Guns Germs and SteelThroughout history, people have always wondered why the Eurasians were so successful in dominating countries around the world. How despite times being quite ancient, the Eurasians were more ahead than most countries in technology, architecture, etc. Many factors played for the development of Eurasia’s status. Jared Diamond elucidates these factors in his book Guns, Germs, and Steel. The Eurasians had many advantages that led them to gain the agriculture and domestic lead in society. About many thousands of years ago, people had started to develop civilization. Eventually, people migrated around the world in search of better resources. In different areas, for some people, food was becoming scarcer. This conflict then pushed them to try out new ways; experimenting with crops, etc. With that flourished agriculture; a major milestone for humanity then, and what was to come. Even with agriculture spreading around the world, The Eurasians climate and experience had already given a head start against other countries, who were far too behind in society. Agriculture also pushed the Eurasians to develop a writing system. Since Europe and Asia were right next to each other, trading would be very frequent. Furthermore, with trading and selling, came a writing system. Diamond also states that it wasn’t the agriculture push that led the Eurasians to what they are now. He also thinks that isolation has to play in with this. Europe and Asia are right next to each other, meaning that both countries were introduced to different things by which each country had made. An example would be guns. The Chinese were the first to make gunpowder, but that didn’t mean they were only going to be the ones to prosper with it. Soon enough The Europeans were also acquainted with this new item. Unlike Europe and Asia, places like New Guinea, The North and South Americas, and perhaps Africa were far too away from each other and were isolated. The whole purpose of “Guns, Germs, and Steel” was this; History followed different courses for different people is because of the differences among people’s environments and where they were located, not because of the biological difference between different races of people themselves.
The first key reason that Diamond states in his book started off with the dawn of agriculture, and why it was in certain parts of the world, but not others. Archeologists have concluded that the first places agriculture started were in Mesopotamia, then continuing on with Mesoamerica and China. Diamond states few reasons of why agriculture arose in these specific areas, instead of others. In this era, most of the human beings either hunted animals or picked nuts and berries for food. Though in these parts of the world, game and fruits/vegetables were becoming scarcer. This motivated the people in those specific areas to experiment with the food in their area. In result, ancient humans used trial and error to learn how to
A hunter-gatherer was a kind-hearted, trusting, and social group who would gather small herds of animals for a meal. They were also very efficient people and would often try to stay away from one of these small herds of wild animals from another group. This is not necessarily associated with the hunter-gatherer group, but they do have the ability to go back and learn some of the traditions associated with these animals.
The traditional group was usually quite long-lived and respected, meaning they had much of the social group experience as they passed each others and developed a reputation. They also lived on a much longer time scale and developed social relationships. As many as 300 years ago, in some regions of Africa, hunter-gatherers had some of the most amazing social abilities, such as being the first to hunt a deer with a hammer, or a stone and stick hunter and a stone cutter. In order to be a good hunter-gatherer you needed a large group of people, and especially good, long-term relationships with other groups and to have a good understanding of what was going on around your group. This led to a society around you that was more of an alliance, with the people being more easily influenced by one another.
As hunters became less and less involved in politics, economic, socializing, politics-based socializing, and even hunting, a lot of people were also going back to agriculture. This was not because they were afraid or trying to protect livestock. Instead, in the ancient Roman world, the Romans believed that agricultural practice is a good thing, the natural and just action of living in harmony.
This was not to imply that farmers didn’t want to have a strong social culture, but instead they wanted the land and the food to serve all of themselves. This was a form of food security in the Roman culture. Once they found out they were eating well, you could spend much of the time in harmony with your family and friends. Once you found food, you have to work very closely with other people, take care of business, and enjoy the fruits and vegetables which your neighbors grew in those gardens. In that way, agriculture would be a very important part of your life, and many in other countries today would be forced to follow that.
The second way for people to benefit from agriculture was by growing natural food. Plants and animals grow naturally and then they can become useful to their individual needs, and then people start to have their own farm land. The crops are usually stored to protect the crop against pests and other pests. The seeds and insects that grow naturally, and then in turn, plant up to create a crop that will help them feed their livestock. This is why we need to encourage all natural fruits to be grown naturally.
People also produce a crop from time to time. This is so that