Guns Germs And Steel Critical Analysis

In order to truly understand human society as it exists today, it is first necessary to be able to distinguish between all of the variables that culminated to yield the present. For, if even one condition was to vacillate, the whole outcome of human development could have been drastically different. The man undertaking the arduous task of trying to classify and decipher human history is Jared Diamond, who, through his work, Guns, Germs, and Steel, is able to show just how interconnected the different factors were. Starting off with the infamous incident of the Inca collapse to Pizarro and his army, Diamond seeks to explain exactly what events—and why—lead to this climax. “How,” he questions, “did Pizarro come to be there to capture him [Incan Ruler Atahuallpa], instead of Atahuallpa’s coming to Spain to capture King Charles I?” (72) To fully answer this question, one must go back thousands of years, to when North America was just beginning to be settled, and populations elsewhere all around the world were also on the move. If there is any one characteristic that must be singled out for its importance in characterizing the way humans live, nothing is more invaluable than food—and the means by which it is produced. Farming is now a staple of sedentary life. Before that, though, hunting-and-gathering was the sole means of survival. For millions of years, moving from place to place and foraging …show more content…
In battle, although one adversary is usually greatly more ill prepared than its counterpart, this kind of disparity is exactly what contributes to the different groups of people that exist today. Nevertheless, brawn does not win confrontations on its own. In fact, the lack of a physical presence in a population can be compensated for by a great presence of discerning commanders and soldiers. One specific case is that of the Moriori people, who called the Chatham Islands—about five hundred miles east of New