Guns Germs and Steel

The Fates of Human Societies

Jared DiamondText extracted from Chapters 1-10

Human timeline

• Human evolution 1 million years– Homo sapiens 120,000 years ago

– Paleolithic• Old stone age

• Agricultural revolution– 10,000 years ago

– Neolithic• New stone age

• Industrial revolution– 1750 A.D.

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After the Ice Age

• Human societies began to change 13,000 years ago– when the last ice age

melted

http://trylobyte.files.wordpress.com/2008/04/ice_age_map.gif

After the Ice Age

• Different societies resulted:– Some literate

• industrial

– Some illiterate• agricultural

– Some hunter gatherers• retaining stone tools

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http://www.yafa.com/images/delta/maori/maori_image.jpg

Inequality and Extermination

• “Historical inequalities– have cast long shadows

on the modern world,

• because the literate societies with metal tools – have conquered or

exterminated the other societies."

http://www.mysteriousworld.com/Content/Images/Journal/2003/Autumn/Osiria/Hunter240.jpg

Yali’s Question

• Yali, a New Guinea politician asked – "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?"

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Distribution of Wealth

• To rephrase, • “Why did wealth and

power – become distributed as

they now are,

– rather than in some other way?”

Distribution of World Wealth

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Common explanations

• Racial or genetic superiority? – No objective evidence

for this theory

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Common explanations

• Cold climate stimulates inventiveness?– But Europeans inherited

from warm climate peoples• agriculture, • wheels, • writing, and • metallurgy

– Japan inherited• Agriculture, metallurgy,

writing• Industrial Revolution

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Answer:

• People in Eurasia had a geographical advantage– Not smarter, more inventive

• Best plants for domestication– 5,000 years earlier than Americas

• Best animals for domestication• East-West orientation

– Climate similar– Crops spread easily

• Populations• Cultures• Technologies

• Eurasians easily conquered other continents

Cro Magnons

• Cro-Magnons moved into Europe 40,000 years ago.

• Technologies:– Tools, needles, fishhooks,

harpoons, bows and arrows, sewn clothing, houses, carefully buried skeletons, art, hunting big prey.

• Displaced or killed off Neandertals

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Cave Paintings, Lascaux France

Spreading Out

• 40,000-30,000 years ago

• Technology:

– water craft to cross from Asia to Indonesia to Australia and New Guinea.

• Time period correlates to

– massive extinction of large game in those places.

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Large Game in Eurasia

• Diamond's theory:– large game survived in

Eurasia because

– humans took a million years

• to develop tools

• become lethal predators of large game

– Gave Eurasian game time to adapt.

Spreading to the Americas

• 20,000 years ago• Technology

– clothing and shelter to survive Siberia

• led to migration to Americas by 12,000 BC.

• It took 1,000 years for humans to get to S. America.

• Time period correlates to – massive extinction of large game

in Americas: • Horses, lions, elephants,

cheetahs, camels, and giant ground sloths.

A Natural History Experiment• 1835

– Chatham Islands discovered by British Seal Hunting ship

– 500 miles off coast of New Zealand

– News told to native New Zealanders

• Chatham Islands:– Abundance of fish, food– Inhabitants numerous

• Don’t know how to fight• No weapons

http://www.laughtergenealogy.com/bin/histprof/images/ship.jpg

Chatham Islands

http://static.flickr.com/55/119944394_0401a2e0bb_o.jpg

Maori of New Zealand

• Nine hundred of the native Maori people of New Zealand, – armed with guns,

• arrived in the Chatham Islands

– announced that the Chatham Islands people (the Moriori)

• were now their slaves,

• and killed those who objected.

Maori Warrior

http://www.iiirm.org/Events/Film%20Festivals/festival_films/filmography_photos/utu_275.jpg

Moriori Slaughter• An eyewitness account said

– "The Maori commenced to kill us like sheep...

– We were terrified, fled to the bush,

– concealed ourselves in holes underground, and in any place to escape our enemies.

– It was of no avail; we were discovered and killed

– -- men, women, and children indiscriminately".

Maori Warriorhttp://www.ace.net.nz/larryogden/graphics/Maori.gif

Maori Explanation

• A Maori conqueror explained:– "We took possession...in

accordance with our customs and we caught all the people.

– Not one escaped. – Some ran away from us, these

we killed, and others we killed -- but what of that?

– It was in accordance with our custom".

Maori Warriorhttp://www.goway.com/downunder/newzealand/nz_img/scenic/MAORI_f.jpg

Natural History Experiment

• This is a natural history experiment.

• Both the Maori and Moriori – descended from the

same Polynesian farmers who settled New Zealand.

Moriori

• When the the Moriori moved to the Chatham islands – hundreds of years earlier– could not farm due to the

cold climate, and – became hunter/gatherers.

• They learned to live peacefully – because their resources were

so limited. http://www.taiko.org.nz/Moroiri1.jpg

Maori

• The New Zealand Maori– continued farming

– dense populations

– more complex technology and political organization

– ferocious wars:

• The difference was– geography.

• Competing agricultural societies – are prone to warfare

Maori Agriculture

http://www.nzetc.org/etexts/Bes02Maor/Bes02Maor368a(h280).jpg

Conquest of the New World

• "The biggest population shift of modern times

• has been the colonization of the new World by Europeans,

• and the resulting – conquest, – numerical reduction, – or complete disappearance

• of most groups of Native Americans".

Pizarro

• The Incas were conquered by the Spaniard Francisco Pizarro.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/43/Pizarro.jpg/461px-Pizarro.jpghttp://students.umf.maine.edu/~greenwsd/pizarromap.gif

Pizarro’s Forces

• Pizarro had 168 soldiers.

• They were in unfamiliar territory, – ignorant of the local

inhabitants,

– were 1000 miles away from reinforcements,

– and were and surrounded by the Incan empire

• with 80,000 soldiers led by Atahuallpa.

Machu Picchu, Peru http://www.hauntedamericatours.com/ghosthunting/hauntedcities/Machu%20Picchu.jpg

Guns, Germs and Steel

• Pizarro had – steel armor

– swords

– horse mounted cavalry

– guns

• a minor factor

http://faculty.ircc.edu/faculty/jlett/CoverforGunsGermsSteel.jpg

Treachery

• Pizarro – ambushed and captured

Atahuallpa

– used religion to justify it.

– collected a huge ransom in gold and silver,

– killed him anyway.

Inca Gold http://www.d.umn.edu/cla/faculty/troufs/anth3618/images/gold1.jpeg

Eyewitness Reportsent to the King of Spain

• “The prudence, fortitude, military discipline, labors, perilous navigations, and battles of the Spaniards – vassals of the most invincible Emperor of the Roman Catholic Empire, our natural King and Lord– will cause joy to the faithful and terror to the infidels. For this reason, and for the glory of God our Lord and for the service of the Catholic Imperial Majesty, it has seemed good for me to write this narrative, and to send it to Your Majesty that all may have a knowledge of what is here related...”Charles V: Holy Roman Emperor,

King of Spain

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Eyewitness Reportsent to the King of Spain

• “It will be to the glory of God, because they have conquered and brought to our holy Catholic Faith so vast a number of heathens, aided by His holy guidance. It will be to the honor of our Emperor because, by reason of his great power and good fortune, such events happened in his time. It will give joy to the faithful that such battles have been won, such provinces discovered and conquered, such riches brought home for the King and for themselves; and that such terror has been spread among the infidels, such admiration excited in all mankind…”

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• “The booming of the guns, and the rattles on the horses threw the Indians into panicked confusion. The Spaniards fell upon them and began to cut them to pieces. The Indians were so filled with fear that they climbed on top of one another, formed mounds, and suffocated each other. Since they were unarmed, they were attacked without danger to any Christian. The cavalry rode them down killing and wounding, and following in pursuit…”

Eyewitness Reportsent to the King of Spain

http://www.sbceo.k12.ca.us/~vms/carlton/Pizarro1.jpg

Government

IdeologyEconomy

Spanish Conquest

Religious justification

New World resources: gold, land

King of Spain

Conquistadors

• In addition to horses and steel, conquistadors had:– Superior ocean going ships– Superior political organization of the

European states

• Carried infectious diseases that wiped out 95% of Native Americans– smallpox, measles, influenza, typhus,

bubonic plague

• Superior knowledge of human behavior– from thousands of years of written history.

