2. Guns, Germs, and Steel The Fates of Human Societies
based on the book of the same name by Jared Diamond

3. 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?

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

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

6. …other parts developed only non-literate farming societies…

7. …and still others remained societies of hunter-gatherers with stone tools…

8. 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."

9. 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?"

10. 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

11. Common explanations Racial or genetic superiority?
No objective evidence for this theory

12. 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

13. Up to the Starting Point
Chapter 1
Up to the Starting Point

14. 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

15. 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.

16. 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.

17. 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.

18. A Natural Experiment of History
Chapter 2
A Natural Experiment of History

19. 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".

20. Chatham Islands

21. Maori of New Zealand
Nine 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.

22. Moriori Slaughter An 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

23. Maori Explanation A 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".

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

25. 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.

26. Maori The New Zealand Maori The difference was geography.
continued farming
dense populations
more complex technology and political organization
ferocious wars:
The difference was geography.
Competing agricultural societies are prone to warfare

27. Collision at Cajamarca
Chapter 3
Collision at Cajamarca

28. 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 "

29. Pizarro
The Incas were conquered by the Spaniard Francisco Pizarro.

30. 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.

31. Guns, Germs and Steel
Pizarro, however, had steel armor and swords, horse mounted cavalry, and guns (a minor factor).

32. 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

33. 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.

34. Conquistadors
Pizarro got his treacherous ideas from the experience of Cortez.
The Incas knew nothing of Spaniards.
Cortez and Montezuma

35. 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

36. 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?

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

38. “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.

39. 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.

40. 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

41. How Were Wild Plants Domesticated?

42. 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
All of these evolved slowly over thousands of years. Almonds but not acorns

43. 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

44. 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

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

46. Why New Guineans Didn’t Develop Agriculture
No domesticable grain crops
Root crops lacking in protein
No domesticable large mammal species

47. 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)

48. 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.

49. 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.

51. The Role of Domesticable Animals in Food Production
“Domesticable animals are all alike; every undomesticable animal is undomesticable in its own way” (Diamond).

52. Provided by Domestic Animals
Meat
Milk Products
Fertilizer
Transport
Leather
Military assault vehicles
Plow traction
(Germs)

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

54. Eurasia had 13 0f 14 domesticable animals.
See slide of these animals

55. 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)

56. 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)

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

58. 14 Domestic Mammals Animal Wild ancestor Date (BCE) location Sheep
Asiatic mouflon sheep
8000
West and Central Asia
Goat
Bezoar goat
West Asia
Cow
Aurochs
6000
Eurasia and North Africa
Pig
Wild boar
Horse
Wild horses
4000
Southern Russia
(minor 9)
Arabian camel (1-hump)
Wild camel
2500
Arabia
Bactrian camel (2-hump)
Central Asia
Llama and Alpaca
Guanaco
3500
Andes
Donkey
African wild ass
North Africa
Reindeer
Wild reindeer
Northern Eurasia
Water buffalo
Wild water buffalo
Southeast Asia
Yak
Wild yak
Himalayas and Tibet
Bali cattle
Banteng
Mithan
Gaur
India and Burma
Eurasian?

59. 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?

60. 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.

61. 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.

62. 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)
Some too finicky about diests, sosts of supplying food (calorie costs) elephants grow to adulthood too slowly

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

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

65. Why Did Ideas About Plants and Animals spread more quickly in Eurasia?
Axes
Eurasia
The Americas
Africa

66. GERMS! Diseases have been major shapers of history Influenza of 1918
European conquests of Americas (Spanish conquistadors, English settlers)
See chart of major axses

67. 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

68. 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)
Add chart of diseases from livestorck

69. New Zoonotic Diseases?
AIDS
Lassa Fever
Lyme Disease
Hanta viruses

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

71. 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)

72. 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

73. Written language aided in conquering of new lands.
Last slide.

74. GUNS AND STEEL

75. 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

76. Religions vary widely in their willingness to adopt technology
Depending on geography, information about technological advances will reach some people and not others

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

78. “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?

79. Levels of Social Organization Evolve from Least to Most Complex
Bands
Tribes
Chiefdoms
States

80. 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

81. 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
But being closely related helps!

82. 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

83. 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

84. 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

85. 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

86. 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

87. 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

88. 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.

89. Development Diagram Ultimate Factors East/West Axis
Many suitable wild species
Ease of species spreading
Many domesticated plant and animal species
Food surpluses, food storage
Large, dense, sedentary, stratified societies
technology
Proximate Factors
horses
Guns, steel swords
Ocean-going ships
Political organization, writing
Epidemic disease

90. Chapter 16: How China Became Chinese

94. Isolation + Conquest = Writing System and Language Unification

100. 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.

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

102. 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

104. That’s All, Folks! Don Rechtman www.OrfeoMusic.org
QQ (oorfeo)

105. Links for 枪炮、病菌与钢铁
One resource for buying the book in Chinese is at
The complete Chinese translation of the book is at
I could not find video with subtitles, but the DVD with Chinese subtitles can be found at Book City and online.
Part 1:
Part 2: