Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fate of Human Societies: A Summary
One question posed. A book to answer.
Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond answers the question, ”Why is it that you white people developed much cargo and brought it to New Guinea, but we black people had little cargo of our own?"
Restated the question is: “Why did the rate of progress differ so much for cultures on different continents?”
The most common explanation of the different trajectories for Europe compared to Africa, Asia, and America has been genetic differences positing that Europeans are intellectually superior. Science has not produced sufficient definitive evidence to indicate that biology has been the cause of varying outcomes.
How has power been distributed faster to some and slower to others? Was it actually due to farming innovations, the development of written language, animal husbandry, weapons development, technologically might, or economic strength?
This question of wealth and power has often been answered in terms of genetics, which Diamond attempts to disprove. One set of people are not born superior to another group. The success of a society is based on geography, food production, germs and immunity, the domestication of animals, and the discovery and use of steel.
"History followed different courses for different peoples because of differences among peoples' environments, not because of biological differences among peoples themselves"
– JARED DIAMOND
1. Food Production. Around 11,000 years ago all human societies were hunter gatherers. Differing environments provided starting materials and the right climate for the development of agriculture. There were continental difference in plant species that could be domesticated. Europe and Asia due to their east/west geographic orientation and sharing similar latitude therefore offering the same temperate conditions in the types of agriculture that could be grown in that climate which neither Africa nor the Americas shared because their continental shapes run north and south. The rise of food production in Europe and China was because the plants in these areas were better suited to domestication. Locations along the same east-west axis share similar latitudes and therefore they have similar day lengths, seasons, climate, rainfalls and ecology. Agricultural advancements in one region can be supplanted in another.
People who led an agrarian lifestyle no longer were nomadic. Rather they became sedentary and domestic earlier than others. This gave them an advantage in survival compared to hunter gatherer societies. Farming sustains populations that are 10x to 100x larger than hunting and gathering.
According to Jared Diamond farming led to a settled existence, which resulted in food surplus. The production of food was key in the development of writing because agricultural societies needed record keeping.
The size of a population in an area is a predictor of the potential for complexity in terms of emergences of innovations, government, economic specialization and social stratification. The higher the population the greater the potential for power and wealth.
A greater density of population allowed society to develop religion, philosophy, bureaucracy, trade, and military power. Agricultural societies led to larger populations which meant larger armies.
2. Domestication of Animals. If you were looking for animals to domesticate, which means that they can be bred in captivity and perhaps provide you with milk, meat, clothing, fertilizer, transportation and muscle power then you would at least require an animal that was tame. If you lived in Europe or Asia you would have a better chance encountering such an animal. In Africa or Australia native animals cannot be domesticated for farming. In the Americas the only domescable large manual is the llama or alpaca which do not like to pull a yoke. In Europe and Asia horses provide great transportation and they don't mind pulling ploughs. Horses also offered significant advantages in war. Other domestic animals in this region are goats, sheep, cows, pigs, and donkeys which can provide meat, milk, cheese, and wool. These animal resources give this geographic area an acute advantage.
"Still later, after the invention of saddles and stirrups, horses allowed the Huns and successive waves of other peoples from the Asian steppes to terrorize the Roman Empire and its successor states, culminating in the Mongol conquests of much of Asia and Russia in the 13th and 14th centuries A.D. Only with the introduction of trucks and tanks in World War I did horses finally become supplanted as the main assault vehicle and means of fast transport in war. Arabian and Bactrian camels played a similar military role within their geographic range. In all these examples, peoples with domestic horses (or camels), or with improved means of using them, enjoyed an enormous military advantage over those without them."
– JARED DIAMOND
Animals such as camels, llamas, mules, reindeer, and yak pulled wagons and sleds, easing the workload and allowing further exploration.
3. Geography. In Europe and Asia the primary latitudinal axis runs East and West. This matters because agriculture, trade and technological innovations spread more rapidly along east-west axes than along north-south axes.
Europe and Asia have more species of cultivable plants and domesticable mammals than any other continents.
The geographic axis of the Americas and Africa is North and South. The landmass runs longitudinal. Africa and America have axes which run longways which presents far greater obstacles to the spread of agricultural innovations.
Geography is a key determinant in the sharing and acceleration of ideas to neighboring societies.
On large land masses like Europe and Asia, technologies can spread from one culture to another and continue to do so along trade routes spanning the entire length of the continent. This type of innovation spread is much more likely than between cultures that allow minimal outside contact. Isolationism on the other hand prevents the spread of creativity and innovation. Most societies get their ideas from outside influences. A flow of communication to others is essential for technological progress.
"In short, Europe’s colonization of Africa had nothing to do with differences between European and African peoples themselves, as white racists assume. Rather, it was due to accidents of geography and biogeography—in particular, to the continents’ different areas, axes, and suites of wild plant and animal species. That is, the different historical trajectories of Africa and Europe stem ultimately from differences in real estate."
– JARED DIAMOND
4. Germs and Immunity. Eurasia's population density, trade, and living in proximity to domesticated livestock resulted in disease transmission to which they built up an immunity over time. Smallpox and measles were among these diseases.
People who didn’t have immunity died off. The people who survived passed their immunities to their offspring. Natural selection made Eurasians genetically resistant to many diseases.
After Columbus discovered America in 1492, as Europeans made contact with natives they brought diseases that ravaged the indigenous population. North America had a populatiom 20 million natives at the time. By 1692 ninety-five percent of the native Americans died mostly from diseases to which they had no resistance.
5. Discovery and Use of Steel. In Peru in the year 1532 one hundred and sixty-nine Spaniards fought 80,000 Inca soldiers. Seven thousand Incas died and not one Spaniard. The Spaniards had guns and swords and the Incas had wooden clubs.
These reasons provide an explanation as to why some continents developed faster than others.
All human societies contain inventive people. Some environments, though, provide better starting materials and more favorable conditions.
Reference:
https://thinktheology.co.uk/
https://blog.12min.com/guns-
https://blogs.mcgill.ca/hist-
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