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Guns Germs And Steel Summary

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In Guns, Germs, and Steel, Jared Diamond answers Yali’s question, “Why is it that you white people developed so much cargo, but we black people have little cargo of our own?”. Diamond begins his research in Papua, New Guinea where he says people have been living for 40,000 years. In Papua, Diamond discovers that gathering is both more productive and effective rather than hunting. He wonders why these New Guineans did not advance like more developed countries did. Geographic luck is the term that comes into play. Crops, animals, and climate effect geographic luck. The New Guineans were not lucky when it came to what crops and animals were provided in their environment. However, the Fertile Crescent’s environment contained productive crops and helpful animals, thus propelling them …show more content…

The Incas were going about their life peacefully, until they caught sight of men on horses. “To the Incas, the sight of Pizarro’s conquistadors passing through their land is extraordinary. They’ve never seen people carried by their animals before. Some think they are gods.” (Diamond). The sight of the white men stunned them so much they gave offerings and treated them well. Historian Efrain Trelles states that the Incan leader, Ataxalpa, played a mind game with the Spaniard, being nice and inviting them in, but really prepared for attack. 80,000 Incas stood ready for battle, however, they were unarmed. Diamond says the Spaniards tried to introduce the bible to the Incas. The problem was that they couldn’t read it! That misunderstanding led to a massacre of thousands of Incas. Diamond estimates around 7,000 to be more precise. Francisco Pizzaro and his men did not suffer any casualties themselves when they conquered these natives. The concept of guns in Guns, Germs, and Steel ties in again as one of the main factors that shaped human

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466 Words | 2 Pages

In the book, Guns Germs and Steel, Jared Diamond attempts to answer questions of conquest, such as why Eurasia conquered the Americas, and not the other way around. Diamond is a biologist by trade, and both impressed and disappointed the academic world with his new historian side. He believes the answer to western dominance lies in geography and the spread of guns, germs and steel. His theories had led him to be heavily critiqued by historians everywhere, including environmental historian J.R McNeil and Professor of Anthropology and Geography James Blaut. While Diamond provides solid ideas relating to the conquest of the New World, he often uses his scientistic background loosely with unclear supports forgetting other historical factors that

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580 Words | 3 Pages

It raises the question of how the Spanish viewed the natives: as people standing in the way of their gold, or fascinating and interesting people with rich culture and

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960 Words | 4 Pages

The first Europeans set foot on the New World was by a complete accident. Despite their differences, the Spanish was fed and sheltered by a group of Indians. The Spanish’s warm welcome was cut short when they began to spread diseases to the Indian group, killing over half of them. I can understand how the indigenous people would be enraged at these strangers, however in the Spanish’s defense they were not aware of the threat they posed to the Indian tribe. Eventually, the leader of this Spanish expedition escaped the clutches of the angry tribe and trekked onto Mexico.

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467 Words | 2 Pages

The Spanish conquest on the Mayans was a significant event during the 1500’s. The Spanish conquest brought their military equipment’s that was no match for the Mayan Indians. As the conquest continued to expand throughout Central America there was little unity among other tribes beside the Mayan empire. The reason for this is because they believe that the Spanish were much inferior to their own beliefs and ancestry.

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759 Words | 4 Pages

Francisco Pizarro was a Spanish explorer who conquered many places and gained land for Spain. He went on numerous explorations where he founded Peru and its capital. Pizarro was historically important due to explorations he led and participated in. He was a participant in the exploration and discovery of the Pacific Ocean and the city of San Sebastian. He also founded Peru and conquered the Incan people.

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1079 Words | 5 Pages

Throughout the late 1400’s and the 1500’s, the world experienced many changes due to the discoveries of new lands and peoples that had been never been visited before. The new-found lands of the Americas and exploration of Africa by the Europeans led to new colonies and discoveries in both areas. It also brought different societies and cultures together that had never before communicated, causing conflict in many of these places. While the Europeans treated both the Native Americans and West Africans as inferior people, the early effects they had on the Native Americans were much worse. Beginning in the late 1400’s, many different European explorers started to look for new trade routes in the Eastern Hemisphere in order to gain economic and religious power.

