Editing Guns, Germs, and Steel (section)

=== Summary ===
Diamond argues that Eurasian [[civilization]] is not so much a product of ingenuity, but of opportunity and necessity. That is, civilization is not created out of superior intelligence, but is the result of a chain of developments, each made possible by certain preconditions.

The first step towards civilization is the move from [[nomad]]ic [[hunter-gatherer]] to rooted agrarian society. Several conditions are necessary for this transition to occur: access to high-carbohydrate vegetation that endures storage; a [[climate]] dry enough to allow storage; and access to animals docile enough for [[domestication]] and versatile enough to survive captivity. Control of [[crops]] and livestock leads to food [[Excess supply|surpluses]]. Surpluses free people to specialize in activities other than sustenance and support population growth. The combination of specialization and population growth leads to the accumulation of social and technological innovations which build on each other. Large societies develop [[ruling class]]es and supporting [[bureaucracies]], which in turn lead to the organization of [[nation-state]]s and empires.<ref name="Diamond1997GGS">{{cite book | last=Diamond | first=Jared | author-link=Jared Diamond | title=Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies | publisher=W.W. Norton & Company | date=March 1997 | isbn=978-0-393-03891-0 }}</ref>

Although agriculture arose in several parts of the world, Eurasia gained an early advantage due to the greater availability of suitable plant and animal species for domestication. In particular, Eurasia has [[barley]], two varieties of wheat, and three protein-rich [[pulse (legume)|pulses]] for food; [[flax]] for textiles; and goats, sheep, and cattle. Eurasian grains were richer in protein, easier to sow, and easier to store than American maize or tropical bananas.

As early Western Asian civilizations developed trading relationships, they found additional useful animals in adjacent territories, such as horses and [[donkey]]s for use in transport. Diamond identifies 13 species of large animals over {{convert|100|lb}} domesticated in Eurasia, compared with just one in South America (counting the [[llama]] and [[alpaca]] as breeds within the same species) and none at all in the rest of the world. Australia and North America suffered from a lack of useful animals due to [[extinction]], probably by human hunting, shortly after the end of the [[Pleistocene]], and the only [[Domestication of animals|domesticated animals]] in [[New Guinea]] came from the East Asian mainland during the [[Austronesian peoples|Austronesian]] settlement around 4,000–5,000 years ago. Biological relatives of the horse, including [[zebra]]s and [[onager]]s, proved untameable; and although [[African elephant]]s can be tamed, it is very difficult to breed them in captivity.<ref name="Diamond1997GGS" /><ref name="McNeill2001WorldAccordingToDiamond">{{cite journal|last=McNeill | first=J.R.|date=February 2001|title=The World According to Jared Diamond|url=https://historycooperative.org/journal/world-according-jared-diamond/|url-status=live|journal=The History Teacher|volume=34|issue=2|pages=165–174|doi=10.2307/3054276|jstor=3054276|pmid=19069596|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190203143937/https://historycooperative.org/journal/world-according-jared-diamond/|archive-date=February 3, 2019|access-date=February 3, 2019}}</ref> Diamond describes the small number of domesticated species (14 out of 148 "candidates") as an instance of the [[Anna Karenina principle]]: many promising species have just one of several significant difficulties that prevent domestication. He argues that all large mammals that could be domesticated, have been.{{R|Diamond1997GGS|pages=168–174}}

Eurasians domesticated goats and sheep for hides, clothing, and cheese; cows for milk; [[ox|bullocks]] for [[tillage]] of fields and transport; and benign animals such as pigs and chickens. Large domestic animals such as horses and camels offered the considerable military and economic advantages of mobile transport.

[[File:Continental axes by Jared Diamond.png|thumb|[[Continent]]al axes according to the book]]
Eurasia's large landmass and long east–west distance increased these advantages. Its large area provided more plant and animal species suitable for domestication. Equally important, its east–west orientation has allowed groups of people to wander and empires to conquer from one end of the continent to the other while staying at the same latitude. This was important because similar climate and cycle of seasons let them keep the same "food production system" – they could keep growing the same crops and raising the same animals all the way from Scotland to Siberia. Doing this throughout history, they spread innovations, languages and diseases everywhere.

