Unit 2: Guns, Germs, and Steel

As the title and the picture describe, this post will be all about what I've learned about the Theory of Guns, Germs, and Steel.

The man in the previous picture is known as Jared Diamond, a university professor who came up with a theory in history. After coming up with this theory, he decided to write a book about it and, later, to participate in a History Channel Special about it. The name of this book and show is Guns, Germs, and Steel.

The theory behind the creation of the book and the movie is that the reason that the European nations of the world are years ahead of Third World Nations (such as those in Africa) is Geographic Luck. This means that because of the Geography of the World, Europeans were able to develop tools and weaponry, whether they knew they had it or not, because the geography of the area was more hospitible than in Africa, whose populations were unable to develop such advanced tools or weaponry. This allowed the Europeans to colonize, conquer, and enslave the African populations. The same events happened, apparently, to the Incan Nation after coming into contact with the Europeans since their (Incan) environment was not as resourceful or hospitable.

Even today, perhaps due to the geography, many African nations are still in poverty. In the country of Nigeria alone, one such problem is poor resource management. This, when combined with the few resources that Nigeria has at its disposal, has led to major economic debt and poverty. Another problem is there is no viable drinking water that flows through the homes of Nigeria. Therefore, the country has to dig water up with wells, which few can afford, or import water in vast amounts, increasing national debt. Something that could be done is to educate them in better resource management skills. However, the it will take a while until the poverty situation in Nigeria improves.

All together, the idea of Geographic luck is very logical and reasonable. It is also a very important because it enabled the Europeans to spread out to the whole world and to conquer other nations while it prevented other nations from hardly leaving home. However, geography's impact can also enable other nations to become very powerful too, leading to a deeper conflict of power between it and other powerful nations (i.e. Europeans vs. Chinese).

Coming up next, on Samuel's Research Blog, the world will change as powerful nations and not-so-powerful nations switch from agricultural societies to industrial societies from Industrialization and Urbanization...

Sources on Nigerian Poverty:
http://ezinearticles.com/?Poverty-In-Africa&id=509042
http://aderinola.wordpress.com/2007/06/09/mass-poverty-in-nigeria/

Pictures from:
http://www.brandeis.edu/admissions/blog/jamie/images/gunsgerms.jpg
http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/diamond/images/diamond200.jpg