1. Geographic Luck

3. The Question
Why do areas like North America, Europe, and Asia have so much technological development and wealth while huge continents like Africa have high rates of poverty and disease and remain relatively undeveloped?

4. “Guns, Germs, and Steel” by Jared Diamond

5. The Answer (according to Jared Diamond)
Geographic luck
Some countries developed more rapidly than others and were then able to expand and conquer much of the world because of geographic luck.

6. Year 10,000 BC The world is equal We are all Hunter and Gathers
Hunting our food
Gathering from the land what we can
Moving to find food

7. Advanced Civilizations require
Advanced technology
Large populations
Specialized workforce
QUESTION:
Are Hunter/Gatherers “advanced civilizations”?

8. Hunter/Gatherers  Agricultural Society The road to “advanced civilization”
Get more food than you need, store it for later
Settle down and Build cities
Not everyone has to be a farmer
Development of “specialists” within the civilization who develop the technologies necessary to make these civilizations more profitable, stronger, and more powerful than others around them

9. Two things needed for Agriculture:
cultivating specific crops
the domestication of certain animals
Crops: grows easily, stores over time, a lot of nutrients. Two examples: wheat and barley
Domesticate animals: to help you do work, in particular farming

10. Video - Animals 10,000 years to domesticate animals
2 Millions animals; 148 are domesticated
QUESTION: Of the 148, how many animals have been domesticated to do farming?
QUESTION: Where do you find these animals?
#5 – 3:30 – 4:52

11. Earliest development of people who go from Hunter/Gatherers to Agricultural Society
The Fertile Crescent
Why here?
Geographic Luck
Best place for native crops and native animals

12. Video – Spread of Agriculture leads to a head start for some cultures
Question: What happened to the Fertile Crescent?
Question: How does latitude affect what happens in Europe and USA?
Discussion: Egypt
#6: 0:30 – 5:29

13. What happened to the Fertile Crescent?
Destroyed the environment
Use all water
Cut down the trees
Over farmed
Latitude
similar climate
moved crops and animals and still prospered

14. Egypt Growth of population Specialized workforce (scribes, engineers)
Technology

15. What have we learned? Hunter/Gatherers  Agricultural Society
The cultures who make this move first have an advantage
Why do some make this move before others?
Geographic Luck
The natural resources plus the native species and climate provided by their geography led some cultures to become more agricultural and less dependent on hunting and gathering.

16. Jared Diamond’s Theory
Diamond asserts that those living in temperate climates with indigenous plants and animals that could be domesticated were more likely to develop advanced civilizations.
Next comes: Guns, Germs and Steel