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573 Words | 3 Pages

The author gives insight on how many ways the Spaniards used their power to assist in the downfall of the Aztecs. The reason why the Spaniards became victorious, was because the Spaniards were looked upon as if they were gods because of their outer appearance. The Aztecs broke bread and welcomed the Spaniards with gifts and parties. The Aztecs triggered their relationship with the Spaniards by holding a ritual for the arrival of the god which included a human sacrifice. The Spaniards didn’t agree with the rituals and began to despise the Aztecs.

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209 Words | 1 Pages

In Francisco Pizarro’s case, they took down the Incas. Cortez and Pizarro met a difficulty when facing enemies. Both explorers only had a couple hundred soldiers. Most small armies would not have been able to dismantle such a large and expansive empires. Despite that, they still eradicated the Incas and Aztecs.

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867 Words | 4 Pages

“ It should be kept in mind that their insatiable greed and ambition, the greatest ever seen in the world, is the cause of their villainies.” (Las Casas) The people of Spain used murder and slavery as a means to depopulate the Islands due to their greed. According to Casas, the number of slain Indians is about 15 million in the fourty years that the Spaniards have intruded on the Natives land. Young men and rulers were killed, while women and young children were forced to be slaves to the Christians.

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2014 Words | 9 Pages

From 1540 to 1600 the Pueblo Indians of New Mexico were subjected to seven consecutive waves of soldiers, missionaries, and settlers. These encounters, referred to as the Entradas, were characterized by violent actions between Spanish colonists and Pueblo Indians. The Tiguex War, fought in the winter of 1540-41 by the expedition of Francisco Vásquez de Coronado against the twelve pueblos of Tiwa Indians, was particularly catastrophic to Pueblo and Spanish relations. (Handbook of North American Indians. pg.

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993 Words | 4 Pages

When thinking of the Spanish Conquest, two groups often come to mind: the Spaniards and the Native Americans. The roles of each of these groups and their encounters have been so heavily studied that often the role of Africans is undermined. As Matthew Restall states in his article Black Conquistadors, the justifications for African contribution are often “inadequately substantiated if not marginalized [as the] Africans were a ubiquitous and pivotal part of the Spanish conquest campaigns in the Americas […]” (Restall 172). Early on in his article, Restall characterizes three categories of Africans present during the Conquest – mass slaves, unarmed servants of the Spanish, and armed auxillaries (Restall 175).

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1405 Words | 6 Pages

1. Esperanza will donate to the poor considering the fact that she previously stated one of the previous vignettes titled “Bums in the Attic” “One day I’ll own my own house, but I won’t forget who I am or where I came from. Passing bums will ask, Can I come in? I’ll offer them the attic, ask them to stay, because I know how it is to be without a house.”, which highlights her generosity and her willingness to help others. Her role as writer gives her a huge amount of responsibility to change her community since she inspires hope in the heart of her community with her vignettes the few times she has read them and her family has continued to encourage her.

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266 Words | 2 Pages

Jared Diamond's theory is accurate. He claims that having geographic luck is fundamental for growing nutritious crops. Which is factual. On one hand, there is Asia. Asia's latitude is between 30-50% North of the equator.

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975 Words | 4 Pages

Using war equipment that the Aztec had never seen before and different battle techniques, Cortes and his men were able to quickly and effectively conquer Tenochtitlan. During battle against the Aztecs, animals from Spain that served in many battles called horses (about twelve), as well as swords and crossbows (a much more advanced version of the Aztec war club and spear-thrower) were labelled as advanced technology as they were quicker, deadlier, and consequently more efficient. These many advantages against the Aztecs and their traditional weapons; and therefore the Spaniards won many battles alongside their allies, and succeeded greatly by using guns that were far more powerful than the Aztecs' weapons. Unfair as it is, this gave the Spanish explorer a supremacy in conquering one of the most elaborate European cities at the time. “The Aztecs were unable to rebel against the Spaniards because most of them were sick or dead from smallpox.

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1506 Words | 7 Pages

When Tenochtitlan was destroyed, the warriors “stared at the ruins of their city in dazed silence, and the women and children and old men were all weeping” (p.122), nevertheless they persisted and survived these events. The Broken Spears show the conquest’s emotional, human impact on the natives, despite the subjectivity this might entail. Nevertheless, the events ring true, and have been academically vetted—leading to suggest that this account is historically accurate,

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