Analysis Of Guns, Germs, And Steel By Jared Diamond

GUNS, GERMS, AND MCNEILL

Noah Neerdaels
Mr. Kelly
AP World History
November 24, 2014

Jared Diamond’s bestseller Guns, Germs, and Steel has gathered lots of praise and popularity, but also has garnered lots of controversy and speculation. Diamond writes of how
Europe came to dominate the world in expansion and conquest, while attempting to find the ultimate factors that caused their success. There are many historians who dispute his theory on the basis that he chooses certain snapshots of history that fit his purpose and cleanly cuts a story, not history. One of these opinions comes from J.R. McNeil, a professor at Georgetown
University. McNeil has stated that Diamond’s well known book is, in fact, “not an intellectual
This experience in battle was what let them butcher the
Moriori people, who had no reason to fight with other groups, and no experience with war. They were also behind in technology, because everyone was hunting or gathering, instead of researching and building. The Incas and the Moriori are two prime examples of where
Diamond’s theory explains why things turned out how they did.
Some of the many flaws in Diamond’s argument are pointed out by J.R. McNeill, in his short essay, “The World According To Jared Diamond”. One of the many factors Diamond does not address is “Why Europe” (McNeill 170). He somewhat explains why geographically
Eurasia’s east­west axis gives it many advantages, but he then goes to show that this is why
Europe became dominant. But what happened to Asia? If the east­west axis is what gave Europe it’s power, why not Asia as well? Truly, geography can not be the only reason for some societies to become more powerful than others. Yet Diamond’s point is that “[only] environmental conditions provided better starting points for some societies than for others” (McNeill 170).
Even with more domestic animals than you can count, without water, they’ll die. Without protection from invaders, they’ll be stolen or killed.
Geography is important for growing civilizations, but good luck is just as important if not more.
Diamond believes that Geography is the root of all these factors, which I believe to be a decent explanation, ignoring random disasters that can ruin an empire.
Geography is all that matters in Jared Diamond’s eyes, and is what caused the expansion and conquest we can look back on today, but there are other elements at play. Luck is also a defining factor in how societies advanced. Diamond is correct, though, that geography can have a massive impact on growing societies. The diseases given to Europeans by domestic animals was what gave them the advantage against the people from the Americas, and the technology that they gained from being sedentary further advanced them. As McNeill points out, his argument is not without flaws. The east­west axis he uses to show how Eurasia was the place to be does not

prove his theory that all of Eurasia had the same conditions to support Eurasian flora and