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Guns Germs And Steel Chapter Summary

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Europe’s colonisation had major influences upon Africa’s development as a society. The book “Guns, Germs and Steel” written by American Ecologist, Jared Diamond, claims that Africa developed independently and with little major influence from Europe and its people. Moreover, Africa was colonized because of the natural landscape rather then the social and cultural influence from Europe. Controversially, historian Gene Callahan, opposes and describes Africa was developed based was off their own tradition and knowledge rather than through the influence of Europe. Jared Diamond has a valuable perspective on how Europe possibly impacted Africa’s development as a society. Europe’s encroachment upon Africa revolutionized their society, however the …show more content…

Once explorers arrived in Africa, they were stripped of the farming identity and forced to expand their production to serve needs of the western world. The geographical location of Africa made them susceptible to colonization of Europe and additionally for the similar agricultural views. Africa depended profoundly on the species of plants and animals that were available them consequently, to Europe who farmed similarly, traveled to acquire more goods from neighboring countries sharing an alike climate. The prompt for Europe to attempt to overthrow Africa is the abundance of resources vastly available. Africa’s nutrient rich soil and ideal weather patterns for certain type of crops made Europe attracted to this land. After years of colonization and stripping the land of its crops and animals Europe left with all the resources they will need. As white racists assume, Europe’s colonization over Africa resulted in a loss of natural resources was because of the inefficiency and stupidity of African citizens however, the lure of an abundance of resources and goods made Africa susceptible to …show more content…

Natural African traditions to prepare crops were loss when they were forced to lay guards on their land. In the late 1800’s and early 1900’s Africa faced Europe’s imperialist antagonism and colonization which followed the collapse of the slave trade and the Industrial Revolution. The prompt for Europe to attempt to overthrow Africa is the abundance of resources vastly available. This period was a revolution of innovative changes that ultimately lead to the demise of old African kingdoms and their reconfiguration into changed political entities. After Europe’s colonization it was difficult for Africa to retain their traditional identity and traditions that have been developed for years and were forced to change when their land had to take on the new responsibly of serving the western world and their own people. Europe’s colonization upon Africa transformed their society however the differences between these civilizations forced changes upon Africa’s society and past cultures and

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1286 Words | 6 Pages

Before the industrial revolution though Africa was hard to capture and conquer fully, this was due to serval reasons the main reasoning being diseases (conquerors would die from diseases before they could explore far into this content). With the industrial revolution though explorations had better ships to explore up that lead into central Africa, they had better guns to kill Africans with; which made exploration into Africa even easier and soon came the discovery of the cinchona tree that contained quinine that prevented malaria. In time Africa became divided and conquered by serval European nations, which meant that African political power would shift to the nation that conquered them and that the society and people would be treated as slaves to produces a much raw resources for Europeans to sell and make

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1101 Words | 5 Pages

In addition, Document C is a chart that presents inventions and discoveries that aided European colonizers in taking over Africa. The purpose of this document was to display European advancement and the utilities which were brought about by the acquisition of raw materials, which allowed them to travel further into Africa, take control, and continue the process of harvesting their raw materials. This evidences how the search for raw materials led to the creation of the inventions listed on the chart and how their purpose was to bring the European nations who used them power on the grounds of geopolitics. Although some of these inventions don’t seem much now, the steam engine, electric telegraph, and other such creations were made in certain places of European places and will forever being remembered as a certain nation’s product, which is similar to Germany and Japan with Toyota and Volkswagen brand cars, respectively, that are still currently being made

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822 Words | 4 Pages

Have you ever had the feeling of being more superior than anyone else, and that you could take anything/everything away from them in a period of time. This is what the European countries did to African community such as taking all of their culture, pride, land, and resources. Through 300 years(1500-1800) there were many new creations, inventions, and trades happening around Africa. And Africa went through a stage of horror by the european countries trying to take over parts of Africa. In a political point of view in “Document A” it showed all of the seven countries taking over Africa, In “Document C” it has showed that the technology was a key role in the imperialism, lastly is “Document E” that has showed how all of the money paid into another

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415 Words | 2 Pages

During the 15th century, the world was caught in the age of exploration. After Columbus, everyone realized that there were still undiscovered land masses that held numerous resources and extreme profit. Due to the fact that the Americas were occupied by Spain and Portugal, much of Europe turned its eyes to Africa. Consequently, Africa was a huge land mass that was just waiting to be explored, especially since Portugal hadn’t gone beyond the outer edge. The reasons for European imperialism in Africa were due to the want for more resources to boost the economy, the advantage of better technology, and a need to establish a position of power.

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1776 Words | 8 Pages

1. Yali ’s question is about the origins of inequality between societies in the world. He wants to know why people of European descent are rich and powerful while non-white people tend to lack wealth and power. Yali wonders if there is something wrong with non-white people like him, as they are not as technologically or economically advanced as white people.

