Guns, Germs, And Steel: An Analysis

The causes for the development of past human societies is a topic widely debated by scientist and historians alike. Ideas such as racism, geography, and pure luck have clashed in desperate attempts to solve the mysteries associated with 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?" (Diamond 14) In Jared Diamond 's Pultzer Prize winning and New York Times Bestselling novel Guns, Germs, and Steel, he attempts to lay the foundation for understanding human history since the evolution of the Homo-Saipan in Central Africa. The causes for the development of past human societies are directly linked to the geography of the Earth in allowing the generation of Guns, Germs, and Steel to create complex states. Although the ideas of racism and luck are reviewed - and eventually rebuked - by Diamond, the idea that a region 's geography and natural resources are what allowed societies to starve or thrive is the sole thesis of his novel. The geography of a given area such as the ancient Fertile Crescent allowed humans to easily cultivate plants and domesticate animals. This in turn led to higher

As more research has been conducted, Diamond 's theory of geographical cause has been further enforced as ideas such as racism and luck are debunked. His personal accounts with New Guinean locals have proved that even modern hunter-gatherers share the same intellectual abilities as rich farmers from Europe; completely contradicting racism. Diamond also goes in depth to explain the reasons why each part of the world ranging from pacific islands to the territory of Greenland developed as it did; shattering the perception that luck could have been a factor. The novel is written in a scientific sense ignoring rare instances such as individual geniuses. As a whole, the novel fulfills its title in labeling the key developments that triggered the power distribution throughout our