1. Guns Germs and Steel The Fates of Human Societies
By Jared Diamond
1997
Text extracted from Chapters 1-10

3. After the Ice Age Human societies began to change 13,000 years ago
when the last ice age melted

4. After the Ice Age Different societies resulted:
Some literate, industrial
Some illiterate, agricultural
Some hunter gatherers retaining stone tools

5. 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."

6. 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?"

7. 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

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

9. 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

10. 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".

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

12. 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.

13. Guns, Germs and Steel Pizarro had steel armor swords
horse mounted cavalry
guns
a minor factor

14. 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.

15. 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

16. 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."

17. WHY?

18. Advantages of Agricultural Societies
More food, more people.
Domestic animals
Meat
Pull plows, carts
Transportation, war
Furs, fiber
Fertilizer
Deadly germs

19. Advantages of Agricultural Societies
Sedentary Existence
Short birth intervals
higher population densities
Grain Storage
Support specialists:
Kings
bureaucrats
soldiers
priests
artisans.

20. 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

22. 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

23. 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."

24. Food Production Food production often led to poorer health
shorter lifespan
harder labor for the majority of people.

25. 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

26. 80% of World’s Production:
Wheat
Maize
Rice
Barley
Sorghum
Soybean
Potato
Cassava
Sweet potato
Sugar cane
Sugar beet
Banana

27. 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

28. Fertile Crescent

29. 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

30. 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

31. Big 5 Domesticated Animals
Horse
Cow
Pig
Sheep
Goat
All from Eurasia

32. 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

33. 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

34. 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

35. 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.

36. Evidence
Some crops domesticated independently in both S. America and Meso America
due to slow spread
lima beans
common beans
chili peppers

37. 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.

38. 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.

39. 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.

40. 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

41. 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.