In Praise of Jared Diamond's 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.

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.

"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

In the book Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies, by Jared Diamond, discusses in detail how material success was brought to some societies more easily than others. Diamond believes that geographic location was a key role in the success of these societal structures, however, it is also thought that a society 's failure could be attributed to the geography as well. Along with geography, food production, immunity, animal domestication, and the production and use of steel were all tied together to reach societal success.

Domestication of plants and animals happened around the source of their wild ancestor. This could be one of the reason for plant and animal domestication happened in certain places but not in others.

In Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond he attempts to explain why different societies have developed at different rates. In the prologue of his book he explains what began to arouse his curiosity on the matter. On one of his trips to Papua New Guinea he had met a local politician Yali. He asked him “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?” Where Cargo refers to the technology brought by the their colonizers. Jared wonders why is it that the Europeans who colonized the world, why was it the native Americans who lost their Land to the English. Why did it not end up the other way around. Even though Diamond believes there can never be a definite

In the Prologue of the book, “Guns, Germs, and Steel” by Jared Diamond, it talks about a certain question that Jared will try to answer throughout the book. Many people should start caring for this issue because it points out some racial matters, but Jared will take another route and talk about the geographical point instead of racial differences that people used to believe.

In Guns, Germs, and Steel, Jared Diamond discusses the impact geographical location has on the evolution of a society and why some societies are able to invent ways to improve upon quality and quantity of life while others have continued to live the same way for hundreds or thousands of years without change. In relation to the growth and improvement of the United States of America, Diamond’s novel helps to understand why, at the time of colonization, this country started off less modernized than countries in Europe or Asia. In the prologue of his novel, Diamond asks the questions “Why did wealth and power become distributed as they are now, rather than in some other way?” (pg 15) and “Why did human development proceed at such different rates

The development of guns, germs, and steel were believed to be the three main contributing factors that divided developed nations and undeveloped nations today in the documentary series, Guns, Germs, and Steel (GGS) (Harrison, Diamond, Coyote, Lambert, & Diamond, 2005). Harrison, et al. (2005) believed that the driving force between societies that industrialized with these advantages originated from the beginning of human development. GGS believed that those who lived in geographically “lucky” zones that allowed for growth of nutritious crops with ideal farmland and had access to domestic animals such as horses and oxen, were able to advance over areas that did not have the same resources (Harrison et al., 2005).

This is best represented by Spain and the Incas. The Spanish had an immunity to smallpox from their ability to domesticate animals. The kept their livestock in their homes, so they shared air, dirt, and space along with the transfer of germs and disease. Over time they had built up an immunity, a way to defend themselves from smallpox. The Incas only had llamas, instead of the multitude of animals available in Europe. They also did not live with their livestock, so they did not get any exposure to disease, and because of this, suffered great losses when the Spanish invaded. The Spanish never had to lay a finger on the Incas, only breathe in their general direction so that the Inca population was decimated by sudden smallpox exposure, and their resources appropriated. Geography has this distant yet strong grasp of the reins of almost everything. The Spanish had immunity because of their livestock allowing them to decimate the incas and become the most powerful country in the

According to PBS.ORG, only 14 animals have ever been domesticated, and 12 of those animals originated in Eurasia. A majority of domesticated animals, or animals used for farming came out of one Eurasia. Because of this, Eurasia would be able to farm more efficiently. Domesticated animals allow for commercial farming, but if you do not have access to domesticable animals, you will have to continue to farm by hand. Due to this, countries that are home to domesticable animals are more geographically lucky.

Guns, germs, and steel have developed the world significantly, so that different continents have geological advantages over others. Guns had a large impact on why Europeans were able to dominate others. Germs affected others who were exposed to new diseases, and were unable to adapt an immune system to avoid getting ill. Steel helped the world grow in economic power, and those civilizations that had a greater range of metallic technologies, like steel have always defeated their rivals.

Jared Diamond, author of Guns, Germs, and Steel, writes the book clarify history and through all main phases of history and with detailed explanation of environmental forces, but has received many criticizes. James Blaut criticizes Guns, Germs, and Steel for a number of reasons in his article Environmentalism and Eurocentrism. Although more importantly he criticizes how he believes Diamond’s book is attempting to reintroduce the theory of environmental determinism. Blaut goes as far as describing Diamond as an example of a modern Eurocentric historian. This article as Blaut stated “looks briefly at the historical marriage between environmental determinism and Eurocentric history” (pg. 391). Blaut claims that environmental determinism justifies a

People who domesticated animals first were exposed to their germs and had the time to build up genetic immunity, there for giving them the upperhand when traveling and conquering new land. In this case, the Spanish had the advantage against the Incas. The Spanish had domesticated animals before the Incas, they lived in close quarters to their animals meaning they were constantly breathing in their “germs”. Some people got sick, and others were exposed to the sickness. People who didn’t die produced genetic immunity for their offspring. Because the geographical location of the Incas didn’t allow for a lot of domestication, they were not exposed to those germs, there for they did not time to build up immunity. The Incas location did allow for some domestication, but not in the same way as the Spanish. So, when the Spanish came to expand, they wiped out a lot of the Incas simply by something that wouldn’t affect themselves, the smallpox disease. The Spanish easily conquered by bringing their disease to this new land. Basically, the geography either lead to domestication (or didn’t), the domestication lead to germs, and the germs lead to death and/or immunity. The geographic location of a civilization controls what they are immune to by whether or not they can domesticate. The Spanish benefited the most because they previously domesticated animals, meaning people got

To approach Guns, Germs, and Steel properly, we need to first look at the question that drove the author to undertake such a project. In 1972 while in New Guinea studying bird evolution, Diamond happened to meet with a local politician named Yali. This man raised the question of why there is such discrepancy in the wealth and technological advancements between the various societies of the world.