Preview

Geographic Luck Jared Diamond Summary

Better Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1432 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Geographic Luck Jared Diamond Summary
Jared Diamond explains why geographic luck is the leading cause to an unequal world which gave certain countries advantages and other's disadvantages.

Have you ever wondered why some parts of the world are much more developed than others? Well, to find the answer, we’ll have to trace this question all the way back to ancient times. Jared Diamond explains that the reason for this revolves around geographic luck, to be more specific; the shapes of the continents, steel, horses and writing are primary sources to why the modern world is so unequal and leads to certain countries having advantages and other’s disadvantages.

To start of, Jared Diamond explores the shapes of the continents and how that could have impacted the progress of human
…show more content…
And Europe was much luckier due to geographic luck.
Similarly, different geographical placement also comes with its different conditions and climate’s, how did these differences affect the progression of living for all the different human societies in Europe vs. the Americas? Also, the fact that certain animals, crops, ideas and technologies were much helpful in providing for a civilization rather than others.
“Continents that are spread out in an East – West direction, such as Eurasia, had a developmental advantage because of the ease with which crops, animals, ideas and technologies could spread between areas of similar latitude. North – south direction such as the Americas, had an inherent climate disadvantage. Any crops, animals, ideas and technologies had to travel through dramatic change of climate conditions” (Prososki; “The Story of The Shapes of the

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    Diamond argues that wealth and power are distributed unevenly across the globe because peoples of different continents differed greatly in technology and political organization.…

    • 344 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    There are many factors that contribute to either the success or struggles of a civilization. Some of the factors are population, economics, resources, and many others. In the book Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond, the civilization of Eurasia is examined in detail in order to reveal why Eurasia was ultimately successful. Diamond argues that Eurasia was successful because of their agriculture, geography, and their immunity to germs, which I agree with.…

    • 412 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Jared Diamond’s Guns, Germs, and Steel answers the question about why human societies are so different from each other. He points out that although Africa seemed to have had a head start in developing their society, the continent of Eurasia had definite advantages. Eurasia’s advantages over many other continents included environmental factors as well as a location that had many more species of animals that could be domesticated, larger scale farming, and easier trade of goods and the spreading of ideas among people.…

    • 597 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Gun, Germs and Steel

    • 964 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The book attempts to explain why Eurasian civilizations (in which he includes North Africa) have survived and conquered others, while arguing against the idea that Eurasian hegemony is due to any form of Eurasian intellectual, moral or inherent genetic superiority. Diamond argues that the gaps in power and technology between human societies originate in environmental differences, which are amplified by various positive feedback loops. When cultural or genetic differences have favored Eurasians (for example, written language or the development among Eurasians of resistance to endemic diseases), he asserts that these advantages occurred because of the influence of geography on societies and cultures, and were not inherent in the Eurasian genomes. Diamond wonders how the Europeans could have so much power and advanced technology while the rest of the world was still hunting and gathering. Although Diamond is not the first to speculate on this complicated subject, his answer is revolutionary. People have attributed Europe's overwhelming success in the areas of economics and politics to things such as racial features, and biological differences. And Diamond wrote this book because he wanted to explore and acquire knowledge about a question that have puzzled people for thousands of years living them to give different opinion about what might be the possible answer to the question.…

    • 964 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Bibliography: McNeill, J.R. "The World According to Jared Diamond." February 2001. The History Teacher. 11 March 2012 .…

    • 991 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    I really liked the video and thought it was real interesting. I do pretty much agree to what I have heard so far. I agree that all the great civilizations had in common that they all had advanced technology, a large population, and an organized work for. I think the same applies kind of to big companies: The all have advanced technology, have a lot of workers, and have an organized work force. I already knew about crop domestication, but I can, again, make a connection of the proses to big companies. Crop goes in a cycle like this: There good crops and bad crops-people take the good crops-people grow new crops from the seeds of the good crops- better crops grow-etc. It is a little bit the same with companies: There are good employs and bad ones-the company fires the bad ones and leaves the new ones-better employs come in place of the bad ones- the employs make the company larger which allows more space for more employs-new employs come-some are good and some are bad-etc. I also totally agree that the geography totally changes your civilization’s power and strength. The terrain, animals, crops and more all change your civilization. The only thing I don’t agree with is that, according to Jared Diamond, is that the civilization’s power and strength totally depends on geography. I think that people’s choices also change a lot. For example, Papua New Guinea’s highlands, the people there are living in an old fashion way of life, thanks to geography. But if one of the citizens said: “I want the highlands to be just as good as America” and he got to America and got lots of cows and wheat and stuff like that, and he tout people modern ways, and how to use the cows and stuff like that, they would change. One thing that surprised me is that only 14 big plant-eating animals have been fully domesticated.…

    • 351 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Geography has had a dramatic influence on the lives of people in ancient civilizations. The Indus River Valley and Chinese Civilizations are both examples of societies that used their geography to help them as civilizations. These civilizations were able to develop based on the resources they had, and were able to become complex civilizations by irrigating floods and devising early plumbing systems.…

