Week 1 - Wednesday "Why Did Human History Unfold Differently On Different Continents For The Last 13,000 Years?"

a) Identify Diamond's major themes and key points

Author's key points concern two main questions "what enabled some nation/group of people to conquer others and not the other way around?" and "how did the conquerors find the Old World people first and not the other way around?" He retraced through history in his attempt to find some solution to this problem. The most obvious reason was military: better armor, weapons and tools. Another key reason was infectious diseases that conquerors brought with them; indigenous population was not immune to those diseases.

Those epidemic diseases can only be originated from a population that is dense and concentrated in cities, which came around faster in the Old World than in the New World. Evolving from diseases of cattle, pigs and camels respectively, Measles, influenza and smallpox show that the Old World had native domesticated animals. Such domestication was possible because of higher local diversity of animals that can be domesticated. Higher diversity of animals is triggered by Eurasia's main axis of east/west. It means that species domesticated in one part of Eurasia can easily spread along the latitude while encountering same day-length and climate. Americas main axis is north/south.

Domestication of animals is important in that they yield far more calories leading to bigger population. Also domestication affected land transport and agriculture. Better agriculture led to surplus, which in turn led to acceleration of development of technology. With more food, craftsmen can be supported, allowing them to be more focused on developing metallurgy, writing, swords and guns.

Another question was thrown amidst answering our primary query: how did our conquerors find eventually subjugated people first, not the other way around? The solution lies in ships, which indicates existence of centralized political organization whose sponsorship enabled staff to build them. Writing also comes into play, because it permits spread of information including maps and tales of explorers, which in turn motivate more explorers.

In Africa, none of big wild mammals were domesticable. Judging from history of Australia, we may consider the possibility that number of competing neighbors and isolation impacts society's development. More commonly, technology diffuses from outside, instead of being invented.

Differences among societies on different continents seems to stem from differences among continental environment rather than from biological differences among people themselves.

b) What does he identify as the most important determinants to a society's success?

High diversity and availability of domesticable animals in a continent where its main axis is east/west. From these came domestication of animals and their fast spread along the latitude. Domestication of animals led to better agriculture then to bigger population. Bigger population called for city and order. With better order, its government can order staffs to make ships that enabled the Old World to find the New World first. Better agriculture led to surplus which allowed craftsmen to flourish. Craftsmen came up with new technology such as guns that enabled the Old World to take over the New.

c) How can these ideas be applied to today's global economy?

From domestication of animals came higher population which in turn made city formation necessary. Within the city, writing came about which should have encouraged education among some. Education led to innovation in technology. Education spurred development of human resources: intellectuals, teachers, inventors of new technology and so on.

In today's global economy, only few countries can boast of a resource (such as oil) that can bring their economic standing to a new height. Dependence on domestication or natural resources has passed, now our economy depends on human resources that develops through better education.