Guns Germs And Steel Themes

Through his book Guns Germs and Steel, Jared Diamond has masterfully woven together the historical developments across many cultures and different time periods. In doing so, he illustrates the historical themes that have been consistently relevant in human history. The main themes are interactions between humans and nature, development of cultures, state-building/expansion, and the evolution of economic systems and social structures.

Throughout Guns Germs and Steel, Jared Diamond constantly refers to interactions between man and nature to develop his argument. These interactions have created effects that gradually increased in magnitude over time. Diamond discusses the domestication of plants and animals on several times; since the domestication of wild fauna and flora have been a significant factor in the shaping of history. For example, the usage of horses helped Hernan Cortes to conquer the Aztecs. The prime example however is the obtainment of diseases from domestic animals . Domestication of animals has led to permanent settlements (rather than hunter-gatherer lifestyles), but it also caused microbes to be transferred to humans from domestic animals. Major diseases that have plagued …show more content…
All of these themes are so tightly interwoven that it would be impossible to discuss one without making references to the other. For example, one can easily relate chiefdoms to both the development of economic systems and government/power organization. Both were slowly developed side by side as mankind became more and more advanced, and eventually became so interwoven that a government cannot exist without an economic system, and vice versa. That’s what made the five themes discussed(interaction between humans/nature, development/interaction of cultures and social structures, and the creation of states/economic systems) the five prevalent themes throughout