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830 Words | 4 Pages

Based on the documents provided, it can be argued that the Europeans were unwelcome and sparked a great disturbance among the African people during new imperialism period all across Africa based on the following perspectives from documents 4 and 9 which demonstrate brutal violence towards Africans, documents 6 and 7 which call for help to remove the presence of the Europeans, and documents 2 and 3 represent how these Africans state wish to avoid being under European power. Throughout the history of European colonization, there is evidence that the Europeans have disrupted and separated majority of the African continent. Based on the documents provided, each document individually states their own problems with the European occupying African

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818 Words | 4 Pages

European contact with sub-Saharan Africa around the 1500’s was not mutually beneficial because they had different needs. The economic exchanges and political relationships were based off of European’s relations with the Upper class of Africa, however not the majority of Africa. Due to the massive expansion of Europe, they wanted to continue to grow, and the only way to do that was to open trading ports all around the world. In the end, Europe benefited from trading with Africa and they are the ones who ended up

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326 Words | 2 Pages

These are nationalism, culture attitude, and economics. In the long run the race for Africa led to a war within Europe. Africa on this day still has European influences in their everyday lives. To this day Africans still strive to survive. Europe strives to be one of the top countries in the world

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640 Words | 3 Pages

European nations exported goods such as, cotton, palm oil, coffee, sugar, rubber, ivory, gum, copper, zinc, lead, coal, and diamonds, and more. A faster way of collecting resources was owning slaves and having them do the job of going to get the resources, they weren’t paid so it saved the Europeans a lot of money, and a lot of time. But it still wasn’t fair for European nations just to invade a land and then have the people that previously lived there work for you it's just so discourteous to the African people. Along with that the people were forced to extract resources from their land and give it up to the Europeans and if they did not meet their quota they were punished harshly sometimes even getting their hands cut

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262 Words | 2 Pages

Jared Diamond is correct in his analysis that European subjugation of Africans was due to differences in land, plant, and animal resources. The difference in “real estate” between Eurasia and Africa allowed for Europe to develop and industrialize earlier, which allowed them to explore and colonize much of Africa. The differences between the two continents included animals that were more easily domesticated, more plant diversity, and less diversity in land that created a better environment for the spread of livestock in Eurasia. This benefited the food production on the continent, which enabled Eurasia to develop guns, literacy, and political organizations more quickly than Africa. The development in Eurasia placed the continent in a position

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1671 Words | 7 Pages

As a consequence of a drive for European expansion, which then became a widespread competition for imperial power, Europeans explored inland Africa. The driving force was greed for financial gain and power that led them to further infiltrate and exploit Africa. They were aided in their conquest for colonisation by their military superiority, advancements in technology which made the

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949 Words | 4 Pages

In fact, the commercial ties between Europe and Africa operated mostly on equal, reciprocal terms: “African trade with Europe was very much the mirror image of European trade with Africa” (Thornton 54). Understanding this reciprocal nature is helpful in appreciating the equality of Europe and Africa, both being independent, autonomous characters. We must appreciate this equality in order to move past the academic objectification of Africa. As a complete contradiction to Early’s assertions, Afro-European relationships could be hurtful to Europeans. As a specific example, a British trader in the Dahomian territory of 1812 wrote with frustration about the extreme subordination Europeans in Africa experienced: “the ferocious King of Dahomey…tyrannizes over the Governor and the few people about him, as to render such subjection utterly disgraceful to the British flag” (Law 61).

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418 Words | 2 Pages

Many European countries like Britain, France, Germany and many more, dedicated their time and effort to colonize the precious land of Africa. When the Industrial Revolution was booming in Europe, they found Africa to be the home of many crucial raw materials and the scramble for Africa commenced. The apex of this race was reached at around the tardy 18th century, and the competition became much more excruciating. By this time, many countries in Africa were pierced by the sharp-penetrating bullets of European Imperialism. These bullets left deep impacts in the African culture to this day.

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565 Words | 3 Pages

So Europe invaded Africa, took possession of Africa, and divided Africa into colonies of Europe. The period of invasion, lasting some twenty years, was more or less completed by 1900. There followed a longer period, between sixty and ninety years, of direct European rule, called colonial rule. This was a time of profound upheaval for all of Africa’s peoples. It brought irreversible changes” (4).

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913 Words | 4 Pages

The only thing Europeans loved more than political power was increasing their trade. In the 1800’s European nations had a desire to get a lead to widespread imperialism in Africa. With the end of slavery in 1833, European interest in Africa shifted to seizing colonies. King Leopold of Belgium acquired a private country in Africa that was 95 times bigger than Belgium and his purpose was to make money by taking out ivory and rubber.

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