Guns, Germs, and Steel PDF
Preview Guns, Germs, and Steel
Guns, Germs, and Steel The Fates of Human Societies Jared M. Diamond digitalversionandendnotesbyC.T.Zen ISBN 0-393-03891-2 ToEsa,Kariniga,Omwai,Paran,Sauakari,Wiwor,andallmyotherNewGuinea friendsandteachers–mastersofadifficultenvironment ii Contents PrefacetothePaperbackEdition Whyisworldhistorylikeanonion? vi Prologue: Yali’sQuestion Theregionallydifferingcoursesofhistory 1 I FromEdentoCajamarca 19 1 UptotheStartingLine Whathappenedonallthecontinentsbefore11,000BC 20 2 ANaturalExperimentofHistory HowgeographymoldedsocietiesonPolynesianislands 36 3 CollisionatCajamarca WhytheIncaemperorAtahuallpadidnotcaptureKingCharlesIofSpain 49 II TheRiseandSpreadofFoodProduction 62 4 FarmerPower Therootsofguns,germs,andsteel 63 5 History’sHavesandHave-Nots Geographicdifferencesintheonsetoffoodproduction 70 6 ToFarmorNottoFarm Causesofthespreadoffoodproduction 80 iii CONTENTS 7 HowtoMakeanAlmond Theunconsciousdevelopmentofancientcrops 89 8 ApplesorIndians Whydidpeoplesofsomeregionsfailtodomesticateplants? 104 9 Zebras,UnhappyMarriages,andtheAnnaKarenina Principle Whyweremostbigwildmammalspeciesneverdomesticated? 128 10 SpaciousSkiesandTiltedAxes Whydidfoodproductionspreadatdifferentratesondifferentcontinents? 145 III FromFoodtoGuns,Germs,andSteel 159 11 LethalGiftofLivestock Theevolutionofgerms 160 12 BlueprintsandBorrowedLetters Theevolutionofwriting 178 13 Necessity’sMother Theevolutionoftechnology 201 14 FromEgalitarianismtoKleptocracy Theevolutionofgovernmentandreligion 225 IV AroundtheWorldinFiveChapters 251 15 Yali’sPeople ThehistoriesofAustraliaandNewGuinea 252 16 HowChinaBecameChinese ThehistoryofEastAsia 276 17 SpeedboattoPolynesia ThehistoryoftheAustronesianexpansion 288 iv CONTENTS 18 HemispheresColliding ThehistoriesofEurasiaandtheAmericascompared 306 19 HowAfricaBecameBlack ThehistoryofAfrica 326 Epilogue: TheFutureofHumanHistoryasaScience 350 2003Afterword: Guns,Germs,andSteelToday 369 Acknowledgements 383 FurtherReadings 384 v PrefacetothePaperbackEdition Why Is World History Like an Onion? This book attempts to provide a short history of everybody for the last 13,000 years. The question motivating the book is: Why did history unfold differently on different continents? In case this question immediately makes you shudder at the thought that you are about to read a racist treatise, you aren’t: as youwillsee,theanswerstothequestiondon’tinvolvehumanracialdifferencesat all. Thebook’semphasisisonthesearchforultimateexplanations,andonpushing backthechainofhistoricalcausationasfaraspossible. Most books that set out to recount world history concentrate on histories of literateEurasianandNorthAfricansocieties. Nativesocietiesofotherpartsofthe world – sub-Saharan Africa, the Americas, Island Southeast Asia, Australia, New Guinea,thePacificIslands–receiveonlybrieftreatment,mainlyasconcernswhat happenedtothemverylateintheirhistory,aftertheywerediscoveredandsubju- gatedbywesternEuropeans. EvenwithinEurasia,muchmorespacegetsdevoted to the history of western Eurasia than of China, India, Japan, tropical Southeast Asia,andothereasternEurasiansocieties. Historybeforetheemergenceofwrit- ingaround3,000BCalsoreceivesbrieftreatment,althoughitconstitutes99.9%of thefive-million-yearhistoryofthehumanspecies. Suchnarrowlyfocusedaccountsofworldhistorysufferfromthreedisadvan- tages. First, increasing numbers of people today are, quite understandably, inter- ested in other societies besides those of western Eurasia. After all, those “other” societies encompass most of the world’s population and the vast majority of the world’sethnic,cultural,andlinguisticgroups. Someofthemalreadyare,andoth- ersarebecoming,amongtheworld’smostpowerfuleconomiesandpoliticalforces. Second, ever for people specifically interested in the