Guns Germs And Steel Summary

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.

“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)

The establishment of food production proved to be more fulfilling than hunting and gathering since it reduced the risk of starvation. Despite being provided with some of the advantages that came with transitioning to agriculture, many regions remained as hunter-gatherers. While some areas, such as the Fertile Crescent and Eurasia, had many advantageous plants and animals that could be domesticated, other areas, New Guinea, Eastern United States, and Mesoamerica, possessed limited availability. Some areas are simply not suited to agriculture of any kind, while others may support some crops that are suitable for domestication but not others. Likewise, while there were big animals living in several regions, those species were not suitable for domestication since they did not follow the six requirements, which involved being sufficiently obedient, humble to humans, cheap to feed, able to breed well in captivity, immune to diseases, able to grow rapidly (Diamond 1999, 169). On the other hand, in some areas, food production developed independently. However, only a few places developed food production without any outside influence, which included the Fertile Crescent in western Eurasia, China, the eastern United States, Mesoamerica, and New Guinea. In the Andes and Amazonians, and three areas of Africa, food production was also probably an independent development, but there are

"Guns, Germs, and Steel," written by Jared Diamond, seeks to answer a simple question asked by a friend of his in New Guinea, "[w]hy is it that... white people developed so [many commercial tools and luxuries] and brought it to New Guinea, but we black people had little [of these goods ourselves]." (Diamond 14). Recognizing that the question could be applied more broadly around the world, he simplified the question; asking why wealth and power were distributed among people of Asian and European descent, rather than those of African, Aboriginal, and Native American descent? To answer the question, the entirety of world history must be explored, from the early expansion out of Africa around the world to the

JD's use of the term 'food production' includes plants and animals. The perks of domestication and herding outweigh that of hunting and gathering: more calories (through milk, meat, manure, and fertilization through manure), increased crops allows a higher population, child bearing, and storage for surplus. The furs and hides provide warmth and the capability of transportation. The change from hunter to farmer was gradual, but due to the decrease of wildlife this change did happen. JD uses C14, which is related to tree rings, to find times of major food production include: Asia in 8500 B.C; china 7500 B.C; the Andes and Amazonia, 3500 B.C;

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.

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.

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,

Tris finds Christina and a comatose Uriah. Christina informs Tris of Tobias's arrest for his involvement with Nita's group.

The quote “nasty, brutish, and short” was originally coined by the philosopher Thomas Hobbes in reference to the lives of the poor, but in the book Guns, Germs, and Steel, Jared Diamond mentions the phrase as an apt description of the lives led by our ancestors before the dawn of farming (Diamond 2005: 104). Now, make no mistake – the first farmers actually possessed worse nutrition than their hunter-gatherer kin (Diamond 2005: 112), but their sacrifices were quite necessary for the gradual progression of human civilization as a whole. From a purely rational, modern standpoint, the hunter-gatherer mode of existence appears rather fraught with danger and unsustainable for great lengths of time, so why wasn’t the switch to agriculture performed

After watching the film about the Europeans take over of the Incas, I really don’t get the impression that it was an accident. It just seemed that the Europeans knew that something like this would happen. The Europeans main reason for going to the Americas was to find gold, and I don’t think they necessarily cared what they destroyed along the way to get their prize. They knew that the Incus had a good sum of gold, and the temptation to take it was probably too much for them. They made sure they brought their weapons, horses, and enough men. Also, how can they expect the Incas to look at a book that they had no idea what it is, and convert to Europeans beliefs after having their own beliefs far before the Europeans

Yali’s question is “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 (pg. 14)?”

Blaut’s article reinforces that Diamond only uses diffusion in arguments that need to demonstrate the movement of technology or ideas. Blaut believes that Diamond neglects diffusion when it should be needed to emphasize isolation of remote regions. Diamond believes that similarity in environment within Eurasia’s temperate belt led to rapid diffusion of food production throughout the region. Blaut mentions that “He seems not to notice that the agriculturally productive regions within this temperate belt are quite isolated from one another, separated by deserts and high mountains.” (pg. 395). Diamond does not realize that geographic barriers play a role in diffusion and that deserts and mountains restrict and limit distribution. Blaut disagrees with Diamond in that he believes that north-south diffusion between moderate and tropical regions are just as significant as east-west diffusion. James Blaut includes that “the essence of domestication is the changing of crops” (pg. 395) and through other means, the crops undergo alterations and slowly began to adapt to different environmental conditions in order to be more suitable for the human populations of that