Jared Diamond Thesis

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 Inca were South American Indian people who ruled one of the largest and richest empires in the America's. The Inca Empire began to expand about 1438 and occupied a vast region that centered on the capital, Cusco, in southern Peru. The Empire extended more than 2,500 miles (4,020 kilometers) along the western coast of South America. It included parts of Present - Day Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, and Argentina. The Inca Empire was conquered by Spanish Forces soon after their arrival in 1532.

Spanish weaponry consisted of swords, pikes, horses and early guns. The Spanish Conquistadors introduced a type of warfare never seen in the Americas, cavalry warfare. The soldiers on horseback were almost as intimating as the soldiers who used guns. The Aztecs thought horses were gods, which concerned the Aztec because they were sitting on top of these “gods”. [2] The Spanish also had the advantage of having steel armor, which protected them from the natives’ projectiles, and weakened hits against the Aztec obsidian swords.[3] Their wounds were limited to the limbs, of unarmed regions like their face and neck. Which lessened their risk of death, while the opposing natives were left vulnerable. The Spanish fired shots from their harquebus, an early musket, which stunned the natives and further intimidated them.

The Spanish had superior weapons and technology which was a vital aspect in the defeat of the Aztecs. The Spanish had muskets, spears, cannons, gunpowder, horses and firearms but it was the use of the steel Toledo swords and chainmail armour by the Spanish that allowed them to win. The Toledo sword was the primary weapon used by the Spanish and was one of the finest swords manufactured in Europe at the time. The Toledo sword was highly flexible and strong. Although the Aztecs used obsidian which could inflict critical wounds on unprotected body parts, the obsidian was very fragile and would shatter against steel swords and armour. This rendered the obsidian weapons useless as the Spanish used steel in the majority of their weapons. A Spanish

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.

While a landmass’s orientation determines its basic resources and geographical advantages, the large societies that this constructs produce the technology. Diamond surmises that increased food production leads to populous nations. He notes that, “more consumable calories means more people” (Diamond 87). Because the United States obtains food though both trade and agriculture, it has always had an excellent chance to become large and urban. The larger civilization, the easier conquest becomes. In his chapter titled How China Became Chinese, Jared Diamond explains that China has, “steamrolled,” neighboring nations so often because they had a, “head start in food production” (Diamond 332). The United States subjugated their Native American neighbors using the same assets—both livestock and plants. These large societies have always required a government and

The Incas Empire began around 1200 and lasted until the Spanish arrival in 1532. They were the largest civilization in pre-Columbia with a territory of 380,000 square miles and a population of about 7 million. Around 1400 the empire began its expansion stretching along the western coast of

There were several ancient civilizations that built their cultures around their geography. The Incas were among one of those ancient civilizations. They had amazing ingenuity to make use of their environment. The Incas built agriculture terraces and they had a complex irrigation system. And some crops that we use today. The physical environment of the Incas affected and shaped their civilization.

Before Christopher Columbus reached the Americas in 1492 CE, the Aztecs and Incas had existed there for hundreds of years. They were fairly isolated peoples, who thrived in Central and South America respectively. The Aztec and Inca have different ancestral backgrounds; the Aztecs claim to be descendants of the Toltecs2 while the Incas were a series of separate tribes that joined together3. Trade between the Aztec and Inca were rare4, but they were mostly self-sustaining. However, they both conquered mass empires and build large temples. Why was their conquest so successful, and what

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

1. Before Francisco Pizarro began the Spanish conquest in 1532, the Incan empire dominated the Andes Mountain region. An emperor who demanded strict obedience ruled the land. All business was run by the state, which could draft citizens for its projects. The Inca, terracing the landscape and irrigating the crops, farmed the mountainsides. The Inca were brilliant engineers, whose roadways included bridges. The city of Machu Picchu is an example of their skill with tools like the plumb bob and wooden roller, which they used for in heavy construction. Hundreds of years after their civilization was subdued by the Spanish, the descendants of the once-dominate Incas make up about 50 percent of Peru’s population.

The development of a weapon allows us to peer into its use and the thoughts behind the weapon. The macuahuitl was made out of a wood plank with a narrow handle and wide paddle. What made it dangerous was the razor-like volcanic rock protruding out of the paddle which acted like a thousand fire ants biting into the skin. The Aztecs used this weapon as the uttermost important weapon in their arsenal. Columbus was enchanted by it, which is exemplified by the fact that he arranged for one to be sent to Spain. The weapon started as a terse, one-handed weapon, and it

Inca Empire, which contributed languages, as well as promoted irrigated farms, and buildings and roads composed of stones

Furthermore, this experience led to the discovery that the key to success is control over regions that produced valuable goods, since control over trade routes ultimately leads to their change.1 China with its warfare and seafaring technology never claimed to take control over the sea even after Zheng He’s voyages, since they had enough, if not more resources than everyone else, unlike Europe. The conclusive thought is that Europeans were poor, and in order for them to succeed in an otherwise rich world, force was the only option. The bias is therefore in the fact that Europeans had no

The title "Inca Empire" was given by the Spanish to a Quechuan-speaking Native American population that established a vast empire in the Andes Mountains of South America shortly before its conquest by Europeans. The ancestral roots of this empire began in the Cuzco valley of highland Peru around 1100 AD. The empire was relatively small until the imperialistic rule of emperor Pachacuti around 1438. Pachacuti began a systematic conquest of the surrounding cultures, eventually engulfing over a hundred different Indian nations within a 30-year period. This conquest gave rise to an empire that, at its zenith in the early 16th century; consisted of an estimated 10 million subjects living