Global civ. (Guns, Germs, and Steel) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Global civ. (Guns, Germs, and Steel) - Essay Example Basically, Diamond argues that those humans who moved out to areas that were ecologically and geographically favorable for food production became advantaged. Instead of spending all their lives hunting animals and gathering fruits from the wild, they practiced agriculture and domesticated animals. More food could be obtained faster by engaging in agriculture than in hunting and gathering thus creating enough time for other things. According to Diamond, this extra time obtained was used in inventing the things that he views to be the proximate causes of the inequality witnessed today. Consequently, these proximate factors helped these societies to come up with political organizations and later on facilitated the conquering and taking over of other societies. The ultimate argument that Diamond presents is that ecology and geography determined the fate of societies. He notes that initially all human beings were hunters and gatherers. Hunting animals and gathering food from the forest was not very productive and very little was obtained. The result of this was spending so much time in searching for food. Basically, Diamond argues that people’s lives circulated around looking for food to eat and doing nothing else. When people started to move from Africa to other continent this situation changed in some places. The author notes that some regions were fertile and could support agriculture. With the emergence of agriculture, food production increased greatly and surplus was created. Animals were also domesticated (Diamond 83). For the first time people could focus on other things apart from just looking for food. But this only happened in those areas that were geographically and ecologically favorable for agriculture. The surplus time which had been created was used to invent other things which the author views to be the proximate causes of the