Chapter 1 In this section of the book, before we became homo sapiens, we evolved from past ancestors who weren’t up to par on further knowledge on life as modern humans today. The author suggests that humans come from a long past of ancestry from Africa that has been spread all around various parts of the globe. The locations of their selected spots have had a huge impact of the development of technologies and how they came to evolve to have more appealing characteristics suited for their area. This approaches the main question of the book strong because it gets straight to the point.
Depending on the overall position of the continent, it influences the rate and levels of advancements in tools and intelligence. The author is trying to say that the whites could have been in a better position in location than the others. Chapter 2 Environmental features served as a big role on a striving human lifestyle. Some continents have more attractive attributes than others making it easier to adapt. Also, the population of the area, because the encounters with unfamiliar human contact can trigger negative intentions.
Variation of different factors, such as food sources and land type, molds together to form a lifestyle. As said in the book, there were two distinct groups, the hunter-gatherers and the farmers. Both of them were formed by the adaptation to their location. They have also faced contrasting political views and points within the groups and out of. The author addresses the question by showing us that environmental and social factors are required to find resources and distribute them. Chapter 3 Europeans venturing into the world for colonization and settlements made a great change in the population.
The event in Cajamarca lead by Pizarro followed by many men, brought many things along with them. Advanced blacksmithery, illnesses, and animals are some of the major items introduced by this conquest against Native Americans nearly making them close to extinction. This attempts to answer Yali’s question by showcasing that the more advanced the tools are, such as guns and the mounting of horses, the better. History makes itself a source to look on to, like a trial and error. We can learn from the past to improve our goods and cargo.
Chapter 4 Diamond spent a past summer working among a fellow farmhand who was from an Indian tribe. His manners were polite and gentle compared to the whites. It occurred to him that food production assembles many advantages. Food development has a deep connection to the main idea of guns, germs, and steel. Farmers sprinted ahead of hunter-gatherers and took the lead. Their way of life affected the quality and quantity of everything they did, such as how many kids they could have and how nutritional the things they were consuming were. Large animals were a necessity because they served as transportation and a food source.
This answers the question because those who had an advantage to their life had more room to branch out in all aspects, like technological advances. Chapter 6 Why did people steer clear from hunting and gathering to do farming instead? It resulted in a higher chance of serious diseases and malnourishment. At first, hunter-gatherers weren’t all that into the idea of farming, but sedentary groups soon became more dominant. A speculation said was that different elements of different areas of the globe influenced the spread of farming. Some places either attempted or not at all because the location didn’t support the essentials for farming.
A decline of wild food availability, the introduction technology to food development, and food sources to support the ascending population are factors important to this. It’s related to the question because food development and its advantages produces the ability to make goods. Chapter 9 This chapter starts by saying domesticable animals are the same, while undomesticable animals are all unique. There were many wild animals that were suitable for domestication, but never been able to succeed. Most of the best domesticated success stories were strictly Eurasian.
Domestication is the transformation of wild animals to become useful to humans and was only thought to be thrive in Eurasia because it housed the largest population of animals and they were more adapted. The characteristics and qualifications of being domesticable are what foods they eat, growth rate, problems of captive breeding, nasty disposition, tendency to panic, and social structure. This covers the question because these tamed animals are sources to produce cargo. Chapter 10 The position of an axis is believed to have an effect on the rate of spread of crops, livestock, writings, wheels, and other inventions.
Eurasia has a east-west concept, but the Americas and Africa have a north-south. This is an idea of why Eurasia might be ahead with a faster pace development than any other continent. This is reasonable proposal because east-west continents are part of the same climate and growing seasons, it was consistently simultaneous. The livestock and vegetation did not seem to agree with the movement from north-south because of such a climate change and only flourished going east-west because of little to no changes. Involves the overall question because the axes are factors of development and the more developed you are, the more production of goods.
Chapter 11 Germs and diseases are hindrances to further progress in development. Between farmers and hunter-gatherers, farmers tend to work and intake nastier germs. Domestication of animals was a cause of sickness being spread, killing a handful. People began being immune to such diseases due to the constant vulnerability from previous generations. In large populations, it is easily spread to one person to another. Trading goods and such also rapidly spread illnesses because it transports to all different countries and regions. Smaller communities that acquire them cannot handle them and becomes no longer existent.
With sickness scattering everywhere, it lessens population and livestock. Since Eurasia has had a longer exposure to the diseases, when brought over to other continents, it wipes them out. This results in less cargo being produced and less development while Eurasia continues to grow. Chapter 12 This section of the book reveals the importance of writings and knowledge. They bring power to societies, modernizing them. Those who are literate had a huge advantage over those who weren’t. It allowed them to generate tools and things to help everyday life, like instructions to do something, maps, and records for a foundation of previous events.
There are three major parts that includes alphabet, logogram, and syllabics. This helps to answer the main question because communication is needed to get things done. Eurasia seemed to have more people that can read and write than other continents, hence making them more developed. Chapter 13 In 1908, archeologists discovered an ancient object important in the history of technology, called the Phaistos Disk. It is assumed to have been the first printed document ever recorded. Early inventions were not made with a clear intent and were all just based on curiosity.
It was a way to experiment for a better use of it in the future. The characteristics of thriving inventions were economical advantage, social importance, interest compatibility, and the difficulty in which the factors can be observed. Significant creations and objects one continent makes can be used to overlook other areas. In relation to Yali’s question, early stages of various inventions show the growth development of an area. Inventions to produce cargo are more frequent in continents that are more advanced in this category. Eurasia was the first location the earliest invention was found in.