Guns, Germs and Steel - Jared Diamond

Cassidy Schneider                                                                                  8/15/15

1. Big Ideas

Prologue

        The author, Jared Diamond, has done a widespread of field work in New Guinea. A friend he met along the way was a New Guinean Politian named Yali. Then came the intriguing question that started it all: “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?” Diamond had broadened the question to other parts of the world as well. His main thesis was situations like this did not occur due to racial differences—which many people believed at the time—but environmental differences. The environment and materials given shape how the people living there respond to certain conditions, how advanced they become, and how they behave. Survival of the fittest came up when he lightly discussed the effect of germs, which I can appreciate since science is one of my strengths. What I’ve learned is that inequality started from the beginning and people’s mindsets blind them from seeing the truth of it all.

Chapter 1: Up to the Starting Line

        In this chapter, Diamond went through and described the evolution of humans which apparently started in Africa. The Homo sapiens began to show up around four million years ago. Human history made a Great Leap Forward which corresponds with the extension of geographic human range since the colonization of Eurasia. Standardized stone tools and cave paintings started appearing at this time. The mass extinction of large mammals mysteriously occurred simultaneously. Humans were most likely the cause of this, yet other possibilities were still thought upon. The Americas were colonized with the Clovis culture in 11,000 BC—this corresponded to the end of the Pleistocene Era, the recession of the Last Ice Age, and the beginning of the Recent Era. I still find it captivating that most of the large animals just went extinct. The thought of it is astonishing. How the human race evolved was also very fascinating in how our brain size changed from each being as well as behaviors through the technological advances.

Chapter 2: A Natural Experiment of History

             The Maoris conquered the Morioris in the Chatham Islands in 1835, even though both were descendants from the Polynesian people. The Maoris environment consisted of constant battles with others which strengthened their warlike behavior. On the other hand the Morioris were isolated, so they didn’t have to battle and were inexperienced. This supports Diamonds thesis of it’s not the people, it’s the environments. Polynesia gives us a glimpse of the world’s human social diversity since it presents a moderately varied set of climates, geography, resources, size, political and social complexity, isolation, etc. leading to moderate diversity of human populations and adaptions. I found it very disturbing when I came across the part of the chapter when it talked about how the Maori people cooked and ate the Morioris! Overall, the concept of how the same type of people can evolve very different from each other in different environments, which give them abilities for certain purposes, is extraordinary.

Chapter 3: Collision at Cajamarca 

        The biggest population shift of modern times was the colonization of the New World by Europeans. It all started in 1492 when Christopher Columbus “discovered” the Caribbean islands, which sparked the collision of the old and new world. In Cajamarca lied the defeat of Emperor Atahualpa by Francisco Pizarro and a few hundred of his men. The outcome of the conquest was surprising since there were at least 80,000 Inca’s present. They came with their metal weapons and armor, horses, new diseases, and early guns. Atahualpa had little information on the Spaniards, so didn’t think they were that big of a threat. Meanwhile, with their better communication skills, the Spaniards found out what they needed to know to defeat the Incas. This goes to show, guns, germs and steel play a role in who wins. The Spaniards were more advanced in technology, so it didn’t matter they were outnumbered by thousands. The Incas didn’t have a chance at winning the battle, and that’s what stuck with me the most since I compared the drastic difference in numbers of people, but seeing the disadvantages, it’s understandable.

Chapter 4: Farmer Power

          Food production, a term Diamond used for domestication of plants and animals, was emphasized throughout the book and is an important factor through history. There were many benefits from animal domestication and herding over hunter-gatherers. Domestic animals were the major source of animal protein, dairy, fertilizer and pulling plows. Some domestic plants were mutated and made into something more useful to humans. The increase in crops allowed a larger population density, more recurrent child-bearing, storage of food surpluses which could endure specialists such as priests, politicians, artisans, etc. People who domesticated animals were the first to fall victim to newly evolved germs, but if they didn’t die, they gained resistance to new diseases. They were the main link between food production and conquest. Horses were the most direct contribution from domestication to war. They had large advantages over hunter-gatherers and more farmers began to emerge.

Chapter 5: History’s Haves and Have-Nots

        During this chapter, Diamond describes radiocarbon dating, which was used to find the major independent sites of food production. The major sites included: Southwest Asia, China, Mesoamerica, Andes and Amazonia, Eastern United States, Sahel, Tropical West Africa, Ethiopia, and New Guinea. Food producers still hunted wild animals and still gathered wild plants so their sites would consist of more variety. Even though some places were able to proceed on their own, they imported other’s production. Other areas were overrun by such producers, but then developed additional domesticates after adapting to the food production lifestyle, areas including: West Europe, Indus Valley and Egypt. The pictures included in this chapter really gave me a better feel for the different cultures and races. In the beginning of the chapter it stated how most of human history is full of unequal battles between the haves and the have-nots. In this case it had to do with farming. It is very agreeable that people who farmed had an advantage over people who didn’t in the case of food and population. History continues with uneven conflicts of the haves and the have-nots.