Topic > Guns, Germs, and Steel: How the Study of History Expands Our Understanding of Geographic Determinism and Knowledge of Current Social Civilization

“Why did you white people develop so much cargo and bring it to New Guinea, but we did black have little burden on us? Professor Jared Diamond attempted to answer this question posed by a New Guinea politician, Yali, in his film Guns, Germs and Steel. He argued that the reason Eurasian civilizations developed faster than other countries was not due to their racial or biological superiority, but rather their luck and advantages in geography, ecological conditions, and animal domestication. These advantages gave the Eurasians the opportunity to develop weapons of mass destruction, firearms; immunity to germs and the ability to spread and transport using steel: the three major powers that allow Europeans to conquer and dominate. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay According to the film, the origin of agriculture and the site of the first human civilizations were located in the Fertile Crescent. The climate in the region was moderate, with the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers flowing through the land, making it suitable for growing nutritionally rich crops such as wheat and barley on productive agricultural land. The large supply of crops also led hunter-gatherers of the Fertile Crescent to invent underground storage pits to use food and provide leisure. Additionally, as the Earth rotates from east to west, crops in Eurasia were able to spread more quickly and easily along lines of latitude. For example, when it reached Egypt, the crops provided enough food for the Pharaoh and the Egyptian workers, which in turn increased the population and gave them enough energy to get ahead of other countries by building magnificent pyramids and successful civilizations . On the other hand, in countries like Papua New Guinea, geographic barriers such as oceans and mountains have hindered the migration of these crops. Therefore, this barrier causes the citizens of Papua New Guinea not to have enough food to eat. Without barley and wheat, their main food is sago, a starch extracted from palm stems, which not only takes more energy and time to harvest, but also has little nutritional value. As a result, Diamond theorizes that the reason Papua New Guinea was less economically developed was because they had to spend most if not all of their energy and time on food. Along with crops, thirteen of the fourteen domesticated animals were native to Eurasia, including pigs, sheep, goats, cows, and horses. These animals not only provided sources of food (meat, milk, fertilizer) and clothing (wool) for the Eurasians, but also gave them superhuman muscle power to aid them in plowing and harvesting crops, as well as transportation. By living with domesticated animals and eating animal products, natural selection causes Eurasians to develop genetic immunity against diseases or germs. As seen in the film, when the Europeans came into contact with the indigenous Americans, the Europeans wiped out their population with invisible weapons of massacre, which are infectious diseases including smallpox, measles, and influenza. This gave the Europeans advantages in terms of population, as well as making them seem more superior than non-Europeans. As depicted in the film, the Incas were afraid of the Spanish conquerors who rode horses and called them "god-like". In addition to the animals and crops, the dry and hot climate of the Mezzaluna.