Guns Germs And Steel / Chapter I. At the beginning of the documentary, it explains the situation of the conquest by the Europeans. How they arrived to native people's lands, how they assimilated the native population. And their success was guns, germs and steel. The documentary says that these three elements shaped the history of modern world. Jared diamond starts his journey in rain forests-papua new guinea. He is a professor in UCLA in los Angeles, biologist and specialist in human psychology. Study of birds was his passion at the beginning, and it started at the age of 7. But when he travelled to Papua new guinea, he also got interested in people living there. One day he meets a guy called Yali, and Yali asks a question to him, ''Why white …show more content…
It had the best crops, best animals during the ancient time. Archeologists found a town that is 9.000 years old but there were the remaining of a village were 100 people lived in. Their houses there were not just to sleep, but it was their very own home. They started decorated inside the house. And because of they were not moving anymore to hunt or something else, they had a steady life in there. And they had more time to develop themselves, improve their skills in other things. Such as they started making plasters after learning how to use the fire. But in the other hand, in new guinie, people were too busy to feed their people, and because of that they didnt have time to invent stuff and catch up with the other civilizations. After understanding how to use the fire was the first step to forging steel which is one of the main elements that they've changed the world. But the area called Fertile Crescent has a huge disadvantage. The area was too dry, and continuous farming basically destroyed the area. They basically overused the nature. And because of that, people had to move to other areas. Some moved to east, some to west. And luckily geography was on their side. The places that they moved had the same daylight time, similar environment and climate. And when those people moved to other areas, they made an explosion in population. All the crops and animals were domesticated in Fertile crescent were moved to asia and europe by those people and caused a huge populated, skilled and modern civilizations. Such as ancient egypt. They had the pyramids, huge population, modern technologies
In the first chapter of Guns, Diamond establishes two main arguments that will become crucial to his thesis later on in the book. First, he goes in depth about mass extermination and further extinction of large mammals that occurred in New Guinea and Australia which were important for food and domestication, and secondly he argues that all the first civilized peoples in the world each had the ability to out develop one another, but were hindered or helped by their environment.
I first read Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs, and Steel in the Fall 2003 based on a recommendation from a friend. Many chapters of the book are truly fascinating, but I had criticisms of the book back then and hold even more now. Chief among these is the preponderance of analysis devoted to Papua New Guinea, as opposed to, say, an explanation of the greatly disparate levels of wealth and development among Eurasian nations. I will therefore attempt to confine this review on the "meat and potatoes" of his book: the dramatic Spanish conquest of the Incas; the impact of continental geography on food production; and finally, the origins of the Eurasian development of guns, germs, and steel. In terms of structure, I will first summarize the book's arguments, then critically assess the book's evidentiary base, and conclude with an analysis of how Guns, Germs, and Steel ultimately helps to address the wealth 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?” This was the question posed to Dr. Jared Diamond by Yali, a local politician in New Guinea. Answering Yali’s question became the focus of Diamond’s book, Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies. Diamond particularly focused on “why were Europeans, rather than Africans or Native Americans, the ones to end up with guns, the nastiest germs, and steel?” Guns, Germs, and Steel took a scientific approach in viewing how certain locations in the world are far more advanced than others. I believe that this book as a whole is a very strong argument and response to both Yali and Diamond’s question. Observing
Before the beginning of history, people from across the land gradually developed numerous cultures, each unique in some ways while the same time having features in common. Mesopotamia and Egypt are important to the history of the world because of religious, social, political and economic development. Mesopotamia was the first civilization, which was around 3000 B.C., and all other countries evolved from it. Mesopotamia emerged from the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. The soil was rich and agriculture was plentiful. The Semitic nomads occupied the land around Akkad. The Sumerians established the city-states. Villages became urban centers. Because of the formation of the city-states everything flourished. However, Mesopotamian agriculture lacked stones; therefore mud brick became their major building block. Their diet consisted of fish from the rivers. The rivers were flooded frequently destroyed the cities. Mesopotamians made their living from crops and pottery.
Rivers and fields affected the people who lived in the Fertile Crescent throughout the years because of the fertile soil and water. Many people lived in the Fertile Crescent and prospered from the fertile soil by growing an abundance of crops. Once it was abandoned, the Fertile Crescent became cracked soil and vacant land.
...s. These lands were “usually in less desirable locations and discouraged any successful transition to agriculture”.24
The Fertile Crescent, in ancient times was practically the hub of activity. Spanning from the eastern shore of the Mediterranean to the Persian Gulf and including areas such as Egypt and Mesopotamia, the Fertile Crescent was a massive beast - a force to be reckoned with. Ahead of its time, the Fertile Crescent was a mass packed with trade routes, powerful empires, and various religions. It’s likely that a person would infer the diversity of cultures would provide stark differences between each other. However that is not the case. From the early beginnings of the Fertile Crescent in 2350 BCE onward three major characteristics were constantly displayed: slavery, the search for mankind's purpose, and the conglomerate of religious authorities, Kings, and the Military.
There is nothing better then realizing that each indigenous people evolved into something better or that they found ways to survive in situations they weren’t use too. There were many changes that happened over time that cause for situations to change for everyone around them. But it also has helped with being able to progress with the way they lived. Jared diamond the author of Guns, Germs and Steel interpret his famous theory oh how we came to be. How the geography luck helped each country developed more rapidly than others as well as being able to expand more. However they also had geography luck when it came to how many advantages they had with the technology nevertheless, germs also was a big part of how the conquered most of the lands because it would kill instantly millions of european and
In places like Papua New Guinea, where the climate is very wet and tropical, they can get crops like Sago. Sago is found in the center of Sago trees, the pulp of the tree. When a village is hungry, they chop down the tree, dig to the pulp, harvest for 2-4 days, then eat. Sago is low in calories and protein, and doesn’t last long, maybe 3-5 days at the most. In places like the Fertile Crescent, where the climate is very dry, they are able to grow crops, like wheat. The Fertile Crescent, they basically won the “Geographically lottery” by having the perfect weather for growing wheat. Wheat was high in calories and protein, easy to harvest, and could be kept for up to a year. By having an easy food to maintain, the Fertile Crescent were able to have more time on their hands, and that helped the civilization develop into using domesticated animals. While, Papua New Guinea were still in the hunter-gather
The irrigation systems help to keep the food supply plentiful which helped to play a role in the development of civilizations because it didn't require groupd to move when the food source got low.
It also provided many of the social fundamental values that still carry on in societies today. Their innovations of government, commerce, taxes farming, town...
...e people began to settle in villages the beginning of social class and government were formed to maintain order and a sense of security as a community. Other technological advances were made as well including the making of bronze to form stronger weapons and permanent homes.
The factors of irrigation, inherent topography, and useful bronze-age technical innovations paved the way for the agricultural revolution to occur in the land of Sumer and Akkad. The people of the Tigris and the Euphrates basin, the ancient Sumerians, using the fertile land and the abundant water supply of the area, developed sophisticated irrigation systems and created what was probably the first cereal agriculture. This historical factor resulted in an excess of production of cereals, dates, and other commodities. The consequence of excess is the emergence of a productive peasant agricultural system and a redistributive economy that fuels the progress of civilization.
The new settlements helped the population to grow quickly. Farmers were able to have and maintain larger families. The changes in technology helped move modern man into the Bronze Age.
The Indus Civilization evolved near the Indus River due to the spacious and fertile land. The people were able to grow crops