Guns Germs and Steel The Fates of Human Societies
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Transcript of Guns Germs and Steel The Fates of Human Societies
Guns Germs and SteelThe Fates of Human Societies
By Jared Diamond1997
Text extracted from Chapters 1-10
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After the Ice Age
• Human societies began to change 13,000 years ago– when the last ice age
melted
After the Ice Age
• Different societies resulted:– Some literate,
industrial– Some illiterate,
agricultural– Some hunter
gatherers retaining stone tools
Inequality and Extermination
• “Those historical inequalities have cast long shadows on the modern world, because the literate societies with metal tools have conquered or exterminated the other societies."
Yali’s Question• Yali, a New Guinea
politician asked • "Why is it that you white
people developed so much cargo and brought it to New Guinea,
• but we black people had little cargo of our own?"
Distribution of Wealth
• To rephrase, • "why did wealth and
power become distributed as they now are, – rather than in some other
way?”Distribution of Wealth in the World
Common explanations
• Racial or genetic superiority? – No objective evidence
for this theory
Common explanations
• Cold climate stimulates inventiveness?
• But Europeans inherited from warm climate peoples– agriculture, – wheels, – writing, and – metallurgy
Conquest of the New World
• "The biggest population shift of modern times
• has been the colonization of the new World by Europeans,
• and the resulting – conquest, – numerical reduction , – or complete disappearance
• of most groups of Native Americans".
Pizarro
• The Incas were conquered by the Spaniard Francisco Pizarro.
Pizarro’s Forces
• Pizarro had 168 soldiers. • They were in unfamiliar
territory, – ignorant of the local
inhabitants, – were 1000 miles away from
reinforcements, – and were and surrounded by
the Incan empire • with 80,000 soldiers led by
Atahuallpa.
Guns, Germs and Steel
• Pizarro had – steel armor– swords – horse mounted cavalry – guns
• a minor factor
Treachery
• Pizarro – ambushed and captured
Atahuallpa – used religion to justify it. – collected a huge ransom
in gold and silver, – killed him anyway.
Inca Gold
Conquistadors• In addition to horses and steel,
conquistadors had:– Superior ocean going ships– Superior political organization of the
European states• Carried infectious diseases that wiped out
95% of Native Americans– smallpox, measles, influenza, typhus,
bubonic plague • Superior knowledge of human behavior
– from thousands of years of written history.
Why not the other way?
• Still, why was it that the Europeans had all of the advantages instead of the Incas?
• Why didn't the Incas– invent guns and steel
swords, – have horses, – or bear deadly diseases?Inca
Inca Warrior
Advantages of Agricultural Societies
• More food, more people.• Domestic animals
– Meat– Pull plows, carts– Transportation, war– Furs, fiber– Fertilizer– Deadly germs
Advantages of Agricultural Societies
• Sedentary Existence– Short birth intervals – higher population densities
• Grain Storage– Support specialists:
• Kings • bureaucrats• soldiers• priests• artisans.
Unequal Conflicts• "Much of human history has
consisted of unequal conflicts – between the haves and the have-
nots: • between peoples with farmer power
and those without it, • or between those who acquired it at
different times."
Independent Crop Domestication• Middle East (8,000 BC)
– Wheat, pea, olive• China
– Rice, millet• Mexico (3,000 BC)
– Maize, squash, beans• Andes mountains
– Potato• USA
– Sunflower
Other people adopted these crops (and domesticated animals) later as a cultural package
Adoption by Hunter-Gatherers
• Sometimes domesticated plants and animals were adopted by hunters/gatherers– Native Americans in U.S.
• Sometimes hunters/gatherers were displaced by agriculturalists – European expansion in
Australia, Tasmania
Trugannini, last Remaining Tasmanian Aboriginal, 1868
http://www.tasmanianaboriginal.com.au/images/hist/Trugannie.jpg
Head Start• "The peoples of areas with a
head start on food production – thereby gained a head start on the
path leading to guns, germs and steel.
