Throughout the novel Diamond proves his thesis by showing a chain reaction of events that led to some areas of the world being more prosperous and technologically advanced than others. Diamond explains how populations rose, agriculture progressed and technologies developed which played a role in the evolution of human society. Guns, germs, steel and other advantages change the outcome of wars and sealed the fate of many "inferior" societies. Diamond first begins to prove himself in chapter one by explaining the origins of humans. Diamond explains that Human civilization started in northern Africa in about seven million BC.
With the vast amount of crops that the Virginians would grow they constantly needed to expand their portions of land. Thus they moved westward into fresh, unsettled land where they could produce more crops. With the constant movement they would rarely mess with the deeds to the land. They also still followed the head right system after becoming a royal colony. But because Virginia had a better climate than Massachusetts they would grow more exotic crops.
Despite this, there were some similarities to both economies. The main ones being that the south did actually have some industry, and that underneath the surface, both the north and the south were fundamentally rural. A fundamental difference between the economies of the north and the south was that the north was more urban. The north saw a much larger population of immigrants; this is because industrial expansion and urbanisation created jobs that attracted them to the north more than the south. Out of 5 million immigrants that arrived in America from 1815-1860, 1 in 6 chose to live in the north, compared to 1 in 30 in the south.
Both Mesopotamia and Egypt developed along parallel lines. These civilizations, as they became more complex, created centralized governments which provided order within the realms. Centralized governments in Mesopotamia and Egypt could not have risen without advancements in agriculture. Advancements in agriculture provided a larger yield of crops which in turn provided a surplus. This surplus caused a population increase.
When comparing two vastly different cultures, the question arises, why do certain cultures progress further and faster than others? Through studying societies around the world and comparing them to an underdeveloped society in Papua New Guinea, Jared Diamond concluded in the film Guns, Germs, and Steel that the development of more efficient farming and food sources are the root of this inequality. Respected anthropologists, Franz Boas, who developed the idea of “cultural relativism” and the importance of environment to anthropological studies, and Carl Marx, who stated that without higher economic and social classes new ideas aren’t transmitted into societies, support Diamond’s original argument that protein is the base of the inequality of societal development. Franz Boas supported Jared Diamond’s theories through his idea of “cultural relativism”, stating that anatomical, physiological, and mental characteristics of human beings serve no purpose in anthropological studies. He believed it was more vital to study the events that led to the establishment of various cultures.
Geography played a big role on how countries and developed. Its impact Papua New Guinea determined the country’s growth and development. It allowed the Spanish to conquer the Incan civilization, and affected European crop’s and people in the tropics of Africa. Geography’s impact on Papua New Guinea is what determined the country’s development. Papua New Guinea had a lack of native domesticated animals which made human labor even more important to the agriculture of the land than it already was.
Firstly, the advancement of technology was a big step in rise of towns. When we refer to technology we refer especially to agricultural progressions. That is to say, farmers were able to produce more in less time then before. A few advancements allowed this progression. One of them could be the replacement of oxen by horses for plowing (horses pulled the plow faster).
The Middle East thrived because they were geographically better suited for plants to grow and animals to domesticate, while the rain forest of Papua was only resourceful for wild sago. After searching and exploring Diamond had an answer to Yayi’s question and the answer was geography. Geography is a huge factor, because certain areas are more civilized than others because of location and climate. Looking at the globe, one might not understand why the Middle East flourished and the New Guinea did not. The Middle East had a climate that allowed the growth of different crops that could help the people harvest and make a living for their villages.
English emigrated to America due to high population, high unemployment and the promise of a better life which America was offering. Thomas Malthius published his essay “the principles of population” in 1798. In this he claims that Britain’s population was growing at a faster rate than the food supply, this causing panic and encouraging the government to conduct a census in 1801. The result was 10.501.000, Britons population was estimated to have doubled in fifty years since 1750. This population problem coupled with new agricultural developments such as enclosure acts, which doubled crop production using fewer workers meant that there were many agricultural workers who were jobless.
Both the Americas and Africa were affected environmentally and demographically by the Columbian exchange in ways that benefitted and hurt them between 1492 and 1750. Environmentally, the Americas and Africa had an increase in crops and the production of them. New crops like wheat were brought to the Americas by Europe, allowing more growth, while other staple crops like maize were introduced to Africa by the Americas, creating more growth in the environment from the fields in which they produced all of the new crops as well. Demographically, both the Americas and Africa had some decreases in parts of their population. With the introduction of diseases brought over from Europe, many Native Americans were killed by illnesses they had never