Katherine Kemy
File #685079
Guns, Germs and Steel - Reaction Paper
The focus of Jared Diamond's book to is to answer what he terms Yali's question; "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?" As a teacher of global studies, I have often wondered the same thing. Once we move beyond ancient history, the history of the world (or, at least the from the point of view of the global studies curriculum) revolves around the age of imperialism by white people, their subjugation of non‑whites and the modem attempts of non‑whites to establish stability and obtain their share of what Yali terms "cargo”.
When we study European imperialism, we often analyze it in terms of whether or not European imperialism harmed or benefited non-European people. Yet, we do a disservice to the equally compelling question as to why it was the Europeans who conquered Americans, Africans and Asians, rather than the other way around, There are fragmentary mentions of Indian susceptibility to European diseases, better weapons and the geographic and technological advantages which allowed for the European age of Imperialism. But still, we do not answer why it was the Europeans who had these things to begin with. This book has informed my own knowledge about this topic and has also helped piece together other trends and patterns in the development of human history.
Jared Diamond analyzes several factors which he believes contributed to the existing balance of (or imbalance) of the world's resources. In order to answer Yali's question, he speculates about the role of geography, technology, cultural diffusion, agriculture, culture and biology.
Most historians will agree that there are cataclysmic events in human history whose aftershocks are felt centuries later. One such event is the fateful meeting of the Eurasian and North American people in the 1400 and 1500's. The encounter between Francisco Pizarro and the Inca emperor, Atahuallpa encapsulates the basic advantages which the Europeans enjoyed over much of the world at this time. Pizarro's preeminence over the Incas was a combination and culmination of many centuries of divergent developments on the respective continents to the disadvantage of the Incas. Diamond's basic hypothesis is that the Europeans were not "superior in any innate sense over the Incas or Aztecs, but more blessed by geography and nature. In essence, European victory over the Native Americans (and other non‑whites) was the result of taking advantage of conflict between indigenous people (divide and conquer), utilizing the resources of their own centralized governments, the devastating impact of European microbes that the non‑whites had no resistance to and the use of superior military technology (steel, guns and horses).
This book traces the origins of each of the factors which led to the dominance of many non-white people by whites in recent human history. Many historians wondered why, if the non-Europeans were devastated by European genus, didn't the macabre exchange occur in the other direction? Jared Diamond explains that this phenomenon is a result of several converging factors. First of all, there needs to be a large density of human and animal populations cohabitating over a long period of time in order for such virulent and catastrophic epidemics and germs to thrive. These conditions occurred on the Eurasian continent, but not the other way around for a variety of reasons. One explanation was that the Eurasian continent has a lion's share of easily domesticated animals and plants. This in turn created sedentary societies which in turn allowed for population growth. An offshoot of this development was the ability to store surplus food which then could be redistributed as tribute by organized central governments who could then organize and execute public works projects that would gradually centralized control over ever larger numbers of people and thus increase the power and resources available to that government for other projects (such as voyages of exploration, for example).
Yet, a vital link to the European exploration is the development of technology. It was long assumed by certain Eurocentric people that many of mankind's discoveries were the result of European brilliance or genius arising out of the individualistic tradition of the ancient Greeks and Romans. While it is true that such cultural values do tend to breed innovation, that is only half the story. Diamond goes on to explain that many innovations in agriculture and technology were an ongoing lineage (which was particularly strong on the Eurasian continent) and cultural exchanges that led to yet further discoveries. In other words, as Sir Isaac Newton once said, "If I see further than other men, it is because I stand upon the shoulders of giants”. Those groups (such as Europeans and Middle Easterners) who were geographically blessed, were able to utilize and build upon the discoveries of their neighbors and thus make "leaps" that would take more isolated cultures much longer to make. In other words, because there was a fertile cultural exchange due to the fact that the so-called "east-west" axis of the Eurasian continent allowed for easy movement and settlement of various cultures and ideas, there was no need to "reinvent the wheel. This, however, was not the case on the African and American continents, where geographical barriers and climatic variations limited their primary "north‑south axis" flow. Similarly, many island cultures were limited in terms of biodiversity, cultural exchange and the necessary prerequisites for the same type of agricultural, cultural, technological and political developments which made the European so well suited to the domination of other groups of people.
The ability of the Eurasian people to modify, rather than invent everything also extends into writing - a seeming advantage and necessity to the functioning and utilization of a nation-states' strength. For all intents and purposes, the origin of our phonetic alphabet was in Sumer. The Sumerians developed writing to "facilitate the enslavement of other human beings". In other words, the ability to keep records, write laws and generate and record governmental propaganda was an essential centralizing factor. The ability to write and record found other uses in, for example, map making and record keeping for the purposes of, say, exploration! Once again, the proximity of Europeans to Sumerian culture on the "east‑west" axis of cultural exchange made this possible.
A final link to the European dominance over many other groups was their ability to maximize resources through centralized government. The European continent, in particular, has a long history of warfare between many different cultures that attempt to cohabitate and compete for resources in a fairly small area. Eventually, the amalgamation of various people into empires and nations was accomplished through conquest (the Romans) and or external duress (such was the case in the decision of the smaller German states to forsake their hegemony to the larger stronger German Confederation in the late 1800's).
Therefore, if we are to abide by Jared Diamond's conclusions, all human beings have the innate potential to accomplish what those on the Eurasian continent have, but cultural and geographical factors have not been as kind to them as they were to the Europeans in terms of having the resources, desire and ability to acquire cargo the way that the Europeans have done in the past 500 years. However, in the modem world, where historic barriers to cultural diffusion are eliminated, it will be interesting to see the next epoch in human history unfold and see who, if any one group, gains a monopoly on the cargo!