Guns, Germs and Steel Part 3 of 18

Episode One : Out of Eden (Part 3 of 6)

Jared Diamond's journey of discovery began on the island of Papua New Guinea. There, in 1974, a local named Yali asked Diamond a deceptively simple question:

"Why is it that you white people developed so much cargo, but we black people had little cargo of our own?"

Diamond realized that Yali's question penetrated the heart of a great mystery of human history -- the roots of global inequality.

Why were Europeans the ones with all the cargo? Why had they taken over so much of the world, instead of the native people of New Guinea? How did Europeans end up with what Diamond terms the agents of conquest: guns, germs and steel? It was these agents of conquest that allowed 168 Spanish conquistadors to defeat an Imperial Inca army of 80,000 in 1532, and set a pattern of European conquest which would continue right up to the present day.

Diamond knew that the answer had little to do with ingenuity or individual skill. From his own experience in the jungles of New Guinea, he had observed that native hunter-gatherers were just as intelligent as people of European descent -- and far more resourceful. Their lives were tough, and it seemed a terrible paradox of history that these extraordinary people should be the conquered, and not the conquerors.

To examine the reasons for European success, Jared realized he had to peel back the layers of history and begin his search at a time of equality -- a time when all the peoples of the world lived in exactly the same way.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• guns
• germs
• steel
• jared
• diamond
• pulitzer
• prize
• out
• of
• eden

[jaykia]

It's amazing how the middle east truly is the cradle of human civilization and now because of idiotic ideology, it is now one of the most backward places in the world. What a shame.

[mickeypopa]

@FuckYoGod

And you are one pathetic racist. People like you feel angry when they have everything and accomplish nothing as opposed to people who have nothing and accomplish everything with their brains and hard work.

You're just the part of the problem - white privileged assholes who think they deserve to have more than anyone else in the world without moving a single brain cell. And when you don't, you just use force to take it.

Well, enjoy it while you can because it won't last forever.

[jaykia]

the oil in the middle east now is a bad example of how the climate in the middle east was 4000 years ago. Those oil deposited were there for millions of years. From 4000 years ago to 1258 CE, the middle east was ether technologically equivalent to Europe or superior. This all fell when the Mongols killed everyone in Baghdad, ending the Islamic Golden Age. If you want an example, the Persian Empire(s) were in the middle east and were very powerful and advanced for their time.

[jaymckib]

If you paid attention, the Middle East became the cradle of civilization when it had a lush climate -- which the ice age shift and associated drought about 12,000 years ago changed. The Middle East's once-lush climate, demonstrated by the massive oil beds resulting from massive amounts of life that once lived there, is no longer lush.

Advise me of a successful desert nation. Doesn't exist. Can't exist. Nothing to do with ideology, idiotic or not.

[kmal16]

Mmmm, I believe it was Whitevoice that said S American Indians sat on vast resources, How? In my pov, exploiting resources has more to do with needs, right? So, if the needs of a society are basic, why would there be a necessity to get more than what is needed? Europe had different needs, and they were far from basic, they were competing between each other so the needs were on another scale. But that also drove technological development. I think the future will rely on combining both approaches.

[MegaBigpapa007]

who needs answers for history class

[oldstock1607]

@PakistaniisPower the irony of a person going by "PakistaniisPower" saying that whites are "warmongering savages" is enough to make a head explode. Pakistan was concieved in violence, has lived as the beating heart of the terrorist world, and will end in violence. And the two, most recent genocides? Not perpetrated by whites either. Islam is your disability. The civilized world should cure you of it.

[jaykia]

@ADIMM0 And the fact that your channel is filled with PRO Islamic videos proves what? How is your opinion any more or less important than mine when we have the exact opposite opinion. But on to an even more important issue. If you don't care about my opinion then stop responding to me. (But lets be honest, something tells me you will respond to this comment anyways, proving my point).

[ADIMM0]

@jaykia please you need to educate yourself, i dont care what you say, history has already happend and has been written i dont need it dictated by some ignorant islamaphobe, who knows next to nothing and who is narrow minded, you deny the islamic golden age out of hate of islam ive seen your channel its full of anti islamic videos

[jaykia]

@ADIMM0 Always living in the past. Islam was not a zelus cult back then like it is now. Not to mention, it was because the people were educated, not because they were Muslim, that they perserved these works from the past. Look at muslims today. Most are no more educated than your average goat. And people wonder why they turn to religious fanatics for support!

[ADIMM0]

@jaykia excuse me, if it was not because of islam there would not be modern civilization, we preseved the works of the greeks and expanded on them and we invented new things learn you idiot learn, your blind

[jaykia]

I agree that over time, resource wise, the middle east had lost some advantage over the years but I want you to look at what has been known as the 'Islamic Golden Age'.This was a period of time when Europe was still living in the shadow of the fall of Rome (middle ages). Even though it is called the 'Islamic Golden Age', Islam had very little to do with the success of this time in the middle east. It was the openness of knowledge and willingness to look at other ideas. Opposite of now.