Guns, Germs, and Steel: A Book Report

“Why is it that you white people developed much cargo and brought it to New Guinea, but we black people had little cargo of our own?” (Diamond, page 3)

This is the question that Jared Diamond attempts to answer in his book, Guns, Germs, and Steel. Diamond’s answer is this: It is geography, not race or genetic superiority, that allows for certain peoples to develop better and more powerful guns, germs, and steel that enable them to gain access to greater wealth and power.

To back up this claim, Diamond uses various pieces of evidence throughout his book. Firstly, he discusses the issue of the Polynesian societies of the Maori and the Moriori. Although both civilizations were from similar areas and were of the same ethnical background, the slight difference in geography enabled the Maori to gain an advantage over the Moriori, in terms of technological advancement and their warring tendencies. Despite being relatively similar, that difference in geographical location allowed the Maori to take over the Moriori.

Another example Diamond uses to support his claim is the Spanish defeat of the Incas. Pizarro, the leader of these Spaniards that invaded the Americas, had access to greater and more advanced guns, germs, and steel. Their advanced maritime technology allowed them to sail to the Americas in the first place, writing and well-developed means of communication allowed them to have more information about these Incas before they got there, diseases that Native Americans had no immunities to could wipe out much of the population, advanced weaponry like guns that Americans had never seen before, and Spanish centralized political organization also gave them great advantages. Diamond argues that Pizarro’s advanced technology came from ...

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... superiority in terms of domestication. They also had access to iron and bronze (“steel”) to make weaponry and tools. These factors allowed the Bantu to extend to various parts of Africa, including the African eastern coast.

From the given evidence, I must agree with Jared Diamond that it is geography and not ethnicity or genetics that allow for certain peoples, like the Europeans, to become dominant. I believe that Diamond’s claims are legitimate, sound, and logical, and unless I am given strong evidence to prove him otherwise, I am inclined to agree with his thesis. Diamond’s supports are relevant and understandable, even to younger readers.

What I truly enjoyed about this book was wondering the answer to ‘Yali’s question’, and I believe that Jared Diamond has managed to answer it in a clear and logical way.

Works Cited

Guns, Germs, and Steel (Jared Diamond)