Leah Webster
World Civilizations
Dr. Turpin
13 November, 2014
Guns, Germs, and Steel At the beginning of this book, Diamond travels to New Guiana and encounters Yali, a local politician, and was asked “Why is it that you white people developed so much cargo and brought it to New Guiana, but we black people had little cargo of our own” (Diamond, 14)? Although this was considered a somewhat simple question, Diamond had no answer for it. In “Guns, Germs and Steel” Diamond focuses on answering this question and providing a surplus of evidence for his argument. In this essay, examples from the novel, “Guns, Germs, and Steel” will be revealed and analyzed to provide proof and evidence of Diamond’s main thesis of how geography can either help or …show more content…
Just like the Maori and Moriori, the New Guiana people and the Aborigines originated from a similar background. However, both of them differed in many areas. Diamond addresses “New Guiana thus became the part of Greater Australia with the most-advanced technology, social and political organization, and art” (Diamond, 305). Although New Guiana was advanced, the rest of the world thought differently. The Europeans still saw New Guiana as primitive lacking literacy and still using stone tools instead of making their own metal tools. Although New Guiana was known for their self-pollinating plants, they still had trouble with agriculture. Because of the high elevations where the New Guiana people settled, protein was a deficiency and unable to grow. They also only had domesticated chickens and pigs, both unable to pull carts making only human muscle power available to pull the carts. With all of these limitations including not developing disease, a small population and a primitive society, Europe, like the Maori, was able to overthrow New Guiana. In this example, Diamond displays how a simple environmental limitation can cause societies to become
World Civilizations
Dr. Turpin
13 November, 2014
Guns, Germs, and Steel At the beginning of this book, Diamond travels to New Guiana and encounters Yali, a local politician, and was asked “Why is it that you white people developed so much cargo and brought it to New Guiana, but we black people had little cargo of our own” (Diamond, 14)? Although this was considered a somewhat simple question, Diamond had no answer for it. In “Guns, Germs and Steel” Diamond focuses on answering this question and providing a surplus of evidence for his argument. In this essay, examples from the novel, “Guns, Germs, and Steel” will be revealed and analyzed to provide proof and evidence of Diamond’s main thesis of how geography can either help or …show more content…
Just like the Maori and Moriori, the New Guiana people and the Aborigines originated from a similar background. However, both of them differed in many areas. Diamond addresses “New Guiana thus became the part of Greater Australia with the most-advanced technology, social and political organization, and art” (Diamond, 305). Although New Guiana was advanced, the rest of the world thought differently. The Europeans still saw New Guiana as primitive lacking literacy and still using stone tools instead of making their own metal tools. Although New Guiana was known for their self-pollinating plants, they still had trouble with agriculture. Because of the high elevations where the New Guiana people settled, protein was a deficiency and unable to grow. They also only had domesticated chickens and pigs, both unable to pull carts making only human muscle power available to pull the carts. With all of these limitations including not developing disease, a small population and a primitive society, Europe, like the Maori, was able to overthrow New Guiana. In this example, Diamond displays how a simple environmental limitation can cause societies to become