Guns, Germs, And Steel By Jared Diamond

In Guns, Germs, and Steel, Jared Diamond opposed the idea that European civilizations have advanced further than their contemporaries in other continents because their inhabitants were intellectually superior. Instead, he supported the notion that some civilizations developed at a quicker pace than others because of the environmental differences that were present in the continents where they resided. Factors such as wildlife, climate, and the types of resources presented in an area have dramatically affected the growth and development of hunter-gatherer groups into villages, and eventually, nations. In places where the environmental conditions were not ideal, the inhabitants were not able to advance as far as other civilizations. Diamond disproved

When the Spanish conquistadors came upon the Incan Empire, they realized that there were bountiful amounts of treasure such as gold and silver, which tempted them to conquer the empire and found their own colonies. Consequently, the conquistadors, led by Francisco Pizarro, fought the Inca and utilized their steel weapons and horses, as well as the smallpox virus to rout their enemies. The conquistadors easily defeated the Inca, who were already fighting a civil war before the Spaniards arrived. In order to legitimize their ruthless killing of the Inca, the Spaniards said that they were ridding God of His enemies and preventing the Inca from insulting His rule. The supposedly religiously motivated clash between the Spaniards and the Inca resulted in the decline of the Incan Empire and the expansion of Spanish rule throughout Central America. It wasn’t European intellectual superiority, but a war incited by religious beliefs, inner turmoil, as well as a smallpox-endemic that weakened and resulted in the conquest of societies in Central and South