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.