Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared M. Diamond - Book Report/Review Example

Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared M. Diamond Jared M. Diamond has deliberated on a number of subjects in the book Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies. The sum and substance of his articulation, most importantly, can be recapitulated thus: The pattern of human history is not because of biological differences, but on account of differences of people’s environments. The author often mentions food as the cause for growth and with this assertion he gets the issue right. He pursues the argument logically. Agriculture effects food surplus and that supports a big chunk of inhabitants resulting in a stratified civilization in which people can give their best and apply power on a big scale. The growth of vegetation and domestication of animals turns out to be the reason for large population and that encourages the nations to dominate. The author clearly visualizes the scenario when a society has food surplus. It leads to specialization and the different segments of the societal structure like arts, political structure, and tax system get the fillip for growth and for the society to attain that state, all the members of the society need not be farmers. Prosperity leads to arrogance of power and such societies try to take advantage over others. The author argues "First, a centralized decision maker had the advantage at concentrating troops and resources. Second, the official religions and patriotic fervor of many states make their troops willing to fight suicidal". (p. 281) Food surplus resulting in power is a correct argument by the author. According to him, this happens on account of the ultimate cause and his articulation is right. One of the fascinating issues in human history is the discussion as to why some nations gained power and others failed in that area. The author takes the dig at the same traditional question why the Europeans countries colonized Africans and why Africans were unsuccessful on that count? He reasons out that geography is singularly responsible for historical inequalities at any given time of human history. His argument is generally sound, barring some flaws. His all-inclusive support for geography as the powerhouse of development is untenable. He ignores the outcomes of technological innovations and the growth of capitalism during that period of history. Moreover, the author does not provide proper explanation as to why the Europeans had the impulse to colonize. He tackles the question of Europeans having the economic wherewithal to colonize. If Europeans had knowledge about fighting the war and greed for wealth, the natives too had that. Why the natives failed in their confrontation with the Europeans? The author does not give satisfactory answer for that. As for the argument of the author about agriculture, his articulation holds good in the current world scenario, as nations with surplus food production dominate world politics and exercise power. This is in tandem with the argument of Diamond that food, agriculture and environment play the biggest roles in the development of a civilization as it happened in the case of US. But plant and animal species alone are not responsible for prosperity, though it is one of the major factors. Geographical location is another factor that has bearing on economic prosperity. This is the ultimate cause of European superiority. Over the advantage given by nature, no human efforts can provide a substitute. The countries around the Mediterranean Sea had/have the ultimate advantage as it provides facility for trade, food and protection from other lands. As such, Europe's location played a major role in the growth of the continent as a whole. The responses of Diamond on various issues, barring a few, are scientific and sound and they hold well in the current political scenarios of the world. Diamond tries to catch the imagination of the reader by taking back 10,000 years as to the then prevailing conditions on Planet Earth. Recollection of the past is sweet and fascinating if it is backed up by facts supported by sound arguments. Diamond succeeds in this area to a great extent. He writes “The Great Leap Forward coincides with the first proven major extension of human geographic range since our ancestors’ colonization of Eurasia. That extension consisted of the occupation of Australia and New Guinea, joined at that time into a single continent. Many radiocarbon dated sites attest to human presence in Australia/New Guinea between 40 000 and 30 000 years ago. Within a short time of that initial peopling, humans had expanded over the whole continent and adapted to its diverse habitats.” (Diamond, p. 41) He covers a big canvass and details histories of the individual continents and they contain graphic descriptions. Diamond does not make charitable comments about the Eurasians, and he says that differences in societies’ developments are due to many extraneous considerations, apart from the people themselves. The author has special love for New Guinea, about which one reads in many chapters, to the point of repetition. His approach to the ‘construction’ of the book is methodical, the ensuing chapter is built on the arguments made in the previous chapter, and the thought process moves coherently. The epilogue of the book has stunning revelations and is more interesting and research-oriented than the main text. To summarize the message of this book in one sentence, this quote from the epilogue serves the purpose. “All human societies contain inventive people. It’s just that some environments provide more starting materials, and more favorable conditions for utilizing inventions, that do other environments.”(Epilogue….) Why has history developed contrarily in different countries? Why the culture of Western Europe dominated all-round growth of the modern world? Diamond gives his hard views on the subject and ‘attributes’ such differences by taking you to the most unsuspected area—geography. The subject ‘Economics’ tells us the importance of the location-advantage for the establishment and growth of a particular type of industry. Diamond avers his beliefs categorically. He makes it through the subject of history. The locational advantage of different cultures and the manner in which they flourished had a great bearing on the ability of those societies to develop important institutions like agriculture and domestication of the animals and they also developed the intrinsic ability to get protection from the diseases. Diamond is not tired of repeating the word location for the growth of different societies. Their fast growth, slow growth or no growth—all these are due to location and geography according to him. He takes the position of a die-hard communist when he states that location provides the desperately needed outputs for the elite of the society, on whose brilliance, the affairs of the society are negotiated. A society