“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?” This was the question posed to Dr. Jared Diamond by Yali, a local politician in New Guinea. Answering Yali’s question became the focus of Diamond’s book, Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies. Diamond particularly focused on “why were Europeans, rather than Africans or Native Americans, the ones to end up with guns, the nastiest germs, and steel?” Guns, Germs, and Steel took a scientific approach in viewing how certain locations in the world are far more advanced than others. I believe that this book as a whole is a very strong argument and response to both Yali and Diamond’s question. Observing …show more content…
This phenomenon can be explained through Diamond’s arguments of guns, germs, and steel. The Westerners began their civilization in a geographical location that were much superior to the indigenous and the aboriginal people in areas such as New Guinea and Africa. As Diamond pointed out in his book, “[e]nvironment can affect economy, technology, political organization, and fighting skill within a short time.” Indeed, good environments enable a nation to create a formidable army and specialists to strengthen the nation, therefore resulting in a high quality of life. In consequence, with the advancement in technology, weaponry, infrastructure, and writing, these forceful nations today are able to exert major impact in modern global affairs. European nations such as Britain, Spain, and France are prime examples of this phenomenon, as their early advancements make them major players in the United Nations and holds significant weight in global politics. Diamond points out that the “imbalances of equipment were decisive in innumerable other confrontations of Europeans with Native American and other peoples.” It is due to this early deficit that the present day African nations and other indigenous groups struggle to voice their opinions. Guns, Germs, and Steel offers valuable insights on the huge effects of geographic location …show more content…
Though it is very convincing, I do not fully agree with this concept. I agree that being located in a good geographical location enables a civilization to gain the upper hand early on, but I disagree that without good geography, a civilization will not be able to reach prosperity. My argument parallels James A. Robinson and Daron Acemoğlu’s argument made in Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty. They used the example of Nogales, a city that is divided into two, with the northern half in the United States that enjoys a flourishing and safe life, while the southern half in Mexico and struggles to maintain a good living standard. This city has the exact same geographical conditions, and yet, the welfare varies drastically. The authors explain since the northern part of the city is in the United States, it has the access to the economic institutions, technology, and the government of the United States. In contrast, the southern part of the city suffers due to the corruption, disorder, and poor government system that is of Mexico. The point Robinson and Acemoğlu try to make with the example of Nogales, which I am in concurrence with, is that since it was technological development that gave North America the step up in the modern era, it doesn’t fully explain why Latin America, who
Guns, Germs, and Steel was published by Jared Diamond in 1977. Diamond is a UCLA professor and a scientist and his book has received remarkable response all around the world, in fact the book has won Pulitizer Prizer and was New York’s bestseller. Despite, of being highly regarded, the book is known as one of the most controversial book of its time. A lot critics has accused this book but the critic which stood out the most was William H. McNeill. McNeill is a historian and I agree with his criticism regarding the book and its conclusion.
Jared Diamond, author of the Pulitzer Prize Winning, National Best Selling book Guns, Germs and Steel, summarizes his book by saying the following: "History followed different courses for different peoples because of differences among peoples' environments, not because of biological differences among peoples themselves." Guns, Germs and Steel is historical literature that documents Jared Diamond's views on how the world as we know it developed. However, is his thesis that environmental factors contribute so greatly to the development of society and culture valid? Traditions & Encounters: A Brief Global History is the textbook used for this class and it poses several different accounts of how society and culture developed that differ from Diamond's claims. However, neither Diamond nor Traditions are incorrect. Each poses varying, yet true, accounts of the same historical events. Each text chose to analyze history in a different manner. Not without flaws, Jared Diamond makes many claims throughout his work, and provides numerous examples and evidence to support his theories. In this essay, I will summarize Jared Diamond's accounts of world history and evolution of culture, and compare and contrast it with what I have learned using the textbook for this class.
...conomically beneficial trade and technology development. In this regard the Epilogue uses sound logic to plausibly answer the wealth question. On the other hand, Mr. Diamond uses the same "national competition" thesis to purport that Asia's large, centralized governments were conspicuously growth-inhibitive. This argument would not seem to pass muster given what we have learned about the role of governments. Professor Wright's slides state that "Centralization may limit predation and even allow for growth" as "centralized predation = incentives to maximize the haul " This clearly refutes Mr. Diamond's argument that centralized, monopolistic Asian governments impaired societal advances. Thus, Guns, Germs, and Steel can scantly explain why China and the Middle East remain emerging markets while Western and Northern Europe enjoy significantly larger national wealth.
To recap, I discussed specific technological advancements, during two separate timeframes, and the impacts they had on global encounters. Over the seventeenth century, I highlighted the compass, paper, and gunpowder where trade was a primary focus for these three technologies. During the 1950’s, I focused on the nuclear arms race between superpowers, where domination and supremacy were its driving forces, and their effects on global encounters and influences they had on world history.
