Guns, Germs, And Steel

 Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies 

 By Jared Diamond 

 

Preview: 

What are the reasons behind the divergent patterns of development of different regions? This is the question Yali, a New Guinean politician, asked Jared Diamond. In response to his query, Diamond wrote “Guns, Germs and Steel”, a Pulitzer prize-winning bestseller book that explores human history and tries to explain it with the theory of geographical determinism which states that our history is largely shaped by geography and our immediate environment. Jared Diamond adopts the present-day approach by synthesizing the knowledge of history, anthropology, biology, geography, ecology, and linguistics, to investigate the history of human beings. 

About the Author 

Dr. Jared Diamond is a Professor at the University of California, Los Angeles in the Department of Geography. He started his career in physiology and further explored evolutionary biology and biogeography. He has published more than six hundred essays and many popular science books like the Third Chimpanzee, Collapse, etc. 

The Big idea: Geography and Environment helped certain civilizations to rule the world

The first significant contact between Europeans and Native Americans happened after the voyage of Columbus in 1492. In these encounters, the Europeans dominated the natives as they were a technologically advanced society. Initially, human civilization was comprised of hunter-gatherers. Gradually, farming and animal rearing began to be practiced since they were more efficient ways of food production. 

Initially, people lived in bands. Around 11,000 years ago, a larger group of people started to live together who came to be recognized as tribes. Around 5500 BC, larger communities of people called chiefdoms emerged. The first states emerged around 3700 BC in Mesopotamia. 

The first area in which the development of agriculture took place was the Fertile Crescent region. This area had certain advantages which supported the domestication of wild plants and animals. Food production developed at different rates across the world. Usually, food production expanded more rapidly across the East-West axis than the North-South axis. 

The evolution of germs required sustained epidemics which were only possible in the dense settlements of Eurasia. Thus, Eurasians were the first to contract severe diseases and subsequently developed resistance to those diseases. 

From our beginnings to 11,000 BC 

Our origin can be traced back to 7 million years ago in Africa when African Apes evolved into three distinct branches: modern gorillas, chimps, and human beings. Human beings gained an upright posture around 4 million years ago and learnt how to use crude tools. Homo Erectus, one of the predecessors of modern humans, appeared around 1.7 million years ago. They were the first to move beyond the African continent. 

By about half a million years ago, Homo erectus had evolved into Homo Sapiens or the modern humans. Still, the Homo Sapiens of half a million years ago were vastly different from modern humans, with much smaller brain sizes and the ability to make only simple tools. Between 130,000 and 40,000 years ago, the population of Europe and West Asia was represented by the remaining Neanderthals, who had brain sizes like ours. 

By about 50,000 years ago, human history took the “Great Leap Forward”, with the development of complex tools, construction of houses, and creation of art. Another important development was the construction of boats, which led to the colonization of islands such as New Guinea. Human beings inhabited America somewhere between 35,000 and 14,000 years ago.  

To compare historical developments in different continents, Diamond takes 11,000 BC as the starting point to carry out his investigation. That was the time when village life had begun in a few parts of the world, a large number of people had inhabited America, and the last Ice Age had ended. By then, certain regions were ahead of the others with respect to development. 

 

Transitioning: From Hunter-Gatherers to farmers 

For much of human history, humans were exclusively dependent on hunting and gathering. It was only about 11,000 years ago that farming and animal husbandry developed in certain parts of the world. The shift from hunting-gathering to organized food production is a very important step in human history, since producing food through farming was more efficient than hunting-gathering. 

Another consequence of the development of farming was the division of labour. The production of surplus meant that one class of people gained control over the surplus and decided how it was going to be distributed. This led to the formation of the superior political elite in contrast to the egalitarian hunter-gatherer society. Moderately sized agricultural societies developed into chiefdoms, whereas large-scale societies developed into kingdoms. 

The next big step was the development of animal transport. Certain domesticated animals such as horses and camels could be ridden upon and used as a better means of transport. The horse became the chief means of long-distance transport across Eurasia and later helped in its military development. Thus, through the development of cavalry, Eurasians could gain a military advantage over their American counterparts. 

Organized food production arose first in South West Asia 

If we study the history of agriculture and food production, we would see that in certain places, agriculture did not develop until much later. There could be two possible explanations; there could either be some issues with the local people, or there could be issues with the locally available plant species. 

We know that there are over 200,000 species of flowering plants on our planet. However, most of these are not edible. Out of these, only a few hundred are grown as crops, and even among these only about a dozen crops constitute over 80% of the world’s food production. Thus, with few major crops, it is natural that only a few places could initially have begun farming. Yet further questions remain since several plants were grown in one specific area but not in another area where they were found. Moreover, certain wild plants were domesticated in one area, but their close relatives in other areas were not domesticated. Let us see why. 

In South-West Asia, there is a region known as the Fertile Crescent. This is where organized food production first arose on a major scale. The Fertile Crescent has some advantages. Firstly, it lies in a zone of Mediterranean Climate, characterized by mild wet winters, and hot dry summers. Many plants have a life cycle of one year. Due to their small lifespan, most of the plants remain small as they spent it on large seeds instead of developing their stems and branches. This was useful for humans since the seeds are edible. 

Another advantage was that the ancestors of many crops grown in this region were abundant and highly productive during the time of the hunter-gatherers. For example, the ancestors of barley and wheat are much like the present crops. Thus, early humans were easily able to recognize their value and domesticate them easily. 

