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

2. Why is Africa arguably the least powerful/poorest continent on the planet?

3. Why is The united states arguably the wealthiest/most powerful country to ever exist?

4. Human timeline Human evolution 1 million years Agricultural revolution
Homo sapiens 120,000 years ago
Paleolithic
Old stone age
Agricultural revolution
10,000 years ago
Neolithic
New stone age
Industrial revolution
1750 A.D.

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

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

7. Inequality and Extermination
“Historical inequalities
have cast long shadows on the modern world,
because the literate societies with metal tools
have conquered or exterminated the other societies."

8. 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?"

9. Distribution of Wealth
To rephrase,
“Why did wealth and power
become distributed as they now are,
rather than in some other way?”
Distribution of World Wealth

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

11. 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

12. Answer: People in Eurasia had a geographical advantage
Not smarter, more inventive
Best plants for domestication
5,000 years earlier than Americas
Best animals for domestication
East-West orientation
Climate similar
Crops spread easily
Populations
Cultures
Technologies
Eurasians easily conquered other continents

13. Cro Magnons Cro-Magnons moved into Europe 40,000 years ago.
Technologies:
Tools, needles, fishhooks, harpoons, bows and arrows, sewn clothing, houses, carefully buried skeletons, art, hunting big prey.
Displaced or killed off Neandertals
Cave Paintings, Lascaux France

14. Spreading Out 40,000-30,000 years ago Technology:
water craft to cross from Asia to Indonesia to Australia and New Guinea.
Time period correlates to
massive extinction of large game in those places.

15. Large Game in Eurasia Diamond's theory:
large game survived in Eurasia because
humans took a million years
to develop tools
become lethal predators of large game
Gave Eurasian game time to adapt.

16. Spreading to the Americas
20,000 years ago
Technology
clothing and shelter to survive Siberia
led to migration to Americas by 12,000 BC.
It took 1,000 years for humans to get to S. America.
Time period correlates to
massive extinction of large game in Americas:
Horses, lions, elephants, cheetahs, camels, and giant ground sloths.

17. A Natural History Experiment
1835
Chatham Islands discovered by British Seal Hunting ship
500 miles off coast of New Zealand
News told to native New Zealanders
Chatham Islands:
Abundance of fish, food
Inhabitants numerous
Don’t know how to fight
No weapons

18. Chatham Islands

19. Maori of New Zealand
Nine hundred of the native Maori people of New Zealand,
armed with guns,
arrived in the Chatham Islands
announced that the Chatham Islands people (the Moriori)
were now their slaves,
and killed those who objected.
Maori Warrior

20. 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 Warrior

21. 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".
Maori Warrior

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

23. Moriori When the the Moriori moved 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.

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

25. 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".

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

27. 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.
Machu Picchu, Peru

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

29. Treachery Pizarro ambushed and captured Atahuallpa
used religion to justify it.
collected a huge ransom in gold and silver,
killed him anyway.
Inca Gold

30. Eyewitness Report sent to the King of Spain
“The prudence, fortitude, military discipline, labors, perilous navigations, and battles of the Spaniards – vassals of the most invincible Emperor of the Roman Catholic Empire, our natural King and Lord– will cause joy to the faithful and terror to the infidels. For this reason, and for the glory of God our Lord and for the service of the Catholic Imperial Majesty, it has seemed good for me to write this narrative, and to send it to Your Majesty that all may have a knowledge of what is here related...”
Charles V: Holy Roman Emperor, King of Spain

31. Eyewitness Report sent to the King of Spain
“It will be to the glory of God, because they have conquered and brought to our holy Catholic Faith so vast a number of heathens, aided by His holy guidance. It will be to the honor of our Emperor because, by reason of his great power and good fortune, such events happened in his time. It will give joy to the faithful that such battles have been won, such provinces discovered and conquered, such riches brought home for the King and for themselves; and that such terror has been spread among the infidels, such admiration excited in all mankind…”

32. Eyewitness Report sent to the King of Spain
“The booming of the guns, and the rattles on the horses threw the Indians into panicked confusion. The Spaniards fell upon them and began to cut them to pieces. The Indians were so filled with fear that they climbed on top of one another, formed mounds, and suffocated each other. Since they were unarmed, they were attacked without danger to any Christian. The cavalry rode them down killing and wounding, and following in pursuit…”

33. Spanish Conquest Government Economy Ideology King of Spain
New World resources: gold, land
Religious justification

34. 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.

