Why Do Civilizations Like Papua New Guinea?

Firstly, Thomas Hariot, an astronomical and cartographic educated man, traveled to Virginia to see the effects of the disease on the native people. He later noted that many native towns became ghost towns, and Hariot noted that only the natives caught the disease, not the Europeans (Document 13). The disease that the natives caught was not the Europeans fault, but it was later known that the Europeans exposed the natives of it. The devastating disease however did make the natives suffer because there was no doctors to treat it and many people were scared of it, so if somebody caught it, they pretty much just laid in misery until it killed them. Secondly, Toribio de Motolinía, one of the first Franciscan missionaries to Mexico, wrote in 1540 about the smallpox epidemic which seized the lives of many natives. He wrote, “They died in heaps, like bedbugs….Many others died of starvation, because since they were all taken sick at once, they could not care for eachother (Document 7).” This proves that the natives suffered with disease because they had no treatment, and the quick epidemic swept the floor on them. Finally, the last ruler of the Guatemalan Maya Cakchiquels, named Hernández Arana wrote in his book, during the 1600th century. He wrote about how terrible is was to see the number dying

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 natives of the America's were isolated from the people of the old world for thousands of years and were not immune to these diseases. (Doc 4). Says, “a great plague broke out here in Tenochtitlan… striking everywhere in the city and killing a vast number of our people.” These diseases took a toll on the population of the new world's

Throughout Guns, Germs, and Steel, Jared Diamond explains the importance of geography in the ways ancient civilizations grew and spread and how some areas were more advanced than others. He began his research when he was asked a question by a Papua New Guinea residence, Yali. Yali had asked Diamond “[w]hy you white man have so much cargo and we New Guineans have so little?” At that point Diamond had no answer and he was curious to find out why Eurasia had a head start in civilizing people meanwhile the other continents were behind. As a result, several differences were made between countries that did not have the same resources as those who were advanced. Some of the developing countries were poor and they had to rely on whatever was given to them through nature. When Diamond went to Papua New Guinea, he discovered that the residences of the island had the same routine as those in the ancient civilizations of Eurasia. They would often hunt for animals and used stone weapons instead of metal.

Agriculture is arguably the main focus of discussion when considering the geographical cause of low economic development. The different climate and soil conditions in tropical ecological zones (Gallup et al., 2003, p.32), mean there is less

We all know that earth was changed through the ages. We’ve gone from nothing to dinosaurs, humans, and wars. We’ve, as a race have used and adapted to our environment to meet our needs, such as food and water. We started farming, using domestic animals, and storing the food. The lives of people of the ancient world were shaped by the geography of their region because it affects the amount of food produced, the accessibility to water, and their ease at which to find shelter.

One of things that was brought to Mexico during the Colombian Exchange, although unintentonally, was disease. The Spanish brought diseases such as smallpox, measles, tuberculosis, and mumps. These were diseases that the natives had not been exposed to, so they had no immunity to them. Even though the Spanish did have much more advanced weaponry than the natives, it was the diseases that wiped out most of the native population. It is believed that within a century of the arrival of the Spanish, the population of the Aztecs decreased by 80-95%, going from 12.5M to roughly about 1.5M in population (History of Disease). The Spanish shared the same fate, but not as severe, many died from syphillis. A disease that was much more dangerous during that time than it is today. (Columbian Exchange)

The diseases the Europeans brought with them affected the indigenous negatively because it killed a large portion of the population in a painful way. The Natives had very little diseases before the Europeans invaded their land. Unlike people in the Old World, the Natives did not farm cattle or pigs and did not live near the animals they did have. They never had the opportunity to develop immunities to diseases that the cattle and Europeans carried when they came upon their shores. The diseases spread quickly and attacked the indigenous in gruesome ways. Smallpox caused sores to erupt on their skins that were so painful that an Aztec account states that “[the sick] could only lie on their beds like corpses” (Document 4). The pain would not

Areas would have to keep up with the competition or they would be taken out by neighboring nomads like the mongols. Asia realized that they had the geological advantage and used this to grow crops that other areas were not able to. It was so much of an advantage that Europeans went all the way to America or the new world to grow crops like sugarcane so they could make money and sell it were they came from were it was hard to make. It happened because if you could not keep up with the neighboring areas you taken over or you would be paying tribute to others until you ran out of things to give

When the Europeans had their first contact to the New World, it had a great impact on the spread of diseases that would wiped more than eighty to ninety percent of indigenous population. Neither Europeans nor Native Americans had medicine to fight the diseases. But Europeans had developed throughout the year’s immunities to fight diseases back in their homeland, so they were in a big advantage over the scarce resource that the Native Americans had. One of the main disease that killed millions of indigenous groups was called smallpox. Europeans had been exposed to many diseases throughout their history, in the Old World it was common for children at a young age to be infected with smallpox. So with advanced treatments with smallpox in the Old World, they had a different perspective on how to control these type of diseases. Many indigenous groups had not developed an immunities to fight smallpox. Reference to the book were it mentions that smallpox specifically means not the disease but the pimpled, pustules appearance which is the most obvious symptom of the disease (Crosby, p 43). As a result, many indigenous groups needed to find refuge due to the high percentage of deaths caused by European conquest and

Until Spanish interactions however, Smallpox had never been introduced in Mexico. The Smallpox epidemic was contracted by Mexica and Spaniard allies alike. As told by the people of Tlatelolco “[The disease] brought great desolation; a great many died of it. They could no longer walk about, but lay in their dwellings and sleeping places” (Sahagun 2000, 190). The Spaniards began to use Smallpox to their advantage greatly weakening the Mexica forces. Smallpox’s exact death toll is uncertain but there are rough estimations that “range from a low of 10 million to a high of 100 million” (Hansen, Curtis 2013, 343). The use of biochemical agents in battle goes to prove the Spaniards military cunning over the

Geography and the environment play a monumental role in the establishment and success of a nearly every civilization. For example, rivers bring water and allow for agricultural development, while mountains or deserts provide for protection and create a barrier. Many things, such as the aforementioned deserts and mountains, can offer both positive and negative influences on the society in question. The climate and amount of rainfall is directly related to the success or failure of crop growing, and thus related to the amount of time spent on simply surviving. Civilizations that are able to spend less time on subsistence farming are able to redirect that energy towards the establishment of arts, culture, religion, and science. Where 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

Another example would be Chinese like to eat hot pot in winter to keep them warm. In the northern part of China, there are more spicy dishes than the southern part of China. This is because eating spicy food will keep people warm. In costal region, there is more seafood than the inland region. The reason is because it is easier to get fresh seafood in costal region than in the inland region. Japan is an island surrounded by sea, and that is why eating seafood is famous in Japan. Some locations are better for growing specific food, for example China have the climate advantage in growing tea, and France have the advantage in growing wine.

Many studies have demonstrated the idea that institutions are the main factor of economic development because empirical evidence points to strong institutions being able to determine large growth of GDP per capita. Although the characteristics of strong institutions can be described as the potential fundamental cause of economic growth, the effects of geography and materials available to different certain regions have a huge hand in properly developing a society economically and allowing for further growth. The resources of the countries heavily depend on the raw materials available to each region and the kinds of animals they are able to domesticate. This is where the argument circulates around in which geography is a large determinant of whether a civilization or society can prosper in a certain area or not.