Analysis Of Guns, Germs, And Steel: The Fate Of Human Society

“History followed different courses for different peoples because of differences among peoples’ environments, not because of biological differences among peoples themselves” - Jared Diamond, Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fate of Human Society. But how exactly did that happen? And how come one can still see the effects of this today? Many people grow up in poverty, but many others do not -- sometimes those who grow up poor are from first world countries, and many of them are from third world countries. But why exactly is it that some countries, such as the USA, are more developed while others, such as Papua New Guinea, were still using stone tools as recently as 1960? Well, as Jared Diamond states, it has more to do with geography than it does …show more content…
Since geography affects the climate, then animals must adapt to that climate, which makes each region have different animals. There are 5 requirements an animal must meet in order to be domesticable. The first one being that they must have a diet that has plants in it. Either herbivore or omnivore, as carnivores take more effort to feed than they give back. Secondly, they need to grow to sexual maturity quickly. One cannot wait fifteen years to have more animals -- it is impractical, especially if one needs many of them. The third requirement is breeding. While growth rate is similar, one can only breed an animal in captivity if the animal doesn’t have mating rituals which require it to breed in the wild. Fourth, the animal must have a calm disposition. One cannot domesticate an animal that will kill itself or others while it is in captivity. And lastly, social structure. It is much easier to domesticate and tame an animal that is naturally used to following a leader, because all one must do is convince the animal that the leader is them. There are only fourteen large mammals who fit all the requirements. Thirteen of which originated in Eurasia, giving them the obvious advantage. The fourteenth one being the llama, which originated in South America. None of the animals came from places like Africa, where there is little vegetation and lots of …show more content…
The development of steel affects the development of civilizations, because it made those who could make and use steel much stronger than those who couldn’t, thus making a large gap in equality. To make steel, one needs iron, carbon, and a climate which can support a long-burning, hot fire (semi-arid climates are ideal). Of course, only certain places have all these requirements. Europe (Spain, in particular) being one of these such regions. In addition to these natural resources, one would also need specialists (like blacksmiths) who could work with metals, to smelt it. If a country is lacking even one of these things, they cannot produce steel. One example would be the Incan empire. They had the right climate, the specialists, the carbon, but not the steel. Instead they had gold. Therefore, they could never make steel like the Spaniards could. Since the Spaniards had all these things, they could make weapons, such as the rapier and guns, as well as transportation, though that would come later, which gave them the upper-hand in the battle against the Incas, who were still using less advanced tools. Thus, combined with the germs, helped them decimate the Incas and take over their land. Steel also helped the Spaniards grow, because since they had strong and (at the time) advanced weapons, they could easily conquer other countries, and they would eventually be able to make transportation, which helped them grow. Since one needs certain