Guns Germs And Steel

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.

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.

This section highlights that history has created a false narrative depicting the natives as a victimized people, which they were to some extent but only in the fashion that they did not possess the same technology for warfare, immunity of communal diseases transmitted, and they were not anticipating combat. All other factors considered, the natives stood to be a potential threat. In regards to knowledge obtained by Spaniards prior to arrival and knowledge gained from observation, it would be remiss had they not prepared for battle. This argument is not to be misconstrued in approving their actions; I do recognize colonization as an evil for both the reasons employed and its damaging effects, but rather to change the narrative surrounding that of the native people. While they did experience a tragedy, I feel that it is erroneous to write them into history as being incompetent resulting from their

In the book The Conquest of America by Tzvetan Todorov, Todorov brings about an interesting look into the expeditions of Columbus, based on Columbus’ own writings. Initially, one can see Columbus nearly overwhelmed by the beauty of these lands that he has encountered. He creates vivid pictures that stand out in the imagination, colored by a "marvelous" descriptive style. Todorov gives us an interpretation of Columbus’ discovery of America, and the Spaniards’ subsequent conquest, colonization, and destruction of pre-Columbian cultures in Mexico and the Caribbean. Tzvetan Todorov examines the beliefs and behavior of the Spanish conquistadors and of the Aztecs.

Yali met Jared Diamond on a beach over 30 years ago in New Guinea and Yali’s question was “Why you white man have so much cargo and we New Guineans have so

The Inca Empire began in 1438 and was conquered in 1532. After the death of Huayna Capac, civil war erupted between his two sons over the succession of the throne. Eventually Atahualpa imprisoned his brother and consolidated his rule in Cuzco. Francisco Pizarro came face to face with each other. Atahualpa didn’t want a battle, however, they each had different worldviews. “In a surprise attack, the Spanish, with far superior weapons and the benefit of surprise, slaughtered the Inca entourage, captured Atahualpa, and held the Inca ruler hostage” (Seaman, R., 2014). After this, the Incas tried to resist, they Spanish were to strong and the Inca empire died out after the last Inca ruler, Tupac Amaru was captured and executed.

In the 16th century Spaniards Herman Cortes and Christopher Columbus set out on endeavoring journeys in search of new worlds. Christopher Columbus encountered, in the Caribbean islands, a group of extremely simplistic Native Americans. Herman Cortes however encountered a much more advanced Native American group in Meso America; we formally know this area to be Mexico. In my essay I will be comparing and contrasting several aspects between both of these Native American Civilizations including sophistication, technology, housing, weapons, religion and their reaction to the Spaniards. Letters written by Columbus and Cortes will be used to make these comparisons.

In his work, “Guns, Germs, and Steel” (W. W. Norton, New York, NY, 1997) Jared Diamond attempts to explain why human history has carried out the way it has, he often refers to accounts from history to support his argument. Accounts that will be deemed adequate will discuss specific groups of people, at a specified period of time. Diamond suggests that guns, germs, and steel are three contributing factors for why the world is in its current state. It is not difficult to recognize while reading, that the book spends a large amount of time talking about germs and much less text discussing guns and steel. In “Guns, Germs, and Steel” Diamond does adequately account for the historical development of guns and steel, in the way he accounts for the role of germs in the history of human societies. It is no debate that germs played a massive role in many important events in history, but guns came late, were not very effective at first, and steel production was most important militarily.

This chapter focuses on the meeting of the two societies and discusses the causes of one having a greater dominance over the other. The Europeans led to dominance and beat with factors such as horses, guns, steel weapons, ships, diseases, and politics. Referring to the title, these guns, germs, and steels that the Europeans possessed helped them overcome and defeat the Incas, however it is because of the ultimate factors they had. The Europeans unlike the Incas had a lot of domesticated plants and animals, and it could be considered an agricultural revolution. They also lived in a better area, which helped them develop the proximate factors. Raising plants and animals were the \ most important factors of the civilizational differences of the past and present. Food production, industries, and cities arose. Food production had led to the industrialization and the “cargoes”

The Aztec civilization during its peak was the strongest civilization in the western hemisphere. When the Spaniards first set foot in the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan, they could not believe that a civilization so primitive in their minds could have been so culturally developed and powerful. However, before making it to Tenochtitlan, they had discovered that all was not well in the Aztec empire. From many native Indians that had tension with the Aztecs, they learned of internal and pre-existing problems that existed. This investigation examines to what extent where those internal and pre-existing factors to blame for the downfall of the Aztec Empire. The investigation was undertaken using some of the only primary

Yes, if there is a lot of resources around it can support a large group of people instead of a small group of gatherers

The capture of Atahuallpa by Pizarro explains why Europeans colonized the new world instead of Native Americans because the capture signaled the end of the Inca nation and showed how inadequate and unconscious the Native Americans were. Pizarro, who only had a “62 soldiers mounted on horses and 106 foot soldiers”, was able to defeat Atahuallpa who was an absolute monarch with an army of 80,000.” This was because of the Europeans weapons, such as horses, steel, armor and guns that were originally unknown to the Native Americans. The defeat to the Native Americans was easy and led to the slaughter of many of them. Another advantage of the Europeans was that they had the technology and ability to go Cajamarca while Atahuallpa people did not have that type of technology. On the point of the Native Americans scare knowledge, Atahuallpa was unconscious of the true nature of the Europeans. If he had known he was walking into his own death trap, events would have played out differently! If Atahuallpa was literate or even had more materials to gain information on the Europeans, he could have avoided the situation. Thus not giving Pizarro the time to dispatch parties into the empire and allow for reinforcements in Panama he would not have gone and Pizarro would have

Even from our own cultural perspective of the last half of the 20th Century, we have cast a different light on some artifacts of our progress such as the long-term effect of the imposition of the United Fruit Company in the region described in the book or the encounter between Francisco Pizarro and the Inca emperor Athualpa in the Andean highlands.

The Incan military was made of hardy warriors that could face any opponent. I venture to say that they were the reason of the Inca’s success. The Inca existed between the time period of 1438 CE to 1533 CE, in modern day South America. They had a peak period in 1500 CE when Emperor Huayna took the throne along with miles of land. The Incan people may have seemed Neolithic when first encountered but made up for that with advanced math, science, and battle strategy. Military strength was no problem for Inca as they comparable to Rome with their military prowess. They could easily support a large military and could take on any opponent without a challenge.

“They were the two spearheads of the two mutually strange civilizations, confronting each other for the first time after centuries of separate history.” When the Spaniard’s first set foot into the Aztec Empire in 1519, Cortés and Moctezuma’s confrontation revealed the inherent differences that existed between the two cultures. These two leaders examined each other and came to see that behind the two cultures lied centuries of separate history, and that on this day two alien planets had finally discovered each other. The Spaniard’s main advantages over the the Aztecs have been widely documented by western scholars as relating primarily to their possession of three thing: guns, germs and steel. Most historical narratives describe technologically advanced Spanish conquerors that brought with them from the “Old World” horses, steel and gunpowder, giving them an important upper hand against the Aztec warriors who bore stone-edge weapons. In addition, most scholars agree that tne of the most destructive factors were the germs that the Aztecs had never been exposed to. However, when the Spaniards came to conquer the Aztec Empire, one of the lesser known advantages that they had was the ability to understand this unfamiliar world. Unlike the Aztec king, Moctezuma, who had never seen Europeans, sailing ships, horses, steel blades, or body armor before, the Spanish conquistador, Cortés, recognized the similarities between the Aztec Empire and his own world based on his experience with