Jared Diamond, the author of Guns, Germs and Steel, was asked a question by New Guinean politician named Yali. Yali asks, “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?” Jared then thinks about this question. He realizes it is a rather difficult question. He knows that there is still a huge difference between the lifestyle of the average New Guinean and the average American or European. He wants to find out why these two peoples are so different. He rephrases Yalis question into why is human development more advanced in some places and not developed as much in other places. For example he also wants to find out why Europeans were the ones to end up with guns and steel, instead of Africans or Native Americans. Jared Diamond wrote Guns, Germs and Steel to prove that some civilizations are more advanced than others because of the environment around them. AJ Mills Chapter 1 summary: Up to the Starting Line In this …show more content…
He argues that there are three types of writing-alphabetic, logogram, and syllabic, but some writing can use parts of all three types. For example, cuneiform, the first language used parts of all three types of writing. He shows in this chapter that writing is an important tool for conquest and expanding civilization. Writing spread faster east to west rather than north to south. Writing can either spread by replicating specific parts of other writing or trying to imitate the general form of other writings. Writing is very useful because you can create maps, keep organized documents, write letters, keep track of taxes, and so on. It is very important for organization and can help a society grow. Therefore the earliest known writing system was in Eurasia and the ideas spread from there so Eurasia had the advantage of writing over other