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Inca Empire• Started as the Inca tribe

– City-state of Cusco

• Expansion by conquest of neighboring regions – Began 1438

• Successful conquest and assimilation – along coast of South America– Cusco was capitol

• Wealthy– Collected tribute from

conquered parts of empire

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Inca-expansion.png

Why not the other way?

• Why did Europeans have all of the advantages instead of the Incas?– Inca empire brutal, successful

• Why didn't the Incas– invent guns and steel swords, – have horses, – or bear deadly diseases?

• Answer: – Adopted agriculture 5,000 years later

• Population and technology behind

– No horses in the new world– No large animal agriculture (only llama)

• Eurasian epidemic diseases originated in animal agriculture

Inca

Inca Warrior

Advantages of Agricultural Societies

• More food so more people– Technology development

• Metallurgy

• Tools, weapons

• Writing

– Labor

• Agriculture

• Public works

– Warriors

• Conquest– Land

– Slaves

– Resourceshttp://www.markchurms.com/Merchant2/graphics/caesar-l.jpg

Agricultural RevolutionHunters & Gatherers

Agriculture

Population GrowthTechnology

Conquest for land

Food production

Culture

Expanding population & environmental destruction

Agricultural Society Hierarchy

Elite

Conquered & Exploited: Peasants, Slaves, Workers

Wealth, Tribute

Conquest

Food, Resources

Advantages of Agricultural Societies

• Domestic animals– Meat

– Pull plows and carts

– Transportation• War and trade

– Furs and fiber

– Fertilizer

– Deadly germs• Transfer to humans

• Become epidemic diseases

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Advantages of Agricultural Societies

• Sedentary Existence– Short birth intervals – higher population

densities

• Grain Storage– Support specialists:

• Kings • bureaucrats• soldiers• priests• artisans.

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Unequal Conflicts

• "Much of human history has consisted of unequal conflicts – between the haves and the have-

nots: • between peoples with farmer

power and those without it,

• or between those who acquired it at different times."

http://thesituationist.files.wordpress.com/2007/06/proud-native-american.jpg

Independent Crop Domestication

• Middle East (8,000 BC)– Wheat, pea, olive

• Asia– Almond, apple, soybean

• China– Rice, common millet

• Mexico (3,000 BC)– Maize, squash, beans

• South America– Potato, Cassava, Peanut

• Africa– Sorghum, pearl millet

• USA– Sunflower

Other people adopted these crops (and domesticated animals) later as a cultural package

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Adoption by Hunter-Gatherers

• Sometimes domesticated plants and animals were adopted by hunters/gatherers– Native Americans in U.S.

• Sometimes hunters/gatherers were displaced by agriculturalists – European expansion in Australia,

Tasmania

Trugannini, last Remaining Tasmanian Aboriginal, 1868

http://www.tasmanianaboriginal.com.au/images/hist/Trugannie.jpg

Head Start

• "The peoples of areas with a head start on food production – thereby gained a head start on the

path leading to: • guns, germs and steel.

– The result was a long series of collisions

• between the haves and have-nots of history."

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Food Production

• Food production often led to: – poorer health

– shorter lifespan

– harder labor for the majority of people.

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Early Plant Domestication• Humans unknowingly

selected for traits:– seed size, fiber length– lack of bitterness– early germination– Self pollination– dispersal mutations

• wheat that does not shatter

• seeds that stay in pods

http://www.union.ku.edu/traditions/desktops/wheat.JPG

Sowing by Broadcast

• Grains in Eurasia were sown by broadcast,

• later in animal plowed fields to give monoculture.

Digging Sticks

• In the new world,– planting done by

digging stick

– no domesticated plow animals

• Result: mixed gardens.

80% of World’s Production:

• Wheat• Maize• Rice• Barley• Sorghum• Soybean• Potato• Cassava• Sweet potato• Sugar cane• Sugar beet• Banana

http://www.africancrops.net/rockefeller/crops/maize/pics/mukhwana-maize4.jpg

Maize

Major Domesticated Crops

• No new plants domesticated – in modern times

• Major crops – domesticated  thousands of years

ago.