    • 707 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Geographic Luck

    • 862 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The way the continents were spread out helped some countries, but isolated others. Europe and Asia, or Eurasia, was spread out from east to west and it helped people spread crops, animals, ideas, and technologies because these areas were of the similar latitude. The Americas were spread out in a north to south direction and required harsh travel that no one really bothered doing. The Fertile Crescent was in the perfect location. The geographic luck brought wild crops and wild animals to this location. The humans that lived there used this to their advantage by altering the cycle of crops and domesticating animals for their needs. To change the cycle of crops, humans had to get the best seeds and plant them on their land. They used the domesticated animals for many things including their meat, milk, fur, and their power. An animal’s power can plow a field much faster and only requires about two people to help the animal. With fields producing more agricultural products, some people started leaving the fields behind, and started developing new skills. The earliest evidence for this is found at the Fertile Crescent. These people started building larger and…

    • 862 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Another important aspect that explains similarities between civilizations in the past is the agriculture. African and Meso-American civilizations developed advanced techniques of agriculture even though they were separated by a long amount of distance. The nearby localizations of rivers in these civilizations could explain their great work at agriculture, developing systems such as irrigation. It can be said that their development of irrigation came as an answer to the lack of food they had in one time and by having similar ways of thinking, they came to a conclusion that said that they could improve their production of food by taking advantage of large bodies of water located near their communities, such as rivers. One last thing that can be compared between communities in the past is the worship they had to the Sun God.…

    • 531 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The human race has advanced massively over the years. From the time that our ancestors first decided to leave all they had ever known in their home in Africa and venture into the great unknown. Regardless of whether you gauge progress economically, technologically, or culturally, by all of these measures mankind has made incredible advances. However, man’s progress was not entirely due to human inventions and innovations. Physical geography influenced many of their choices and we are still affected by physical geography in the modern day and age.The development, dispersion, and alteration of cultures was also affected by physical geography. The emergence of agriculture due to favorable physical geography conditions was physical geography’s greatest gift to humankind. Through agriculture, the snowflake that that is advancement was pushed over the edge of a the mountain and grew exponentially in mass and velocity until it eventually reached the world…

    • 808 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Based on the examination of the major cultural characteristics of populations in North America prior to European contact, these societies were just as advanced as their European counterparts such as Spain. North America, an unknown continent to the rest of the world until 1492, thrived for centuries on its own with its advancements and discoveries in technology, like the irrigation system, languages, such as Algic, and religions created by native people and practiced by countless tribes within the continent. Even with little connection to others outside of their tribes, the people of North America were able to create civlizationations and organize a way of life based on only the knowledge that was passed down and the knowledge they were accumulating…

    • 569 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The basis of this continental separation, however, is not always easy to understand since they are not always based on “continental divisions”. “The Isthmus of Panama, separating North from South America, is of little importance for either social history or the animal and plant kingdoms”, In the case of Africa it would be more effective to consider it as the south of the Sahara dessert rather than the south of the Mediterranean Sea. And between Europe and Asia there really is no viable separation. We can only understand these separations “by discarding the commonplace notion that continents denote significant biological or cultural groupings”…

    • 646 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Compare Usa and Morocco

    • 281 Words
    • 2 Pages

    All countries in the world are unique. Obviously, countries are different from one another in location, culture, government, climate, and lifestyles. However, many countries share some surprising similarities. Some may think that because. Some people may think that because Morocco and the USA are in different hemispheres, these two nations have nothing in common. On the contrary, they share many similarities.…

    • 281 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    DIASTROPHISM: THE BENDING, WARPING OR FOLDING OF THE EARHT’S CRUST; Large-scale deformation of the Earth's crust by natural processes,…

    • 992 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Best Essays

    Mujo Kuje Konja Po Mjesecu

    • 2798 Words
    • 12 Pages

    References: Acemoglu, Daron, Simon Johnson, and James A. Robinson, 2001, “The Colonial Origins of Comparative Development: An Empirical Investigation,” American Economic Review, Vol. 91 (December), pp. 1369–1401. Bloom, David E., and Jeffrey D. Sachs, 1998, “Geography, Demography, and Economic Growth in Africa,” Brookings Papers on Economic Activity: 2, Brookings Institution, pp. 207–95. Démurger, Sylvie, and others, 2002, “Geography, Economic Policy, and Regional Development in China,” Asian Economic Papers, Vol. 1 (Winter), pp. 146–97. Easterly, William, and Ross Levine, 2002, “Tropics, Germs and Crops: How Endowments Influence Economic Development,” NBER Working Paper 9106 (Cambridge, Massachusetts: National Bureau of Economic Research). Gallup, John Luke, and Jeffrey D. Sachs with Andrew D. Mellinger, 1998, “Geography and Economic Development,” paper presented at the Annual World Bank Conference on Development Economics, Washington, D.C., April. Rodrik, Dani, Arvind Subramanian, and Francesco Trebbi, 2002, “Institutions Rule: The Primacy of Institutions over Geography and Integration in Economic Development,” NBER Working Paper 9305 (Cambridge, Massachusetts: National Bureau of Economic Research). Sachs, Jeffrey D., 2002a , “A New Global Effort to Control Malaria,” Science, Vol. 298 (October), pp. 122–24. ———, 2002b, “Resolving the Debt Crisis of Low-Income Countries,” Brookings Papers on Economic Activity: 1, Brookings Institution, pp. 257–86. ———, 2003, “Institutions Don’t Rule: Direct Effects of Geography on Per Capita Income,” NBER Working Paper 9490 (Cambridge, Massachusetts: National Bureau of Economic Research). ——— and Pia Malaney, 2002, “The Economic and Social Burden of Malaria,” Nature Insight, Vol. 415 (February), pp. 680–85. United Nations Development Program, 2003, Human Development Report (New York), forthcoming.…

    • 2798 Words
    • 12 Pages
    Best Essays