Guns, Germs, and Steel

The Fates of Human Societiesbased on the book of the same name by

Jared Diamond

The Book’s Major Question

• Peoples of Eurasian origin, especially those still living in Europe and Eastern Asia and in places where their cultures have spread, dominate the world in power and wealth.

• Other peoples have been decimated, subjugated and even exterminated by Eurasian colonists.

• WHY?

"In the 13,000 years since the end of the last Ice Age, …

…some parts of the world developed literate industrial societies with metal tools…

…other parts developed only non-literate farming societies…

…and still others remained societies of hunter-gatherers with 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

• Japan inherited– Agriculture, metallurgy, writing– Industrial Revolution

Chapter 1

Up to the Starting Point

Cro Magnons

• Cro-Magnons moved into Europe 40,000 years ago. • Tools, needles, fishhooks, harpoons, bows and arrows,

sewn clothing, houses, carefully buried skeletons, art, hunting big prey.

• Displaced or killed off Neandertals

Spreading Out

• 40,000-30,000 years ago humans used watercraft to cross from Asia to Indonesia to Australia and New Guinea.

• This time period correlates to a massive extinction of large game in those places.

Large Game in Eurasia

• Diamond's theory is that large game survived in Eurasia because humans took a million years to develop tools and become lethal predators of large game, giving game time to adapt.

Spreading to the Americas

• By 20,000 years ago, humans learned how to survive in Siberia.

• This led to migration to Americas by 12,000 BC. • It took 1,000 years for humans to cover both N.

and S. America. • Time period correlates to a massive extinction of

large game in Americas: Horses, lions, elephants, cheetahs, camels, and giant ground sloths.

Chapter 2

A Natural Experiment of History

Chatham Islands

In 1835, a seal hunting ship visiting the Chatham islands 500 miles off the coast of New Zealand brought the first news to New Zealand of islands where: "there is an abundance of sea and shellfish; the lakes swarm with eels; and it is a land of the karaka berry...The inhabitants are very numerous, but they do not understand how to fight, and have no weapons".

Chatham Islands

Maori of New ZealandNine hundred of the native Maori people of New Zealand,

armed with guns,

arrived in the Chatham Islands

announcing that the Chatham Islands people (the Moriori)

were now their slaves,

and killed those who objected.

Moriori SlaughterAn eyewitness account said "The Maori commenced to kill us like sheep...We were terrified, fled to the bush, concealed ourselves in holes underground, and in any place to escape our enemies. It was of no avail; we were discovered and killed-- men, women, and children indiscriminately". Maori

Maori ExplanationA Maori conqueror explained:"We took possession...in accordance with our customs and we caught all the people. Not one escaped. Some ran away from us, these we killed, and others we killed -- but what of that? It was in accordance with our custom".

Natural History Experiment

• This is a natural history experiment. Both the Maori and Moriori descended from the same Polynesian farmers who settled New Zealand.

Moriori

• But the Moriori, after moving to the Chatham islands hundreds of years earlier could not farm due to the cold climate, and became hunter/gatherers.

• They learned to live peacefully because their resources were so limited.

Maori• The New Zealand Maori

– continued farming– dense populations– more complex technology and

political organization– ferocious wars:

• The difference was geography.• Competing agricultural

societies are prone to warfare

Chapter 3

Collision at Cajamarca

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 1,000 miles away from reinforcements, and were and surrounded by the Incan empire with 80,000 soldiers led by Atahuallpa.

Guns, Germs and Steel• Pizarro, however,

had steel armor and swords, horse mounted cavalry, and guns (a minor factor).

Treachery

• The account of the capture of Atahuallpa is one of the most difficult passages you may ever read, due to the treachery employed by Pizarro, and the religious justification used.

• Of course, we also know that Pizarro collected a huge ransom for Atahuallpa in gold and silver, and then killed him anyway.

Inca Gold

Conquistadors• In addition to horses and steel, the

conquistadors– Had superior ocean going ships– Had superior political organization of

the European states– Carried infectious diseases that wiped

out 95% of Native Americans (smallpox, measles, influenza, typhus, bubonic plague)

– Had superior knowledge of human behavior from thousands of years of written history.

•

Conquistadors

• Pizarro got his treacherous ideas from the experience of Cortez. – The Incas knew

nothing of Spaniards.

Cortez and Montezuma

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

Food Production

• Why did food production not evolve in large, geographically suitable areas of the globe?

• Why did the dates of food production development vary so widely?

• Were the humans different, or was the environment?

All people on earth were once hunter-gathers; why did some leave this behind and others not?

• “Food production systems evolved as a result of the accumulation of many separate decisions about allocating time and effort” (Diamond).

• Food production developed as a way to provide the most calories (particularly of protein) with the least amount of effort.

• The major significance of evolving into food production was to free up time so that certain tribal members could become SPECIALISTS: weapon makers, container makers, tribal leaders, medicine men, etc.