By contrast, the north–south orientation of the Americas and Africa created countless difficulties adapting crops domesticated at one [[latitude]] for use at other latitudes (and, in North America, adapting crops from one side of the [[Rocky Mountains]] to the other). Similarly, Africa was fragmented by its extreme variations in climate from north to south: crops and animals that flourished in one area never reached other areas where they could have flourished, because they could not survive the intervening environment. Europe was the ultimate beneficiary of Eurasia's east–west orientation: in the [[first millennium BCE]], the [[Mediterranean]] areas of Europe adopted Southwestern Asia's animals, plants, and agricultural techniques; in the [[first millennium]] CE, the rest of Europe followed suit.<ref name="Diamond1997GGS" /><ref name="McNeill2001WorldAccordingToDiamond" />

The plentiful supply of food and the dense populations that it supported made [[division of labor]] possible. The rise of non-farming specialists such as craftsmen and [[scribe]]s accelerated economic growth and technological progress. These economic and technological advantages eventually enabled Europeans to conquer the peoples of the other continents in recent centuries by using guns and steel, particularly after the devastation of native populations by the epidemic diseases from germs.

Eurasia's dense populations, high levels of trade, and living in close proximity to livestock resulted in widespread transmission of diseases, including from animals to humans. [[Smallpox]], [[measles]], and [[influenza]] were the result of close proximity between dense populations of animals and humans. [[Natural selection]] endowed most Eurasians with genetic variations making them less susceptible to some diseases, and constant circulation of diseases meant adult individuals had developed [[immunity (medical)|immunity]] to a wide range of [[pathogen]]s. When Europeans made contact with the Americas, European diseases (to which Americans had no immunity) ravaged the indigenous American population, rather than the other way around. The "trade" in diseases was a little more balanced in Africa and southern Asia, where endemic malaria and [[yellow fever]] made these regions notorious as the "white man's grave".<ref name="RossMacGregor1903 offightAgainstMalaria">{{cite journal
|title = The Fight against Malaria: An Industrial Necessity for Our African Colonies |author1=Ross, R. |author2=MacGregor, W. |journal=Journal of the Royal African Society |volume=2 |issue=6 |date=January 1903 |pages=149–160 |jstor=714548 }}</ref> Some researchers say [[syphilis]] was known to [[Hippocrates]],<ref>{{cite web |url = http://news.independent.co.uk/health/article266422.ece |title = English syphilis epidemic pre-dated European outbreaks by 150 years |last = Keys | first=David |access-date = 2007-09-22 |publisher = Independent News and Media Limited |year = 2007 |url-status = dead |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20071015045621/http://news.independent.co.uk/health/article266422.ece |archive-date = October 15, 2007 |df = mdy-all }}</ref> and others think it was brought from the Americas by [[Christopher Columbus|Columbus]] and his successors.<ref>{{cite web |title = Columbus blamed for spread of syphilis |url = https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn13186-columbus-blamed-for-spread-of-syphilis-.html |date = January 2008 |website = NewScientist.com news service |last = MacKenzie |first = D. }}</ref> The European diseases from [[Germ (microorganism)|germs]] obliterated indigenous populations so that relatively small numbers of Europeans could maintain dominance.<ref name="Diamond1997GGS" /><ref name="McNeill2001WorldAccordingToDiamond" />

Diamond proposes geographical explanations for why western European societies, rather than other Eurasian powers such as China, have been the dominant colonizers.<ref name="Diamond1997GGS" /><ref name="Diamond1999HowToGetRich">{{cite web |title = How to get rich |url = http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/diamond_rich/rich_p1.html |last = Diamond |first = Jared |date = July 1999 |access-date = October 24, 2006 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20061006065424/http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/diamond_rich/rich_p1.html |archive-date = October 6, 2006 |url-status = live }}</ref> He said Europe's geography favored [[balkanization]] into smaller, closer nation-states, bordered by natural barriers of mountains, rivers, and coastline. Advanced civilization developed first in areas whose geography lacked these barriers, such as China, India and Mesopotamia. There, the ease of conquest meant they were dominated by large empires in which manufacturing, trade and knowledge flourished for millennia, while balkanized Europe remained more primitive.

However, at a later stage of development, western Europe's fragmented governmental structure actually became an advantage. Monolithic, isolated empires without serious competition could continue mistaken policies – such as China squandering its naval mastery by [[Haijin|banning the building of ocean-going ships]] – for long periods without immediate consequences. In Western Europe, by contrast, competition from immediate neighbors meant that governments could not afford to suppress economic and technological progress for long; if they did not correct their mistakes, they were out-competed and/or conquered relatively quickly. While the leading powers alternated, a constant was rapid development of knowledge which could not be suppressed. For instance, the Chinese Emperor could ban shipbuilding and be obeyed, ending China's Age of Discovery, but the Pope could not keep [[Galileo Galilei|Galileo]]'s ''[[Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems|Dialogue]]'' from being republished in Protestant countries, or [[Johannes Kepler|Kepler]] and [[Isaac Newton|Newton]] from continuing his progress; this ultimately enabled European merchant ships and navies to navigate around the globe. Western Europe also benefited from a more temperate climate than Southwestern Asia where intense agriculture ultimately damaged the environment, encouraged [[desertification]], and hurt [[soil fertility]].