The spread of food production was not uniform across the world 

As we saw previously, organized food production first developed in the Fertile Crescent region, and from there it expanded to other parts of the world. However, the spread of farming to different regions has not been uniform. The main spread of food production has been from Southwest Asia to Europe, Egypt, North Africa, and the Indus Valley region. Later, food production spread further to West, East, and South Africa, towards East and Southeast Asia, and North America. This spread has been at different rates, varying from 0.7 miles a year from Southwest Asia to Europe and towards the Indus, to less than 0.5 miles from Central America to North America. 

Thus, the question which needs to be addressed pertains to the imbalance which exists with respect to the spread of food production across America and Africa, compared to Europe or Asia.  

Regions located at the same latitude are likely to have the same climate, same habitat, same vegetation, and same length of the day. Since the germination, growth, and disease resistance of the plants are adapted to a particular climate, it is much easier for the crops to be grown in areas of the same latitude (that is, across the East-West axis). In comparison, spreading along the north-south axis is much more difficult, since the climate, vegetation, habitat, etc., vary across different latitudes. Thus, plants would have to adapt to these new features, slowing down the spread. 

Apart from latitude, another factor was the presence of certain topographical and ecological barriers which hindered the spread of farming. One such factor is the spread from Southeast to Southwest US, which was separated by the dry and arid plains of Southern US. Another example is the spread from Southeast Asia to Eastern China, separated by the Central Asian desert and the Himalayas. 

 

Westward Ho! The colonization of the Americas was enabled by the technological superiority of the Europeans 

The first people who inhabited America entered through Alaska, crossing the Bering Strait, sometimes before 11,000 BC. Complex agricultural societies developed in Southern America, developing in complete isolation from the Old World. The first contact between Europeans with the New World happened when the Vikings occupied Greenland, between 986 and 1500 AD. However, those visits had little impact on the Native American population. 

The first important encounter between people of the Old World and the New World happened with the “Discovery” of the Caribbean islands by Christopher Columbus in 1492. Perhaps the most important event following this encounter was the defeat of the Incas by Francisco Pizarro, a Spanish colonist. The Incas ruled over a vast empire in South America and had a complex agricultural society. Pizarro was able to capture their king, Atahuallpa, and defeat the native soldiers. 

How did he defeat the vast Inca army? Technological Superiority. Clubs and bows and arrows were no match for guns and steel swords.  

Germs were weapons of mass destruction in the new world 

Most dangerous diseases strike in the form of epidemics, with many people becoming infected in a very short period in a particular area or region. In areas having small populations, everyone gets infected quickly and succumb to the disease, leaving the disease to die out on its own. However, in larger groups of the population, the disease can sustain itself long enough to infect a new generation. 

What this means is, that diseases could never sustain themselves among small bands of hunter-gatherers. Even if a disease infects a tribe, it quickly dies out on its own. Diseases never stay long enough to propagate themselves while no human remains to defend against the diseases. Farming societies, on the other hand, support dense settlements. Diseases are thus able to sustain themselves long enough to acquire new and more dangerous forms while humans can develop resistance over time. 

In the Old World (that is Europe), with the development of farming, diseases were able to propagate themselves far more effectively compared to the diseases of the New World (that is the Americas), where farming developed much later. Thus, Europeans were able to develop resistance against several dangerous diseases, whose pathogens they carried to the New World. The natives of the New World who did not have the time to develop resistance against diseases fell prey to the new diseases they were exposed to and died in large numbers.  

The emergence of Nation-States signaled super specialization of labor and large economies 

In modern times, we are used to living in nation-states, but have we ever wondered what the conditions were like which led to the formation of the nation-state?   

During about 5500 BC, in the Fertile Crescent region, tribes slowly began to evolve into chiefdoms. Chiefdoms consisted of thousands of members, and most members were not related, either by birth or marriage. Chiefdoms were headed by a chief, who was the formal leader and held a hereditary position. Most importantly, the chief reserved the right to use force within the chiefdom, which meant that conflict among members could be resolved peacefully. The egalitarian structure was largely done away with, and clear class stratifications emerged. Division of labour among members meant that there was surplus produce, which was taken by the chief. Thus, there was a class of people consisting of the chief and the ones immediately under him, who had a larger share of resources than others. Thus, a politically elite class began. 

The first states were formed around 3700 BC in Mesopotamia. The sizes of states varied from tens of thousands to over a billion (in present-day China and India). States were vastly different from chiefdoms, with extreme specialization of labour resulting in huge economies. They generated huge amounts of revenue in the form of taxes. The state’s sole right to violence was demonstrated much more clearly since it maintained institutions like the police and the military.  

Final Summary 

The history of mankind has been largely shaped by geographical (topological as well as ecological) constraints. Initially, humans were entirely hunter-gatherers. Due to certain favourable circumstances, farming and animal herding first developed in the Fertile Crescent region. From there, it slowly moved to other parts of the world, at varying rates.  

Since Eurasia was the first region where organized food production developed, it gave a head start to the region in the race of development. This is where tribes, chiefdoms, and later, states, developed first. Technological innovations, such as the development of steel weapons and guns, also happened here. In comparison, certain regions like the Americas and Oceania did not develop much. This is because of slow rates of agricultural growth, due to which other institutions were also slow to develop. Thus, when the Europeans came in contact with the native people of America and Oceania, the natives perished quickly.  

Along with better arms, the Europeans had another important advantage: germs. The Europeans carried dangerous diseases with them against which they had immunity, but the natives did not. As a result, severe epidemics wiped out most of the native population, thus making colonization successful for Europeans. 

Standout section 

In the Prologue of this book, titled “Yali’s question”, the author summarizes the entire book with a very poignant sentence: “History followed different courses for different people because of differences among people’s environments, not because of biological differences among people themselves.” Through his investigation, the writer offers a different perspective to the study of the human past and argues that the differences in the pattern of development of different regions are because of favourable geographical and environmental circumstances.