In cultures that evolved food production, the major factors contributing were:

• Decline in the availability of wild foods• Increased availability of domesticable wild plants• Development of technologies for collecting,

processing and storing wild foods

How Were Wild Plants Domesticated?

• Selection of largest and most attractive plants

• Preferential planting of “best” seeds• Favoring beneficial mutations in plants

(almonds)• Selection of seeds that did not germinate

simultaneously• Selection of self-pollinators

Problems With Food Cultivation in Much of North America

• Major grain crop, corn, was very tiny, took thousands of years to evolve into modern size, not self-pollinating, and very low in protein

• Wild grasses largely limited to rice which also was low in protein

• Few (turkey and dog) domesticable animals to assist in production or to be eaten

Advantages of Western Eurasia

• Largest land mass in Mediterranean climate• Great diversity of wild plants and animals• Greatest seasonal climatic variety—more

annuals• 56 prize grasses

• Range of altitudes led to staggered harvests• Less competition from hunter-gatherers

Why New Guineans Didn’t Develop Agriculture

• No domesticable grain crops• Root crops lacking in protein• No domesticable large mammal species

• In coastal areas, consumed fish which shows openness to new foods

• In highlands, frequent protein starvation (which may have been a factor in areas where cannibalism existed)

Mississippi Florescence

• Refers to arrival of dozens of crops from Mexico. Once introduced, they were widely cultivated. This is evidence that once crops arrived, indigenous people planted and cultivated them.

All of this supports Diamond’s thesis that differences in the arrival of plant production were based, not on limitations of the people but on biota.

The Role of Domesticable Animals in Food Production

“Domesticable animals are all alike; every undomesticable animal is undomesticable in its own way” (Diamond).

Provided by Domestic Animals

• Meat• Milk Products• Fertilizer• Transport• Leather• Military assault vehicles• Plow traction• (Germs)

Domestication is the process by which wild animals are transformed into something more helpful to humans.

Eurasia had 13 0f 14 domesticable animals.

The Major Five

• Sheep (Asiatic mouflon)• Goat (Besoar goat of West Asia)• Cow, ox, cattle (aurochs, now extinct, found

in Eurasia• Pig (wild boar, distributed over Eurasia and

North Africa)• Horse (wild horses from Russia)

The Minor Nine

• Camel (Arabia and Central Asia)• Llama and alpaca (Andes)• Donkey (African wild ass of Northern

Africa)• Reindeer (Northern Eurasia)• Water buffalo (Southeast Asia)

• Yak (Himalayas and Tibetan plateau)• Bali cattle (banteng from Southeast Asia)• Mithan (the gar of India and Burma)

14 Domestic MammalsAnimal Wild ancestor Date

(BCE)location

Sheep Asiatic mouflon sheep

8000 West and Central Asia

Goat Bezoar goat 8000 West Asia

Cow Aurochs 6000 Eurasia and North Africa

Pig Wild boar 8000 Eurasia and North Africa

Horse Wild horses 4000 Southern Russia

(minor 9)

Arabian camel (1-hump)

Wild camel 2500 Arabia

Bactrian camel (2-hump)

Wild camel 2500 Central Asia

Llama and Alpaca Guanaco 3500 Andes

Donkey African wild ass 4000 North Africa

Reindeer Wild reindeer Northern Eurasia

Water buffalo Wild water buffalo

4000 Southeast Asia

Yak Wild yak Himalayas and Tibet

Bali cattle Banteng Southeast Asia

Mithan Gaur India and Burma

Eurasian?

Why Were Eurasia’s Animals Domesticated?

• Why Eurasia's horses but not Africa’s zebras?

• Why Eurasia’s pigs but not America's or Africa’s?

• Why Eurasia’s cattle but not buffalo?

• Was it the peoples or the animals?• The evidence that it was the animals

themselves is based on the rapid adoption of domesticable animals once they arrived from other places.

• There were repeated 19th and 20th century attempts to domesticate Eland, moose, ox, zebra, and bison.

• Modern geneticists met with little success—so too indigenous peoples.

Why “perpetually wild”?

• Diet• Growth rate• Problems with Captive Breeding (pandas,

cheetahs, vicunas• Nasty and dangerous dispositions ( grizzly

bear, American buffalo, zebra)• Tendency to panic when approached (all

gazelle species)

• Social structure: Domestic animals live in herds, have a dominance hierarchy, overlap ranges rather than have exclusive territory.

Role of Direction of Major Axes in Dissemination of Ideas and Products

Why Did Ideas About Plants and Animals spread more quickly in Eurasia?Axes

Eurasia

Africa The Americas

GERMS!

Diseases have been major shapers of history• Influenza of 1918• European conquests of Americas (Spanish

conquistadors, English settlers)

Eurasia sight of major infectious diseases: Why?