cannot prosper rapidly, rather prosper at all, when food for the night is worry of the morning and tomorrow’s bread is not assured from today’s labor. Diamond gives solid evidence as for the importance of the farming sector, which is the foundation of the economy of a region/country. Technological advancement in every area, including the military technology, is possible if the agricultural sector is prosperous and contributes to the solid economic base and when the people need not worry about food shortages. One good thing leads to another strong gain for the society. The example given is that of the Spaniards weapon technology. The authentic causes of this victory in some of the big battles were germs, technology, like ships, weapons, guns and steel. This quotation in the prologue is the foundation stone of the book, from where the superstructure for 13000 years is built by Diamond. Diamond’s fascination for New Guinea is evident throughout the book. In the initial part of the prologue, Yali, a politician, is in conversation with the author, as for the secret of the superiority of Europeans who succeeded in ruling the various countries of the African continent, for well over 200 years. It is not the genetic superiority or the superior physical strength (perhaps Africans score over Europeans in this area). The Africans were in the position of disadvantage as for power and technology. Yali asked, using the local term "cargo" for inventions and manufactured goods, "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?"(Diamond, 1999, p. 14) The answer is obvious: It is the locational advantage! Another important question relating to the extension of the same issue needs to be understood in the proper perspective, without fear or favor. Technology was but one subject, which the Eurasians used to their advantage. As human beings they were ruthless. The atrocities committed on the native people by the colonists would even make Adolph Hitler shift in his grave. Still others, “have been decimated, subjugated, and in some cases even exterminated by European colonialists.”(Diamond, p 15) The story of the unpleasant interaction at the initial stages between the native population and colonists does not end created tangible reactions. “The history of interactions among disparate peoples is what shaped the modern world through conquest, epidemics and genocide. Those collisions created reverberations that have still not died down after many centuries, and that are actively continuing in some of the world’s most troubled areas.” (Diamond, p16) Diamond writes, “The first European settlements in the Americas, beginning with the one founded by Columbus in 1492, were in the West Indies. The island Indians, whose estimated population at the time of their “discovery” exceeded a million, were rapidly exterminated on most islands by disease, dispossession, enslavement, warfare, and casual murder.(Diamond, p.373) Adolph Hitler’s madness had a single-pointed cause—the extermination of the Jews! Eurasians acted in the most disgraceful manner, by exterminating the vast areas of local population, men, women and children, unsuspecting and unarmed, for territorial gains and aggrandizement of wealth. He is unable to get the soul-satisfying answer for his apprehensions. Why Eurasians dominated? Why a negligible minority of people were able to rule over a vast continent and a large population for over 200 years? Why, even after achieving independence, the African countries lag behind in industrial production, wealth and power? The power of 13,000 years ago, or 500 years ago when the Eurasians began to cast their evil eye on the American Continent, or even in the present political environment—things have not changed much. Might was right, might is right and perhaps might will be right in the times to come. The pages of human history drenched in bloodshed relating to mindless violence, murders and extermination of people in the process of the colonization of America and the African Continent, World Wars I & II, the Nazi holocaust, the Nanking killings in China, pose an important question. How to attain world peace? Is it an attainable reality at all? The overwhelming military superiority can achieve anything and cause damage to any country/region at the will and pleasure of the political and military leadership of a country that tope in the arms-race. Diamond expresses similar sentiments, when he elaborates an incident when a few hundred Spanish soldiers overwhelmed the local resistance several hundred times more in numbers. He writes, “The overwhelming military superiority of even tiny numbers of mounted Spaniards, together with their political skills of exploiting divisions, within the native population, did the rest.”(Diamond, p. 373) The lessons to be learnt are obvious. Remain ever ready for the arms-conflict and fight the enemy from the position of strength. Conclusion Three important issues emerge out of the discussion by many scholars on the subject as well as the viewed from the perception of Diamond. Environment, power and the advantage of the location! “History followed different courses for different people because of differences among peoples’ environments, not because of biological differences among people themselves.” (Diamond, p.25)The ex-President of America John F. Kennedy said it appropriately, “For only when our arms are sufficient beyond doubt, can we be certain beyond doubt, that they will never be employed.” Germs completed the unfinished job of the guns. “Far more Native Americans and other non-European peoples were killed by Eurasian germs than by Eurasian guns and steel weapons.” (Diamond, p.29) For protecting the liberty and to secure dignity, people need to be basically sound and industrious and also basic conditions need to be created for the people to become basically sound and industrious. These two conditions were absent in the African Countries (they are absent in some of the countries even today), and with the Native Americans, that resulted in their long suffering and exterminations of some of the Indian tribes. Another important lesson is, even the most peace-loving country should own adequate stock of arms and ammunition for self-defense. Owning arms does not mean that a country is readying to wage war. But when war is thrust upon it, if it does not possess the wherewithal to protect its people and infrastructure, its hard-earned freedom and economic development will have no meaning. Colonialism is more or less finished in the world, but the colonial mentality still persists and it tries to assert itself to maneuvering in the area of economics and trade. The countries that have gained independence in the recent past need to be wary about this misadventures by the colonial powers and stall their intrusions of a different type in the internal affairs of the country. Works Cited Diamond, Jared M. Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies; W. W. Norton & Company; New York; 1999 Read More