GGS Review - Guns Germs and Steel PDF

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Guns Germs and Steel...

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Scot Granlund 12/07/20 HIS-110 Kara Johnson How did Guns, Germs, and Steel effect the World How could one describe history expansion and progression? The easiest way one could come up with is "Guns, Germs, and Steel," this is a book written by Jarad Dimond regarding how technology and nature play a critical role in how humanity shaped itself throughout existence. Many topics have been covered within history books depicting how humanity settled and expanded and clashed with others. Still, Dimond's book described the role that tech played and what the environment did to effect people and advance both culture and technology. How did the technology advancements improve life, what sciences were being used, and how was the environment a factor for human development? Has science provided such a boost to the ability to adapt and expand human civilization, yes it has significantly improved humans' ability to conquer and to survive? Science goes together with technology but also expands on this topic for the fact that not all new technology is needed for science. If we have the tools and they work for the required task, why change them? This is an excellent example of not change tech that works well. One of the larges discoveries in science at the west was how disease spreads and how new diseases can be introduced to new groups. Humans in Eurasia created some of the first animal husbandries that we still use today and, as such, have a higher immune system than people from the Americas or Australia. Because of animal husbandry, humans developed the immune system advances

through east to west as it is easier to travel with herds across latitude lines vs. longitude lines since cold to warm climate can be difficult for herd animals to adapt. Crop rotation was a science and technological advancement along with learning how to selective breed grains for colder climates such as northeaster corn or Turkish wheat and how it spread similar to a common weed like dandelions. Some science that has lasted while exceeding standards then being lost to the ages has been the discovery of concrete and metallurgy. Concrete has been speculated to have originated from the Romans having properties of improving building strength for both engineering strength and siege strength as their bridges and building still stand 2000 years after their fall. From the discovery of metallurgy, we have progressed through the ages quickly, but slowly as new forms of metallic strengths are better than the past, such as bronze giving way to brass to steel and so forth. One of the discoveries that disappeared was the ability to create Damascus steel this has carbon tubes riddled throughout the meatal providing strength and flexibility to the material, we have recently rediscovered this as well but not close to the strength that the Persians had. This is a high point to show that the Persians could make durable metals during war times for better conquering and for sharing their craftsman abilities. Technology always has progressed humans in civilization, along with conquering others. Some of the technology that achieved this are weapons, mobility, protection, agriculture, and medicine. One of the larges achievements ancient humans had at different times was animal domestication or husbandry. By doing this, we had created a reliable source of food and crafting materials. We also started to be able to travel more considerable distances with more goods for trade because we now had something to carry heavy loads for us without complaint. Humans developed crop rotation after discovering by accident that soil loses value when only one crop is

grown in that area for years. The Europeans ability to adapt to the environment in North America was reasonably natural since once they were able to build shelters and create winter coats, it was very similar to Scotland and Scandinavia weathers making adapting with their prior technology very easy and a simple task to complete with time. While the people were with the natives, the Europeans reworked some of their farming equipment due to the soil being a different thickness and having never being tilled this slowly. The natives were sharing hunting tactics with the hunters of settlers. When the Europeans arrived in North America, they were sharing their ideas and technology to the natives who lived here. In return, the natives taught them how to grow certain crops here and how animal behaviors are different than in Europe. Unfortunately, what both parties did not realize is the ability to have disease immunity from thousands of years herding animals in Eurasia that the people do not have in the Americas. The result was a massive outbreak of various diseases within the native populous. During the expansion, West Europeans gave out blankets to the natives that they had previously given to Small Pox victims; they did this so that they could eliminate the natives that had what the Easterners wanted. We look at this as a terrible act, and this has affected the World extensively because they did this many times for territory gains or resources for the people. Disease pools form when new groups of people meet, or sanitation is not excellent and may cause a small epidemic within either group. The Eurasians had an advantage on this since they had already lived through the Bubonic plague, and they have lived in large communities for thousands of years or have been animal handlers building immunity through husbandry. The natives did not know about any of the diseases that the Easterners would bring or how to treat them, and this would have caused strife between groups. Some conditions the natives could treat

with local herbs and home remedies passed from generations of tradition using their environment and historical technologies that some Easterners could have been surprised by. The native's environment was able to keep them from advancing to fast and recklessly, unlike the Easterners whos rapid expanse and conquering created so many of the issues that are prevalent today. Their environment was able to develop an understanding between people as they did not have the greed that other civilizations had during their time, and they could bargain with others peacefully between different tribes. The Europeans were able to conquer others so quickly because they had thousands of years to create new technology while learning from other nations on what science was working and others that continuously failed. They used this ability to trade with others and get ahead of other empires creating what we know have as global conflicts from greed and what people look like because of genetics that people evolved from millions of years. Over the last few millennia, humanity has risen and fallen countless times, all the while discovering and losing technology that could have brought us farther than currently are. Humans have found numerous ideas and have shared them along with new diseases that have either proven to be nothing or a creation of a plague that devastated humanity because of the lack of technology or the environment that the virus could thrive in. This is not always a good thing since understanding is a very fragile species from war, creation, survival, and how the environment has been trying to create a level playing field humanity has proven to be a longlasting and "psudo-god" creature who will outlive anything. Has the technology granted survivability, did the science creations help, has the environment created more reliable people? All of these are great ideas that continue to live on in the thought of humanity and will continue to live on with the next species after we are long gone.

References Andrade, T., Journal of Early Modern Hisotory (2010). Beyond Guns, Germs, and Steel: European Expansion and Maritime Asia, 1400-1750. https://doi-org.lopes.idm.oclc.org/10.1163/138537810X12632734397142 Frum, D., Foreign Affairs (1998). How the West Won. https://doi-org.lopes.idm.oclc.org/10.2307/20049056 McNeill, J. R., History Teacher (2001). The World According to Jared Diamond. https://doi-org.lopes.idm.oclc.org/10.2307/3054276...