Guns Germs and Steel The Fates of Human Societies

Guns Germs and SteelThe Fates of Human Societies By Jared Diamond 1997 Text extracted from Chapters 1-10 http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/0393317552.03.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

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 http://www.tasmanianaboriginal.com.au/images/hist/Trugannie.jpg Trugannini, last Remaining Tasmanian Aboriginal, 1868

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.

Guns Germs and Steel The Fates of Human Societies