shaping of the modern world, a history limited to developments since the emergence of writing cannot providedeepunderstanding. Itisnotthecasethatsocietiesonthedifferentconti- nentswerecomparabletoeachotheruntil3,000BC,whereuponwesternEurasian societies suddenly developed writing and began for the first time to pull ahead in other respects as well. Instead, already by 3,000 BC, there were Eurasian and vi PrefacetothePaperbackEdition North African societies not only with incipient writing but also with centralized state governments, cities, widespread use of metal tools and weapons, use of do- mesticatedanimalsfortransportandtractionandmechanicalpower,andreliance on agriculture and domestic animals for food. Throughout most or all parts of other continents, none of those things existed at that time; some but not all of them emerged later in parts of the Native Americas and sub-Saharan Africa, but onlyoverthecourseofthenextfivemillennia;andnoneofthememergedinAbo- riginalAustralia. ThatshouldalreadywarnusthattherootsofwesternEurasian dominance in the modern world lie in the preliterate past before 3,000 BC. (By westernEurasiandominance,ImeanthedominanceofwesternEurasiansocieties themselvesandofthesocietiesthattheyspawnedonothercontinents.) Third,ahistoryfocusedonwesternEurasiansocietiescompletelybypassesthe obvious big question: Why were those societies the ones that became dispropor- tionately powerful and innovative? The usual answers to that question invoke proximate forces, such as the rise of capitalism, mercantilism, scientific inquiry, technology, and nasty germs that killed peoples of other continents when they came into contact with western Eurasians. But why did all those ingredients of conquest arise in western Eurasia, and arise elsewhere only to a lesser degree or notatall? All those ingredients are just proximate factors, not ultimate explanations. Why didn’t capitalism flourish in Native Mexico, mercantilism in sub-Saharan Africa, scientific inquiry in China, advanced technology in Native North Amer- ica, and nasty germs in Aboriginal Australia? If one responds by invoking id- iosyncraticculturalfactors–e.g.,scientificinquirysupposedlystifledinChinaby ConfucianismbutstimulatedinwesternEurasiabyGreekorJudaeo-Christiantra- ditions–thenoneiscontinuingtoignoretheneedforultimateexplanations: why didn’ttraditionslikeConfucianismandtheJudaeo-Christianethicinsteaddevelop in western Eurasia and China, respectively? In addition, one is ignoring the fact that Confucian China was technologically more advanced than western Eurasia untilaboutAD1400. ItisimpossibletounderstandevenjustwesternEurasiansocietiesthemselves, ifonefocusesonthem. Theinterestingquestionsconcernthedistinctionsbetween themandothersocieties. Answeringthosequestionsrequiresustounderstandall those other societies as well, so that western Eurasian societies can be fitted into thebroadercontext. Some readers may feel that I am going to the opposite extreme from conven- tional histories, by devoting too little space to western Eurasia at the expense of vii PrefacetothePaperbackEdition other parts of the world. I would answer that some other parts of the world are veryinstructive,becausetheyencompasssomanysocietiesandsuchdiversesoci- etieswithinasmallgeographicalarea. Otherreadersmayfindthemselvesagreeing withonereviewerofthisbook. Withmildlycriticaltongueincheek,thereviewer wrote that I seem to view world history as an onion, of which the modern world constitutesonlythesurface,andwhoselayersaretobepeeledbackinthesearch forhistoricalunderstanding. Yes,worldhistoryisindeedsuchanonion! Butthat peelingbackoftheonion’slayersisfascinating,challenging–andofoverwhelm- ingimportancetoustoday,asweseektograspourpast’slessonsforourfuture. J.D. viii
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