Guns Germs And Steel Essay

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.

The novel “Guns Germs and Steel”, by Jared Diamond, discusses the affects that science and technology have on society and politics. His ideas are reflective of almost all societies we know today and his explanations dive deep into our world history to show the patterns that occur as innovation excels in cultures and societies. The topics of Diamond’s novel ranges from the time of hunter-gatherer societies to modern Eurasia.

They didn’t have the proper farmland and the same animals. Furthermore, this digressed the way their civilization spread and grew. Diamond researched and established that certain lands were blessed only due to their geographical location. The earliest civilization began in the Fertile Crescent in the Middle East. This land had rich soil and a variety of animals, which made the land promised and geographically lucky. As time passed people living in the area learned new ways to keep their civilization alive. The Fertile Crescent became known as the “Promised Land” and a way of survival was introduced as farming and the domestication of

In the book Guns, Germs and Steel Jared Diamond who is a biophysics scientist and a psychologist, set out on a journey to find out the reason behind great achievements and conquest of the Europeans. What is the secret of success of Europeans? His hypothesis was very original and at first looked very simple, it was guns, germs and steel. The journey of Diamond took over 30 years and helped him answer the main questions of human history and what is it that separates humans today from "rich and poor" and from "haves and have not’s." To do this he had to go back when everyone was equal.

In “Guns, Germs, and Steel,” by Jared Diamond, Diamond starts to question why Europeans generally are so ahead than other countries and civilizations. Diamond wonders if any of this has to do because of race. Throughout his book, Diamond tries to answer Yali’s question, “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?” (Diamond 14). This question can be answered by numerous factors that had affected many civilizations that put Europe on the top. One key factor was diseases. Diseases had either helped or hurt civilizations and it had impacted the fate of human society. Diseases have caused many civilizations to either become stronger or weaker. The most

A: The chart in this chapter is explaining the factors that allow some people to overcome others. For example, the factor of having domesticated animals and plants allowed epidemics and diseases. However, at the same time domestic animals and plants provided sustainable food. I agree with the author’s conclusion and the chart because it is true that something good and beneficial may also cause harm. On the note of having domesticated animals and plants, to many it gave them an advantage. It allowed, like I said before, sustainable food. That food source enabled many to be fed and it led to tows being built. With that food supply, it also led to army being built to protect that food supply and

I also oppose Diamond’s theory on geography, because he does not visualize the opportunities of the people who inhabited unique or unsuitable territories. (3)The Inca people of South America, for example, resided in their ancient territories for thousands of years, because they found it their “Sacred Land,” because it was where their son of the sun, Manco Capac, found it appropriate to inhabit. Since they had such a great empire, they undoubtedly could have migrated to any foreign land they desired, as they had the skills to construct rafts and labor-transportation technologies. They did not migrate, however, because their lord found it necessary to have sacrifices of people only in the ancient temples near their homeland. As soon as they met a team of European explorers with their superior technology, they were flabbergasted when their entire empire was conquered. They could have had contact with the world by migrating, so they might

Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies, by Jared Diamond, attempts to explain why history progressed differently for people from various geographical regions. Diamond introduces his book by pointing out that history followed different courses for different people because of differences among peoples’ environments, not because of biological differences among people themselves. Through his convincing explanation for how civilizations were created and evolved throughout the course of history, he argues that environmental factors gave some societies advantages over others, allowing them to conquer the disadvantaged societies. While I agree with Diamond’s argument that the orientation of continental axis, availability of potential

When reading the title of Jared Diamond’s, “Guns, Germs, and Steels,” the readers must initially think how do these three connect? After starting the first few chapters they will realize that Diamond is referring to the proximate and ultimate factors in that lead to the advancement of society. When Diamond talks about proximate and ultimate factors, he is explaining the cause of European dominance in the world. The proximate factors are the one that directly led to the European dominance and the ultimate factors are the ones that let to proximate factors. I believe that this book is referring to the Homo sapiens revolutionizing through the years, through the Neolithic Revolution through agriculture and industrialization.

In the prologue of “Collapse”, Jared Diamond claims that his previous book “Guns, Germs, and Steel” focused on the buildup of societies over the last 13,000 years and his present book ‘Collapse” focuses on the factors that cause failure and survival in civilizations all across the world2.” Diamond analyzes the breakdown of all societies through a unique scale called the five-point framework. This framework considers environmental damage, climate change, hostile neighbors, friendly trade partners, and most importantly society’s response to its environmental problems. Every society he studies he applies this framework to determine a possible flaw in the collapse of the society. The novel starts with Montana’s current environmental problems and evaluates societies as ancient as the Mayans and as recent as Modern China.

Europe was a major power over the course of world history, before the rise of the United States, which was originally a British colony. As a result, many people wonder why that came to be. Why is it that Europeans became so dominant instead of the Native Americans or the Incas? Jared Diamond attempts to provide an answer to this question by writing the book Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies. In this volume, Diamond describes how geography is the major reason why history became history. Using Diamond’s explanation, we can see how geography determined Europe’s fate in the approaching future.

Jared Diamond is a professor of Geography at UCLA and a world traveler. He believes that in the past 13,000 years of human history, agriculture has lead humans to conquer, develop and prosper and therefore cause the rise of civilizations. In 1972 he was in New Guinea when he met a local named Yali who asked him a simple question that took years for Diamond to answer. Yali said “Why is it that you white people developed so much cargo [goods] and brought it to New Guinea, but we black people had little cargo of our own”. [Work cited 7] Diamond was profoundly puzzled and couldn’t answer right away. In fact it took him many years to come up with what he thinks is the right answer. ‘Yali’s question’ plays a central role in Professor Diamond’s enquiry into ‘a short history of everybody for the last 13,000 years’, leading him into a wide-ranging discussion of the history of human evolution and diversity through a study of migration, socio-economic and cultural adaptation to environmental conditions, and technological diffusion. (Diamond, Guns, Germs and Steel, p. 22-23)

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.

The five principles of civilization allow you to get a better understanding of history. Not only does it break down the material for you to learn easier, but it allows you to receive the information for where you can remember the contents better. Principle one is Geography is Destiny, geography is what allowed civilizations to settle down, which led to the creation of agriculture, trade, war, politics, new inventions, etc., while it also helped them get to where we are today by striving to create a destiny for ourselves. Principle two is Agriculture Creates Civilization, civilization would die off if they couldn’t produce food so agriculture allowed civilizations to grow into cities. Depending on the geography of where the civilization was located, depended on what they could grow. So they had to adapt to their surroundings to figure out what they could grow. Principle three, Clashes of Culture Drive Innovation, shows how civilizations would fight each other for different resources (land, food, water) which led civilians to new ideas being invented like new weapons and strategies so they could defeat their enemy. War led to civilizations spreading and teaching their ways with other civilizations by them seeing their ideas so they had to do better (encouraged new ideas). Principle four, Trade Is the Lifeblood of Civilizations, trade made it possible for different cultures/civilizations to trade their goods and ideas. This allowed them to see other religions, agriculture,