• Need a suite of domesticated plants – to make agriculture work

• New plants were domesticated – where agriculture was already

successful

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Rice

Fertile Crescent

• Tigris and Euphrates valley– Iraq

• Nile valley– Egypt

• Levant– Jordan

– Palestine

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/23/Fertile_Crescent_map.png

Fertile Crescent Attributes

• Mediterranean climate. • Wild stands of wheat • Hunter/gatherers

– settled down here before agriculture– living off grain

• High percentage of self pollinating plants – easiest to domesticate.

• 32 of 56 large seeded grass species of the world.

• Big animals for domestication: – goat, sheep, pig, cow

http://www.mrdowling.com

MesoAmerica (Mexico)

• Only two domesticated animals in Meso America– Turkey and dog

• Maize was slow to domesticate– 5,000 years after

domestication of wheat

Mexican Maizehttp://teosinte.wisc.edu/Images_to_download/Maize_diversity.jpg

Big 5 Domesticated Animals

• Horse• Cow• Pig• Sheep• Goat

• All from Eurasia

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Animal Domestication in Eurasia

Dates for animal domestication BCE

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Horse Domestication in Eurasia

Kurgans: Battle-Axe People. 3,000 BCE

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Large Animals

• Of 148 large herbivorous or omnivorous species in the world– Eurasia had 72

– Africa 51

– Americas 24

– Australia 1

• Most cannot be domesticated

Why have 134 out of 148 big species not been domesticated?

• Diet too finicky – koala

• Growth rate too slow – elephants, gorillas

• Won’t breed in captivity– cheetah, vicuna

• Nasty Disposition. – grizzly bear, African

buffalo, onager, zebra, hippo, elk

http://www.australian-wildlife.com/images/Free-koala-picture3.jpg

Why have 134 out of 148 big species not been domesticated?

• Hard to herd (no dominance structure)– deer, antelope

• Tendency to panic. – deer, antelope, gazelles

• Solitary – only cats and ferrets

domesticated

• Territorial– rhino

http://www.texasbeyondhistory.net/st-plains/nature/images/Deer-tpwd-sm.jpg

Easier to spread East-West

• It was easier for domestic plants and animals – later, technology like

wheels, writing

• to spread East-West in Eurasia – than North- South in

Americas, Africa

• Therefore large Eurasian population resulted– Dominant in technology

Eurasian Climates

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/32/World_Koppen_Map.png/600px-World_Koppen_Map.png

Evidence

• Most crops in Eurasia domesticated only once.

• Rapid spread East-West – preempted same or similar

domestication.

• Fertile Crescent crops spread – to Egypt,

– N. Africa,

– Europe,

– India

– and eventually to China.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/32/World_Koppen_Map.png/600px-World_Koppen_Map.png

East-West Eurasian Climate Zones

Spread of Chariots in E-W Eurasia

Dates are BCE

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/77/Chariot_spread.png

Evidence

• Some crops domesticated independently – in both S. America and Meso-

America

– due to slow spread• lima beans

• common beans

• chili peppers

http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/cas/map.jpg

Americas• Distance between cool

highlands of Mexico and Andes only 1,200 miles – but separated by low hot

tropical region.

• Thus, no exchange of crops, animals, writing, wheel. – Only maize spread.

America Climatic Zones

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/7c/Americas_Koppen_Map.png/240px-Americas_Koppen_Map.png

Americas

• It took 2,000 years for maize to cross 700 miles of desert – to reach U.S.A.

• It took another 1000 years – for maize to adapt to

U.S.A. climate to be productive

http://www.allcountries.org/maps/usa_climate_zones_map.jpg

North America Climatic Zones

Africa• East-West spread of plants,

animals easier – due to same day-length, similar

seasonal variations.

• Temperate N. Africa crops did not reach S. Africa until colonists brought them– Sahara– Tropics

• Tropical crops spread West to East in central Africa with Bantu culture and conquest– did not cross to S. Africa due to

climate. African Climates

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Bantu

Not a Cultural Issue• Some species independently

domesticated in different parts of the world. – Cows, dogs, pigs– These animals were well suited for

domestication.

• Modern attempts to domesticate:– eland, elk, moose, musk ox, zebra,

American Bison – are only marginally successful.

• Distribution of domestic animals geographic– Not cultural superiority– Example: Native Americans easily

adapted to horsesWild boar: easily domesticated

http://wildlifeworld.info/blog/wp-content/uploads/2007/12/wild-boar.jpg