First
published in the United States in 1997, Guns, Germs and Steel
was initially subtitled ‘The Fates of Human Societies.’ Within a
few months, this subtitle had evolved into ‘A Short History of
Everybody for the Last 13,000 Years.’
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for non-fiction, the Rhone Poulenc
Science Book Prize, along with three other international
literary prizes, Guns, Germs and Steel has been translated into
25 languages and has sold millions of copies around the world.
"Serious, groundbreaking biological studies of human history
only seem to come along once every generation or so. . . . Now
[Guns, Germs and Steel] must be added to their select number. .
. . No finer work of its kind has been published this year, or
for many past."— Martin Sieff, Washington Times
"Guns, Germs and Steel lays a foundation for understanding human
history, which makes it fascinating in its own right. Because it
brilliantly describes how chance advantages can lead to early
success in a highly competitive environment, it also offers
useful lessons for the business world and for people interested
in why technologies succeed."—Bill Gates
Episode One : Out of Eden
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.
On November 15th 1532, 168 Spanish conquistadors arrive in the
holy city of Cajamarca, at the heart of the Inca Empire, in
Peru.
They are exhausted, outnumbered and terrified – ahead of them
are camped 80,000 Inca troops and the entourage of the Emperor
himself.
Yet, within just 24 hours, more than 7,000 Inca warriors lie
slaughtered; the Emperor languishes in chains; and the
victorious Europeans begin a reign of colonial terror which will
sweep through the entire American continent.
Why was the balance of power so unequal between the Old World,
and the New?
Can Jared Diamond explain how America fell to guns, germs and
steel?
So far, Jared Diamond has demonstrated how geography favoured
one group of people – Europeans – endowing them with agents of
conquest ahead of their rivals around the world. Guns, germs and
steel allowed Europeans to colonize vast tracts of the globe –
but what happened when this all-conquering package arrived in
Africa, the birthplace of humanity?
Can Jared Diamond's theories explain how a continent so rich in
natural resources, could have ended up the poorest continent on
earth?
Read the book