• Many diseases zoonotic • Critical masses of people because of

efficient food production• Crowd diseases could not survive in small

bands of people• Leprosy, yaws, hookworms may be oldest

because could survive in smaller tribes

Farming and agriculture increase diseases and disease spread

• Farms live around and often fertilize with their own sewage

• Densely packed human populations• Evolution of world trade routes (distributed

smallpox)

New Zoonotic Diseases?

• AIDS• Lassa Fever• Lyme Disease• Hanta viruses

Syphilis is suspected of being only disease transferred from native Americans to Euarsia.

Development of Written Language Critical

Writing is the key to transmit knowledge to distant lands and to retain knowledge

Writing was developed by agricultural groups because food production allows for the development of specialists (scribes)

With the exception of Egyptian and Chinese all writing systems are derived from early Mesoamerican writing.

• Phoenicians provided representational consonantal alphabet

• Greeks invented representation of vowel sounds

• Written language aided in conquering of new lands.

GUNS AND STEEL

Why Did Eurasians Possess Technology First?

• Technology develops cumulatively rather than in isolated acts

• Technology finds most of its uses AFTER invention

• Technology requires a society to adopt it

• Religions vary widely in their willingness to adopt technology

• Depending on geography, information about technological advances will reach some people and not others

• Descendents of those societies that achieved centralized government and organized religion earliest ended up dominating the modern world.

• “The combination of government and religion has thus functioned together with germs, writing, and technology as one of the four main sets or proximate agents leading to history's broadest pattern.

• How did governments and religions arise?

Levels of Social Organization Evolve from Least to Most Complex

• Bands• Tribes• Chiefdoms• States

Bands

• Tiny populations: typically 5-80 people• Most are close relatives by birth or marriage• All humans lived in bands until 40,000

years ago

Bands

• Usually nomadic: live in areas where food is scarce

• Land used jointly by whole group• No specialization: all able-bodied individuals

forage for food• Economic System: Reciprocal Exchange• No laws, treaties, or police to help resolve disputes

Tribes

• Society with hundreds of people, usually settled in many villages

• Shared language and culture• More than one kinship group• Land belongs to clans within a tribe• Everyone knows everyone else by name

and relationship

Tribes

• Social system egalitarian• No upper or lower class• No one can become more wealthy• Government still egalitarian• Decisions are made in a group• May have “big man” with limited power;

still would live like others

Chiefdoms

• Population: several thousands to tens of thousands

• Arose about 7500 years ago with rising populations

• In 1492 widespread in North and South America, Africa, Polynesia

States

• Populations of 50,000 to 1 billion• Usually have literate elites• Sometimes literate population• Arose first in Mesopotamia, later in

Mesoamerica, China, Southeast Asia, Andes, West Africa

Religion

• Early: tribal deities• Polytheist• Standardized temples and religions evolve under

influence of kings• Often these kings were head of state religion• Monotheism evolves• Temples or religious centers are crucial to

economic redistribution, writing, crafts, technology

Advantages of States and Centralized Religions

• Primarily as they allow for specialization• Provide critical mass for technologies to

emerge, be adapted, and spread• May reduce numbers of armed conflicts• Dissemination of ideas and information

Religions

• Can unite a people with shared goals and beliefs

• May create central “mythos”: idea that God wants them to spread this religion

• Missionaries played critical role in providing Eurasian ideas and technology to isolated populations.

Development DiagramUltimate Factors

Proximate Factors

East/West Axis

Ease of species spreading

Many suitable wild species

Many domesticated plant and animal species

Food surpluses, food storage

Large, dense, sedentary, stratified societies

technology

Epidemic disease

Political organization,

writing

Ocean-going ships

Guns, steel swordshorses

Chapter 16: How China Became Chinese

Isolation + Conquest =Writing System and Language Unification

The End of China’s Reign

• In the 1400s, fleets of a hundred treasure ships120 meters long sent to Africa

• In 1433, a political argument in the Chinese court led to the suspension of naval activities

• Due to political unification, this effectively halted China’s global progress.

• The irony is that China’s greatest strength, political unity, is what led to China’s global downfall.

My years in New Guinea have convinced me that people around the world are fundamentally similar. Wherever you go, you can find people who are smart, resourceful, and dynamic. No society has a monopoly on those traits. Of course, there are huge cultural differences, but they're mainly the result of inequality; they're not its root cause. Ultimately what's far more important is the hand they are dealt, the raw materials they had at their disposal.

Jared Diamond

That’s All, Folks!

• Don Rechtman• www.OrfeoMusic.org• QQ

973557480 (oorfeo)

Links for 枪炮、病菌与钢铁• One resource for buying the book in Chinese is at

http://book.douban.com/subject/1813841/ • The complete Chinese translation of the book is at

http://pan.baidu.com/share/link?shareid=3339872343&uk=2485450488

I could not find video with subtitles, but the DVD with Chinese subtitles can be found at Book City and online.• Part 1: http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/juaGf_9YIhc• Part 2:

http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/vn7caYci2JM