Reading: Differences in Human History

Date: 4/1/2014
Reading: "Why Did Human History Unfold Differently On Different Continents For The Last 13,000 Years?" by Jared Diamond

a. Perhaps Diamond's most important point and something he elicits in the opening sentence is his desire to turn the study of history into a science.  He believes it is important to treat history as a science in order to realize historical events and learn from them in order to prevent disasters in the future.  Another key point Diamond points out is that most people are racists.  He says that a main reason for this is that they don't have another answer as to why history took the course that it did.  Diamond attributes modern world inequalities to historical differences in Eurasia compared to the New World, South Africa, and Australia.

b. Diamond identified some important determinants to a society's success including: number of domesticated plants and animals and east/west axis vs. a north/south axis.  The luxury of having a large amount of domesticated plants and animals allow for for more calories per acre than animals and plants in wild habitats leading to a greater population of farmers/herders in comparison to hunters and gathers.  It also led to food surpluses which allowed for the acceleration of technology because craftspeople could focus on their work instead of raising their own food.  The east/west axis of eurasia meant that domesticated species could be spread throughout all of Eurasia because it had a similar climate throughout.  The north/south axis of continents such as the New World and South Africa meant that there were drastic changes in climates and domesticated species could not adapt to climate changes.  Some other important determinants expressed included continent size/population size and isolation.  For example, Australia is the smallest and most isolated continent.  This can drastically slow technology because of limits in productivity and access to outside resources.

c. The above ideas can be applied to today's global economy in multiple ways.  One way is that as Diamond explained, differences in development started a long time ago and once a continent/population faces lack of development often times they are taken over and if they aren't taken over, it can be very difficult to every catch up to continents/populations that are further along in development.  This can be seen in modern day economies.  Poorer economies tend to be underdeveloped and it is difficult for them to improve their economy/development because they don't have the means to obtain necessary resources in order to create  a stable economy.  Another way the ideas can be applied is population size.    For example, China has become extremely developed and advanced this could be due to their dense populations, especially in cities like Beijing and Shanghai.