The modern world is separated into the wealthy and those in poverty. According to the theory of Geographic Luck, geography is the main determinant in a civilization’s success. Jared Diamond is correct on his theory about how luck affects human power,wealth, and strength, in that luck depends on where you are located affects what grows or lives in that area. Specifically, geography luck affects what cereal crops are able to grow successfully and sustain life, large domesticable mammals that provide labor, and a shared latitude allows the diffusion of agriculture.
Yali’s question: Why did some parts of the world develop and change at a much faster rate than other parts of the world? Why did Europeans end up with all the guns, germs, and steel that enabled them to take over the world?
“History followed different courses for different peoples because of differences among peoples ' environments, not because of biological differences among peoples themselves” (Jared Diamond). In the book Guns Germs and Steel he accounted a conversation with Yali, a New Guinean politician that had 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?”. Diamond tries to answer this by describing the difference in use of government throughout history by bands, tribes, chiefdoms, and states.
Initially most people in Asia and Africa were traditionalists and wanted no part in imperialism, but in the light of power shown through the battles with the West native people changed their minds. “Some concluded that the West was indeed superior in certain ways and that it was therefore necessary to reform their societies and copy some European achievements” (McKay Hill, Buckler, Ebrey, Beck, Crowston, & Wiesner-Hanks, 2009). Becoming modernizers is beneficial because it was impossible for native people to conquer the West. The advances in military development especially in weapons were overwhelming compared to that of African and Asian t...
In the first segment of his film series, Different but Equal, Basil Davidson sets out to disprove the fictitious and degrading assumptions about African civilization made by various Western scholars and explorers. Whether it is the notion that Africans are “savage and crude in nature” or the presumed inability of Africans to advance technologically, these stereotypes are damaging to the image and history of Africa. Although European Renaissance art depicts the races of white and black in equal dignity, there was a drastic shift of European attitudes toward Africa that placed Africans in a much lower standing than people of any other culture. The continent of Africa quickly became ravished by the inhuman slave trade and any traditional civilization
Advances in technology and the expansion of trade have, without a doubt, improved the standard of living dramatically for peoples around the world. Globalization brings respect for law and human rights and the democratization of politics, education, and finance to developing societies, but is usually slow in doing so. It is no easy transition or permanent solution to conflict, as some overly zealous proponents would argue. In The Great Illusion, Norman Angell sees globalization as a force which results from and feeds back into the progressive change of human behavior from using physical force toward using rational, peaceful methods in order to achieve economic security and prosperity. He believes that nations will no longer wage war against one another because trade, not force, yields profit in the new global economy, and he argues that “military power is socially and economically futile” because “political and military power can in reality do nothing for trade.” While the economic interdependence of nations should prove to be a deterrent from warfare, globalization is not now, and was not a century ago, a prescription for world peace. At the turn of the twentieth century, formal colonialism was still profitable in some regions, universal free trade was not a reality, nationalism was not completely defunct, military force was necessary to protect economic investments in developing locations, and the arms race of the previous century had created the potential for an explosive war if any small spark should set the major powers off against one another. The major flaw in Angell’s argument is his refusal to acknowledge the economic advantages that colonizing powers, even after globalization has started to take shape, can actuall...
According to Jared Diamond, the inequality in the world--distribution of wealth, agricultural, industrial and economical success, and power-- is the sole result of Geographic Luck, and how people in certain regions were simply born into great environmental circumstances. He goes into detail, discussing the types of geographic advantages and disadvantages people had, the developments and advancements that came for some as a result of such advantages, as well as the technological breakthroughs, which made way for the future success and dominance of certain nations, spawning and branching from these developments.
Diamond wrote this book to answer the question of a New Guinean politician, Yali. He 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.” Diamond set out to find the answer to this question, to find out why history unfolded like it did. Diamond credits the inequalities in history to differences in environments not biological differences as so many people like to say. Most of the advantages the Europeans had were a direct result of geography. The main points that Diamond attributes to European dominance are early plant and animal domestication and as a result of close contact to animals the deadliest germs were given to the Europeans. As result of its East-West axis the diffusion of food production, technologies, humans and ideas were easily spread throughout Europe. The axis mean that there were similar climatic, geographic, and disease conditions to migrants and no barriers. So anything that could be grown in one area was sure to quickly spread and thrive in the neighboring locations. Moreover, political administration, economic exchanges, incentive for exploration and conquest, and making information available to every individual were facilitated after the development of writing.
Jared Diamond is the author of the Guns, Germs, and Steel. In the book he is making an attempt to answer a question posed by a man named Yali. Yali is a local politician and asked Jared a very simple question on the surface but truly is a hard one to answer. Yali's question is "Why is it that you white people developed so much cargo and brought it to New Guinea, but we black people had very little cargo of our own." Jared comes up with a thesis in which he explains in depth later
Africa’s struggle to maintain their sovereignty amidst the encroaching Europeans is as much a psychological battle as it is an economic and political one. The spillover effects the system of racial superiority had on the African continent fractured ...
Acemoglu, Daron, and James A. Robinson. Why nations fail: the origins of power, prosperity, and poverty. New York: Crown Publishers, 2012. Print.