In Guns Germs and Steel Jared diamond tries to answer a very important question asked by Yali, his friend from New Guinea. Why did white people invent so much cargo and bring it to New Guinea instead of vice versa? Diamond takes this question to the next level by asking why history unfolded differently on different continents. Diamond says geography and the domestication of animals played a big role in the development of civilizations. Each continent was given certain animals and plants. Some just put them to better use than others. The natives of these places needed to be able to satisfy some conditions such as being able to breed in captivity and make the animals safe for people to be around. The hippos and giraffes of Africa, the jaguars of the Amazon, and the kangaroos of Australia did not meet those conditions. The domesticated llamas, turkeys, and dogs of the Americas could not pull it off either. Eurasia was lucky enough to have had the wild animals from which our cows, sheep, horses, and chickens could be bred. This gave the Europeans advantages in the development of technology, and eventually provided them with immunity against infectious diseases caused by living with these animals. Eurasia was also lucky in that its environment provided it with the plants that were easily domesticated and provided nutrients essential to fighting disease. Botanical wealth, constrained by the local flora, determined agriculture, agriculture determined ...
