[Book Review] Guns germs and Steel by Jared Diamond

A "brief history of last 10000 years" is what the book promises. And we get much more than that. A complete paradigm shift of how and why civilizations developed only in Europe-Asia region, while people of Africa, Australia and Americas lagged behind.

Book starts off with an anecdote when the author, a naturalist, is roaming around in the jungles of New Guinea with a local tribal as a guide. As they prepare to cook dinner, the guide gets some mushrooms as food. The author is afraid as he knows the quite a few varieties in the jungle are poisonous and even experts in the field cannot distinguish between the poisonous and edible ones. However when the guide realizes the real reason behind the skepticism to eat mushrooms, he starts listing the varieties available not only in that jungle, but also in the whole island, and their uses and their characteristics. This anecdote is used to make a point that the reason some tribes dint civilize is surely not due to lack of intelligence. All the native tribes in the world have complete knowledge of their environment. If there was anything to be discovered, the natives would have discovered. The author proves convincingly numerous reasons leading to civilization in Eurasian region. And none of them depends on the intelligence of the local tribes.

Reason 1: Availability of appropriate plants and animals
The golden crescent, one of the three areas where agriculture was first developed, has some unique characteristics. 5 out of 7 grasses with largest seed size are found in wild in this area. Also it has an unique topology of mountains and plains due to which the olden day tribal could sustain agriculture throughout the year. Similarly the lack of domesticable animals in Africa, Americas and Australia led to continuation of "Hunting based" lifestyle of the natives in those places.

Due to the surplus created due to agriculture/domestic animals, professions like philosophers, soldiers, doctors etc could be sustained and which are necessary for development of civilization.

Reason 2: Axis of the continent
The reason for development of civilizations across Europe and Asia is the East-West Axis of the land mass. The east west axis provides a conducive environment for spread of the newly developed crops as for example the crops which grow in Mediterranean face similar climate 5000 miles across in China. Compare this to the north south axis of Americas. Every few hundred miles, the climate changes drastically. For eg. The Day length variations in US/Canada border is significantly different that one found in the Mexico US border.  This hampers the spread of plants from one place to another.

Thus the book conclusively proves that no-other tribes residing outside of Eurasian land mass had any chance of development. May be they would have reached the same level of advancement in technology, had they got enough time to progress. But clearly they were not supposed to get the required time.

And hypothetically, if the American continents had the environment and conditions which we have in Eurasia, the history might have been very different. American Indians would have been the ones who would have discovered Europe and Asia. And they would have wiped of all the natives of Europe and Asia and would have Ruled the World.

Overall, this book provides an excellent insight into the factors influencing the development of human civilization and the significant role natural resources and environment played in the development. This is quite contrary to the "casteist" belief held by the conservatives across the world. And this book provides a refreshingly new outlook of looking at things.

--Rahul