– The result was a long series of collisions between the haves and have-nots of history."
Food Production
• Food production often led to – poorer health– shorter lifespan– harder labor for the
majority of people.
Early Plant Domestication• Humans unknowingly
selected for traits:– seed size, fiber length– lack of bitterness– early germination– selfing– dispersal mutations
• wheat that does not shatter• seeds that stay in pods
http://www.union.ku.edu/traditions/desktops/wheat.JPG
Sowing by Broadcast
• Grains in Eurasia were sown by broadcast,
• later in animal plowed fields to give monoculture.
Digging Sticks
• In the new world,– planting done by
digging stick – no domesticated plow
animals• Result: mixed gardens.
80% of World’s Production:• Wheat• Maize• Rice• Barley• Sorghum• Soybean• Potato• Cassava• Sweet potato• Sugar cane• Sugar beet• Banana
Major Domesticated Crops
• No new plants domesticated in modern times
• All of these domesticated thousands of years ago.
• Need a suite of domesticated plants to make agriculture work– Thus new plants domesticated
where agriculture already successful
Fertile Crescent
Fertile Crescent Attributes• Mediterranean climate. • Wild stands of wheat • Hunter/gatherers settled down
here before agriculture, living off grain
• High percentage of self pollinating plants -- easiest to domesticate.
• Of large seeded grass species of the world, 32 of 56 grow here.
• Big animals for domestication: goat, sheep, pig, cow
Meso America• In Meso America, the
only animals domesticated were turkey and dog
• Maize was slow to domesticate.
• Occurred 5,000 years after domestication of wheat
Big 5 Domesticated Animals
• Horse• Cow• Pig• Sheep• Goat
• All from Eurasia
Large Animals
• Of 148 large herbivorous or omnivorous species in the world– Eurasia had 72– Africa 51– Americas 24– Australia 1
• Most cannot be domesticated
Why have 134 out of 148 big species not been domesticated?
• Diet too finicky – koala
• Growth rate too slow – elephants, gorillas
• Won’t breed in captivity– cheetah, vicuna
• Nasty Disposition. – grizzly bear, African
buffalo, onager, zebra, hippo, elk
Why have 134 out of 148 big species not been domesticated?
• Hard to herd (no dominance structure)– deer, antelope
• Tendency to panic. – deer, antelope, gazelles
• Solitary – only cats and ferrets
domesticated
• Territorial– rhino
Easier to spread East-West
• It was easier for domestic plants and animals – later, technology like
wheels, writing) • to spread East-West in
Eurasia • than North- South in
Americas.
Evidence
• Some crops domesticated independently in both S. America and Meso America – due to slow spread
• lima beans• common beans• chili peppers
Evidence• Most crops in Eurasia
domesticated only once.
• Rapid spread preempted same or similar domestication.
• Fertile Crescent crops spread to Egypt, N. Africa, Europe, India and eventually to China.
Africa• East-West spread of plants,
animals easier – due to same day-length, similar
seasonal variations. • Temperate N. Africa crops did not
reach S. Africa until colonists brought them– Sahara– Tropics
• Tropical crops spread West to East in Africa with Bantu culture, – did not cross to S. Africa due to
climate.
Americas• Distance between cool
highlands of Mexico and Andes was only 1,200 miles but separated by low hot tropical region.
• Thus, no exchange of crops, animals, writing, wheel. – Only maize spread.
Americas
• It took 2,000 years for maize to cross 700 miles of desert to reach U.S.A.
• It took another 1000 years for maize to adapt to U.S.A. climate to be productive
Not a Cultural Issue• Some species like cows, dogs,
pigs independently domesticated in different parts of the world. – These animals were well suited
for domestication.
• Modern attempts to domesticate:– eland, elk, moose, musk ox,
zebra, American Bison – are only marginally successful.