Gun Germs Steel

1. Diamond considers three general ideas as he attempts to answer Yali’s Question which is

“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?” The First consideration is How people

should learn history so that horrible events that have happened in the past never reoccur.

The second consideration is that he does not just focus on European relationships, but

rather relationships between countries in other parts of the world as well as seeing how

the culture of different regions affect each other. Finally, the third consideration is that he

consistently insists that he does not claim that factories and assembly lines are better than

hunting and gathering, and maintains that his approach to the question is completely

unbiased when it comes to that aspect of the question. (GGS pg.15-24)

2. In 1532, Inca emperor Athuallpa and Spanish Conquistador Francisco Pizzaro met in

Cajamarca. After only within a few minutes of meeting each other, Pizzaro had captured

Athuallpa. In my opinion, this capture was the main reason the Inca lost to Spain. I

believe this because Athuallpa was looked at as a sun-god by the people of Inca and the

people took commands from him even as he was held hostage. This allowed the Spanish

to use Athuallpa to collect knowledge that they had wanted from there as well as enough

gold to choke a hungry, hungry hippo. After this, Pizzaro cowardly sent back on the

promise to free Athuallpa and eventually killed him, which assumingly resulted in the

devastation of many and allowed Spain to h=gain victory with very little effort.

(GGS pg. 66)

3. In Guns, Germs, and Steel, Jared Diamond presents how crucial timing is in countless

numbers of occurrences throughout history. One situation would be in the Inca defeat at
 Cajamarca where Francisco Pizzaro would capture emperor Athuallpa by surrounding

him when possible, as well as another instance where Pizzaro waited until he got what he

wanted from the land and then killed Athuallpa to make his victory even easier. Lastly

the emphasis on timing and its importance was when Jared Diamond himself could walk

alongside Yali who then was able to ask him this important question that would lead to

Jared Diamond writing this book to answer such a question. (pg.13 and 66)

4. The advancement of the first alphabet from Sequoyah to help people communicate can

resemble the many ways technology has advanced to allow much more simple

communication. For example, Bluetooth allows you to communicate with others where

ever you are whether you are jogging or even driving. Both advancements were directed

towards making communication less of a hassle,

5. Development and Transformation of social structures is a theme that is mentioned

multiple times throughout this book. A prime example of a society developing its status

would be Spain. Francisco Pizzaro was a conquistador at a time where was already a

social giant compared to other countries around the world. He helped Spain at the

expense of the Inca’s by capturing and killing their leader, gathering plenty of knowledge

on the area, as well as receiving plenty and plenty of gold. Victories such as these would

allow Spain to be economically successful for many years to come.

On the Opposite end of the spectrum is a New Guinea. As Yali asks why his

people have very little cargo when the white men came to the land and developed

so much of it. The White people, specifically European ones have conquered so

much of the land and resources to where countries like New Guinea and most

countries in Africa had very little chance of succeeding. This can also be
 accounted to religious beliefs that leaders and groups of people may have that

limits their potential industrially and agriculturally. Lastly, the laws and ideology

that are put in place should attract others to be able to build any form of a

successful nation. (GGS pg. 13-15 and 66)

6. In his article “Jared Diamond: Against Humanity” on History.com, Jason Antrosio claims

that Guns Germs and Steel makes many illogical claims and that Jared Diamond leaves

out many opinions or factors in the book that he turns back on in other novels he writes,

for example Antrosio states that “[GGS] has almost no role for human agency–the ability

people have to make decisions and influence outcomes.” I do agree with this criticism as

he also provides how Diamond includes the idea of human agency in another novel

named Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed.