Islands in 1835 and how one culture and civilization is able to overrun another due to geography, resources, and many other things and how that can lead

1.Jared Diamond states that the environment of a race determines whether or not it’s going to survive.

Jared Diamond delves deep into humanity’s history in his book Guns, Germs, and Steel in attempt to answer a question imposed upon him by Yali, a New Guinean politician. Diamond weaves together many theories and historical examples, such as the Spanish Conquistador Francisco Pizarro’s defeat of the Incas, to explain why humans have developed at vastly differing rates. Yali asked a question that had stumped historians for decades and Diamond dissects and reassembles the phrasing often. In order to give his most complete answer, the author takes a look at both post 1500s inequalities, and differing rates of development throughout human times. The examination of Pizarro’s defeat of the large Inca force came first at the battlefield and continued

In Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies, Jared Diamond explains why throughout history the people of Eurasia have politically and economically dominated the rest of the world. With an American’s perspective and his extensive study of geography, Diamond argues that the geography of Eurasia, not the assumed innate superiority of the Eurasian people, is responsible for Eurasian dominance. I agree with his thesis as a general statement about the development of civilizations, but I believe it is an incomplete view of history.

In the book “Guns, Germs, and Steel” by Jared Diamond, Part One talks about what happened on the continents before 11,000 B.C, geography on the Polynesian Islands, and more importantly what happened in Cajamarca to the Inca emperor Atahuallpa when he was captured by the Spaniards. Jared Diamond will explain what happened at Cajamarca and why it was important or more specifically a turning point between different societies. However, he didn’t go into detail about other battles because he feels as if the advancement in technology was clearly shown better in Cajamarca.

Beginning his scientific career in physiology, then expanding into evolutionary biology and biogeography Jared Diamond is the author of Guns, Germs, and Steel. On July 1972, Mr. Diamond visited New Guinea where he studied bird evolution along a beach. He met a local New Guinean named Yali, who would ask Diamond a question, which would take him twenty-five years to try to find an answer. Yali’s questions, "Why is it that you white people developed so much cargo and brought it to New Guinea, but we black people had little cargo of our own?.” Guns, Germs, and Steel attempt to answer Yali’s question through following the first civilizations. Diamond discusses why some societies were able to develop writing, agriculture, change from framers to gathers while other societies stayed the same.

Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond, a professor of geography at the University of California, dives into the past, examining historical developments of societies compared to each other in the form of time, resources, and environment. Diamond summarizes the book in one sentence: “History followed different courses for different peoples because of differences among peoples’ environments, not because of biological differences among themselves” (Diamond 25). Diamond explains that dominance over others reflects the environment in which the people lived, not the people themselves. He backs this explanation with evidence from history in many different areas of history.

The Prologue: A biologist named Jared Diamond was in New Guinea to research the evolution of birds in the area. While on the beach Jared encountered a New Guinean politician named Yali. After walking on the beach having a conversation together Yali asked Jared how people settled in New Guinea over ten thousand years ago but white Europeans took political control over it in the last 200 years. Jared’s theory is that this happened due to environmental variations, not because of racial differences. Jared does not agree with Eurocentric thinking or intelligence due to race, he in fact thinks that industrialized people are less intelligent than modern stone age people.

Why Eurasia was able to develop faster and dominate over other continents has been a highly debated question amongst historians. Jared Diamond argues in Guns, Germs, and Steel that geographical environments and ecological profiles rather than biological distinctions caused Eurasia’s fast development. He begins his argument with the premise of a “starting line” (Diamond 35) to compare historical developments in 11,000 BC. Eurasia does not begin to pull away developmentally from the other continents until 8,000 BC with the emergence of domesticated plants and animals. This domestication transformed Eurasia from hunter-gatherers to farmer-herders and allowed them to settle and become sedentary. Diamond argues that the ultimate factors of

Jared Diamond’s theory of global differences in his book entitled “Guns, Germs, and Steel” is the result of geography and climate and not human differences such as race and culture. Jared Diamond is a biology professor at the University of California. He has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. While studying birds in Papua New Guinea he was asked the question of “Why you white men have so much cargo and us New Guineans have so little.”

The chapter begins by saying that the Corleonesi boss Riina has been captured. After Riina’s capture, his brother in law Bagarella takes over some of his responsibilities like leading the organization’s death squads. Both of these men were on the pro-massacre wing of the mafia, which wanted to keep on with the war, but with the capture of Bagarella shortly after Riina, the wing had lost its power. Provenzano was next considered boss who had a different strategy than the previous bosses before him. Provenzano did not wanted Cosa Nostra out of the headlines and decided to no longer cause harm to penitents or their families. His goal was to get these men to withdraw their evidence against the organization, and it worked out great for him. Provenzano was also very selective on who the family did business with when dealing with politicians. However,

Diamond, Jared. Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies. New York: W.W. Norton, 1998. Print.

I first read Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs, and Steel in the Fall 2003 based on a recommendation from a friend. Many chapters of the book are truly fascinating, but I had criticisms of the book back then and hold even more now. Chief among these is the preponderance of analysis devoted to Papua New Guinea, as opposed to, say, an explanation of the greatly disparate levels of wealth and development among Eurasian nations. I will therefore attempt to confine this review on the "meat and potatoes" of his book: the dramatic Spanish conquest of the Incas; the impact of continental geography on food production; and finally, the origins of the Eurasian development of guns, germs, and steel. In terms of structure, I will first summarize the

Guns, germs, and steel. Three of the main components found in changing civilizations, and three essential factors that must be brought into consideration when discussing how our modern day world came to be. In the critically acclaimed documentary, based off of the book by Jared Diamond, Guns, Germs, and Steel provides valuable insight into these crucial aspects, showing an in-depth history of world and culture. In the first portion of this three part series, Diamond and other commentators explore the impact of agricultural development and how various societies were affected by either geographical advantages or hindrances. The explanations provided help to clarify reasons behind historical turmoils and wars, along with current economic status of states, and are perhaps more relevant than ever.