Guns, Germs and Steel essays

Guns, Germs and Steel essays As Jared Diamond, a biologist, was doing research on tropical birds in New Guinea, he spoke with a local politician named Yali. The spoke about the origins of their peoples and about the commodities that Europeans brought to New Guinea such as steel, clothing, various food, etc...Yali then posed the question of why Europeans had so much to bring and that the people of New Guinea and people like them did not. Yalis question goes to the heart of the question to the modern world; why are there such inequalities in the modern world regarding wealth and how did it evolve. In attempting to answer this question, Diamond touches on several factors that are woven into the answer such as food production, domesticated plants and animals, metallurgy, weapons, communication, and better political organization. These factors are crucial element in the development of the world we presently live in. An example of how different societies had an obvious advantage over each other is exemplified in the encounter between Francisco Pizarro and the Inca emperor, Atahuallpa. This meeting illustrates the basic advantages which the Europeans enjoyed over much of the world at this time. Pizarros victory over the Incas is an perfect representation of how the culmination of many centuries of developments had given Europeans an obvious advantage. Diamond's basic hypothesis is that the Europeans were not "superior in any innate sense over the Incas or Aztecs, but more blessed by geography and nature. The advantages enabled whites to conquer non-whites easily; not only by means of technological advances or the use of large animals as weapons but also the influx of diseases that are developed in concentrated and sedentary societies. After the emergence of humans from our species from African apes, humans spread from Africa throughout the world. The societies that were prevalent at that time were that of hunter-gatherers. Around that ti...