Jared Diamond

slow firing and inaccurate, but nevertheless deadly (GGS 17:06-18:14). Another critical weapon in the Spanish arsenal was the Toledo sword. It was a long, hard, and pliable sword that was characteristic of rapiers (GGS 20:00-21:00). In the film, Jared Diamond explains that Europeans inherited metal technology due to its proximity to the Fertile Crescent, which allowed for the adoption of the knowledge of smithing, whereas the Inca had no such knowledge or ability to advance their weaponry (GGS…

anthropologist Jared Diamond uses the theory of geographic determinism to answer why some societies are more materially successful than others, in his book. According to him geographical causes are mainly responsible for societal development and responsible for different human civilizations developed in different ways. He provides evidence and reasoning that geography, immunity to germs, food production, the domestication of animals, and use of steel are main drivers for societal success.…

Have you ever wondered why some countries stayed with the same technology they had thousands of years ago while others rose to global empires with technology that exceeds even our own imaginations? Jared Diamond has a theory. Diamond believes that these global inequalities boil down to geographic luck. He believes that areas and civilization that had a greater variety of animals, crops and fertile soil had an advantage over those who had less, for example, if an area had little nutrients in the…

Living in an advanced modern society, it is hard to believe that civilizations are capable of collapse. Many think that the rise of civilization is an impressive feat. However, in Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed, Jared Diamond outlines the five main factors that cause an entire civilization to fall. The Maya collapse is an example of a society that characterizes four of these factors. The first of these main factors is environmental damage that the inhabitants inflict upon…

Jared Diamond espouses the view that the “root of inequality” is the geographical location of a country and the resources it possesses. According to Diamond, all societies in the world were equally wealthy at one time in history. Unfortunately, global environmental changes made some parts of the world to experience harsh weather conditions that made traditional hunting and gathering inefficient in providing food for households. Regions that were geographically disadvantaged were unable to access…

In his book Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed, Jared Diamond describes the experiences of seafaring Vikings and Polynesians. For each group, Diamond argues that the environment played a key role in these people’s success or failure. In this paper, I will first briefly overview the environment’s role in the Polynesian case of Mangareva and the Viking case of Inuit as recounted in Diamond. I will then examine the sources in chapter 6 of Merry Wiesner’s text, Discovering the Global…

Yuval Harari is a historian professor who teaches at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, that was established by Jared Diamond. Under the support of Jared Diamond, who also aided him in endorsing his book, Harari connected logical research to each part of mankind 's history and also towards parts of history for which no composed records exist. In truth, Harari utilizes less science than Diamond. He underscores the trouble of knowing in detail the lives of our remote ancestors and is frequently…

The article written by Jared Diamond discusses the issues related to the domestication of plants and animals and provides specific features of domestication tendencies in different regions. Plant and animal domestication have always been very important for the development of households in many countries, however, it requires wise and conscious decision to make the process beneficial for both humans and animals or plants. First of all, the author states that hunter–gatherer behavior changed at…

In this chapter, Jared Diamond discusses why many animals that seem suitable for domestication weren’t domesticated. Diamond notes that the few important big domestic mammals are mainly big terrestrial herbivores with 14 such species mainly discovered in Eurasia. This is most likely because Eurasia has the most large terrestrial wild mammal species and lost the fewest of these species to extinction. However, other continents also have terrestrial mammals which brings up the question of why other…

geographic luck does exist, and is taking part in civilizations all over the world. Jared Diamond, a scientist and author, has recently discussed this. Geographic luck explains why some civilizations have more resources than others. Diamond began to think of this explanation when a New Guinean named Yali asked this question ”Why is it that you white people have so much cargo, but we New Guineans have so little?” Diamond pondered this question until he came to a conclusion. Geographic luck…