Summaries of Guns Germs and Steel

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.

Prologue: Yali’s question for word for word was “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?” Yali is asking about the inequalities of the world, he is wondering why his people have little to nothing, and the Europeans have so much money and power. He wants to know if there is something “wrong” with people like him.

The transition to farming was a turning point in human history since people who remained hunter/gatherers couldn’t produce food as quickly as farmers, and couldn’t produce food that could be stored for a long period of time. Instead of roaming to search different locations for food, farming allowed them to drop seeds in soil that grow next to their

The “Factors Underlying the Broadcast Pattern of History” chart shows the spreading and domesticating of plants and animals and the pros and cons of it on civilization. I agree with the author that when you have domesticated animals in the civilization food storage and surpluses; large dense, sedentary, stratified societies with political

Although the Americas didn’t contribute much to the animal side of the exchange, they did however contribute a lot when it came to plants. Some of the plants were maize, tomatoes, sweet peppers, potatoes, tobacco, sweet potatoes, and squash. Maize and potatoes had the greatest impact to the Europeans, and the plants introduced from the Americas eventually changed the European diet. Both maize and potatoes grew rapidly, which supplied food rapidly and steadily. Maize soon became a staple in Africa as well.

1. 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?"

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

Many historians and politicians ponder over the reason why Europeans have much more wealth and power than other ethnicities. However, this question was abandoned and rarely brought up because there wasn’t enough evidence to have a clear answer. Yali, a local politician in New Guinea, asked a similar 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?” Jared Diamond, the author of Guns, Germs, and Steel, believes that the differences in wealth and power between different groups of people is because of the environmental differences. An event that helped answer this question was when the Spanish Conquistador Francisco Pizarro easily defeated the Incas despite having only a few men because of their geographical location, resulting advanced military technology, and writing.

Jared Diamond delves deep into humanity’s history in his book Guns, Germs, and Steel in attempt to answer a question imposed upon him by Yali, a New Guinean politician. Diamond weaves together many theories and historical examples, such as the Spanish Conquistador Francisco Pizarro’s defeat of the Incas, to explain why humans have developed at vastly differing rates. Yali asked a question that had stumped historians for decades and Diamond dissects and reassembles the phrasing often. In order to give his most complete answer, the author takes a look at both post 1500s inequalities, and differing rates of development throughout human times. The examination of Pizarro’s defeat of the large Inca force came first at the battlefield and continued

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.

Yali’s question, based on Professor Diamond, asks, why is it that countries arising from people of caucasian descent had gained immense power and industrial development while the people of New Guinea and other “black” countries had gained little material development or global power and influence?

No, I don’t believe that the plants in a area would stop the people in that area from domesticating the plants

Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs, and Steel opens with a preface in which the creator shows an inquiry from a New Guinean legislator and companion named Yali: why were Europeans ready to vanquish such a variety of different social orders the world over? In the creator's perspective, the inquiry is similar to this: - How did the European whites accomplish a wide range of improvement, while the dim cleaned individuals didn't? The book goes ahead to examine the response to this inquiry, endeavoring to give clarifications to why Eurasian people groups added to the horticulture, innovation, and pathogens that empowered them to extend their impact far and wide. The least complex response to this inquiry is riches and influence. In any case, there is a

The beneficial continental circumstances enjoyed by Eurasians first appears in vegetation. The Fertile Crescent was endowed with diverse, abundant, and highly productive cereals and pulses such as wheat, barley, and pea that yielded both starch and protein. These food staples were domesticated very quickly and with little effort by Eurasians, whose newfound farms gave rise to specialization and division of labor. Conversely, in the Americas, the sole cereal crop of corn took many more thousands of years of domesticated refinement to prove useful to humans. Mr. Diamond also places great emphasis on the geographic East-West orientation of Eurasia. A plant growing at a given latitude can grow at that latitude the world over. Thus, Eurasia's East-West orientation was highly conducive to the rapid spread (by trade) of productive domesticated grains across the continent. Conversely, the Americas, Africa, and Australia were impaired by their North-South orientation, which dictated that domesticated plants from people of one latitude were of little use to their neighbors to the North and South. Compounding the effect, the trade of agricultural technology in Eurasia ultimately led to trade in other things, such as technological advances, including writing and language

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.