35. Inca Empire Started as the Inca tribe
City-state of Cusco
Expansion by conquest of neighboring regions
Began 1438
Successful conquest and assimilation
along coast of South America
Cusco was capitol
Wealthy
Collected tribute from conquered parts of empire

36. Why not the other way?
Why did Europeans have all of the advantages instead of the Incas?
Inca empire brutal, successful
Why didn't the Incas
invent guns and steel swords,
have horses,
or bear deadly diseases?
Answer:
Adopted agriculture 5,000 years later
Population and technology behind
No horses in the new world
No large animal agriculture (only llama)
Eurasian epidemic diseases originated in animal agriculture
Inca
Inca Warrior

37. Advantages of Agricultural Societies
More food so more people
Technology development
Metallurgy
Tools, weapons
Writing
Labor
Agriculture
Public works
Warriors
Conquest
Land
Slaves
Resources

38. Agricultural Revolution
Hunters & Gatherers
Agriculture
Food production
Expanding population & environmental destruction
Conquest for land
Population Growth
Technology
Culture

39. Agricultural Society Hierarchy
Elite
Conquest
Wealth, Tribute
Food, Resources
Conquered & Exploited: Peasants, Slaves, Workers

40. Advantages of Agricultural Societies
Domestic animals
Meat
Pull plows and carts
Transportation
War and trade
Furs and fiber
Fertilizer
Deadly germs
Transfer to humans
Become epidemic diseases

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

42. 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."

43. Independent Crop Domestication
Middle East (8,000 BC)
Wheat, pea, olive
Asia
Almond, apple, soybean
China
Rice, common millet
Mexico (3,000 BC)
Maize, squash, beans
South America
Potato, Cassava, Peanut
Africa
Sorghum, pearl millet
USA
Sunflower
Other people adopted these crops (and domesticated animals) later as a cultural package

44. http://upload. wikimedia

45. 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

46. 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."

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

48. Early Plant Domestication
Humans unknowingly selected for traits:
seed size, fiber length
lack of bitterness
early germination
Self pollination
dispersal mutations
wheat that does not shatter
seeds that stay in pods

49. Sowing by Broadcast Grains in Eurasia were sown by broadcast,
later in animal plowed fields to give monoculture.

50. Digging Sticks In the new world, Result: mixed gardens.
planting done by digging stick
no domesticated plow animals
Result: mixed gardens.

51. 80% of World’s Production:
Wheat
Maize
Rice
Barley
Sorghum
Soybean
Potato
Cassava
Sweet potato
Sugar cane
Sugar beet
Banana
Maize

52. Major Domesticated Crops
No new plants domesticated
in modern times
Major crops
domesticated  thousands of years ago.
Need a suite of domesticated plants
to make agriculture work
New plants were domesticated
where agriculture was already successful
Rice

53. Fertile Crescent Tigris and Euphrates valley Nile valley Levant Iraq
Egypt
Levant
Jordan
Palestine

54. 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.
32 of 56 large seeded grass species of the world.
Big animals for domestication:
goat, sheep, pig, cow

55. MesoAmerica (Mexico) Only two domesticated animals in Meso America
Turkey and dog
Maize was slow to domesticate
5,000 years after domestication of wheat
Mexican Maize

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

57. Animal Domestication in Eurasia
Dates for animal domestication BCE

58. Horse Domestication in Eurasia
Kurgans: Battle-Axe People. 3,000 BCE

59. 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

60. 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

61. 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

62. 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, Africa
Therefore large Eurasian population resulted
Dominant in technology
Eurasian Climates

63. Evidence Most crops in Eurasia domesticated only once.
Rapid spread East-West
preempted same or similar domestication.
Fertile Crescent crops spread
to Egypt,
N. Africa,
Europe,
India
and eventually to China.
East-West Eurasian Climate Zones

64. Spread of Chariots in E-W Eurasia
Dates are BCE

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

66. Americas
Distance between cool highlands of Mexico and Andes only 1,200 miles
but separated by low hot tropical region.
Thus, no exchange of crops, animals, writing, wheel.
Only maize spread.
America Climatic Zones

67. Americas It took 2,000 years for maize to cross 700 miles of desert
to reach U.S.A.
It took another years
for maize to adapt to U.S.A. climate to be productive
North America Climatic Zones

68. 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 central Africa with Bantu culture and conquest
did not cross to S. Africa due to climate.
Bantu
African Climates

69. Not a Cultural Issue
Some species independently domesticated in different parts of the world.
Cows, dogs, pigs
These animals were well suited for domestication.
Modern attempts to domesticate:
eland, elk, moose, musk ox, zebra, American Bison
are only marginally successful.
Distribution of domestic animals geographic
Not cultural superiority
Example: Native Americans easily adapted to horses
Wild boar: easily domesticated