Guns Germs and Steel Book Study

The Spanish conquistadores were arrogant and sent ravage upon the indigenous peoples. The Spanish were arrogant towards the indigenous peoples by taking their gold and keeping it for themselves instead of returning it to the Spanish royalty. De las Casas had a exceptionally, incredible description of them, the

Chapter 4: The availability of domestic plants and animals explain why empire literacy, and steel

1. Explain the role horses and steel played in Pizarro's conquest of the Incan Empire.

CHAPTER 8: Apples or Indians 16. Where is the fertile Crescent? 17. Why did its domesticated plants and animals give it such a head start over the rest of the world? CHAPTER 9: Zebras. Unhappy Marriages. and the Anna Karenina Principle 18. Why did Eurasia have the most domesticated animals of all continents? i9. What are the 6 characteristics of domesticated animals?

When the Spanish reached the Americas they were not alone, the lands were occupied by American Indians. The Spanish easily annihilated the American Indians, the Spanish were far more technologically advanced, and had guns. The American Indians had no guns and fought in traditional ways with spears and arrows, these weapons were no match to the guns of the Spanish. The Spanish also had a secret weapon on their side, diseases. Small Pox was the deadliest disease they carried, it killed about 95% of

Hernan Cortes defied orders to have the Spanish base at Veracruz and moved near Tenochtitlán where there was rumored to be gold and other riches in Mexico. Soon after his arrival he became allies with the Tlaxcalteca a major enemy of the Aztecs. King Montezuma II heard of this alliance and sent gifts to Cortes to appease him and he even invited him into the Incan capital Tenochtitlán. Cortes upon arrival saw that he had been outnumber so instead he held Montezuma hostage and in the altercation Montezuma ended up getting killed. Over the next couple year he and his men fired siege weapons on the Aztecs until they surrendered. The siege cut off the water and food supplies which lead to a huge panic for the Aztecs. Another key role was smallpox, many of the Aztecs died off which weakened their military causing them to surrendering.Once they surrendered the Spanish went in and took control over the city and like many other places the conquistadors married the Native women having mestizos and combined their two cultures

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,

The spanish ultimately conquered and ransacked the

horses. The Incas were no match for this type of battle. The Incas worshiped Atahuallpa as a sun

The Spanish on the other hand had a very strong background in exploration with ties to naval and advanced military tactics. These men were cogs in a powerful war machine that was the reason Charles V had so much land and power. With exploration comes new discovery such as new weapons and advancements in warfare. In every way possible, Spanish military dominance consisting of steel, cavalry, and gunpowder was underlying reason the natives never stood a chance.

In Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond, the author gives the list of the ancient fourteen species of big herbivorous domestic mammals and how they affect their regions. Diamond lists the animals in sub-categories on page 152 when he wrote, “Of those Ancient Fourteen, 9 became important livestock for people in only limited areas of the globe: the Arabian camel, Bactrian camel, llama/alpaca, donkey, reindeer, water buffalo, yak, banteng, and gaur. Only 5 species became widespread and important around the world. Those Major Five of mammal domestication are the cow, sheep, goat, pig, and horse” (Diamond, 152 & 153). In the form of a table, the author also shown the fourteen domesticated animals with the place of which they originated from.

Diamond’s organization of ultimate factors leading to proximate factors is beneficial and helps a non-historian better understand how Eurasia came to dominate and develop faster than the other continents. I agree with Diamond that the development of Eurasia was not due to biological factors since there was a starting point where all humans came from. One of Diamond’s arguments is on the distribution of potentially domesticable species. Even McNeill claims this theory to be interesting and widely accepted. In this theory, Diamond states the requirements necessary for animals to be domesticated (for example, the ability to rapidly grow, breed well in captivity, and have a suitable disposition), and the requirements for plants to be domesticated (for example, climate and abundant native plants). Diamond’s book is helpful in understanding history and does a commendable job in its organizational structure by laying out in each paragraph his arguments and claims. However, in class discussion some holes were brought to surface within his theory that were not well explained or understood. For example, Diamond bases his argument on the ability to domesticate certain animals off of the attitudes of current domestic animals. He states that Zebras are nasty biters, grow to be angrier as they grow older, and even gives a current example of zebras injuring

The Incas ruled a large portion of South America for just shy of one hundred years, from 1438 until 1532. There are two main reasons why the Incas were successful. Although they were successful rulers, they were not prepared for the European invaders.

Most Inca didn't know about Pizarro's arrival and they weren't ready . Pizarro had many advantages but his greatest advantage were his weapons. Pizarro had weapon technology that were more advanced than the tools that the Inca possessed. The Spanish brought weapons that the Inca had never seen before . Pizarro had guns and steel swords that were hard to break and the Incas only had bronze tools. Since steel was a hard metal , if properly made , the Inca had no chance of winning with bronze tools .

The Columbus’s discovery released a floodgate of Spanish exploration. A guy named Hernan Cortes managed the exploration of the Yucatan Peninsula in hope of achieving glory. The Spanish were highly motivated to find wealth such as gems and gold; as a result this led to conflict with the natives in the new world. Cortes had created alliances and engaged thousands of native people who signified Aztec rule. Spanish had killed 25 Million Native Americans that is one way they had an impact on the natives.