He puts forward his theory that geographic differences provided the greatest advantage in the onset of food production and the major reason why people from certain areas flourished over others. The second section talks about the rise of food production and how farmer power forms the root of Guns, Germs and Steel. The result of the victory, was the subsequent colonization of the New World by Europeans, the resultant disappearance of most groups of Native Americans and the biggest population shift of modern times. Continuing with migration, he covers the defeat of the Inca Emperor by the Spanish. He proceeds to write about the effect of geography on shaping societies on Polynesian Islands, with human movement from the mainland to Islands, across the seas, in ancient times being his prime focus. There really are broad patterns to history and the search for their explanation is as productive as it is fascinating.'ĭiamond commences by giving an analysis of the world prior to 11000 BC. History is not just one damned fact after another. His emphasis in on the parts of the world that he is familiar with, New Guinea, Australia, New Zealand, North and South America and Europe and Africa with most of his focus on the America's and Australia/ New Guinea.ĭiamond compares world history to an onion, 'One has to keep taking off the layers. Diamond, however, does not make any references to the Indus Valley civilization, and when writing about linguistic development, fails to mention the Indo Aryan group of languages. Food production and food surplus being the basic requirement for humans to move upwards into the next stage of development. Using the equality of man as his cornerstone, he examines in great detail the growth of certain ancient human settlements in the world and the reason why some of them achieved the basics of food production earlier than others. He is an American and his constitutional belief that 'all men are created equal' forms the premise of his research. Throughout the book, Diamond seeks an answer to that query but not from a racist point of view.

Blood germs and steel