Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond (An Analytical Summary/Review)

Analytical Summary:

In grade school, educators teach about imperialism–one country extending its hand into another to take power or influence. Imperialism was especially prevalent throughout the 19^th and 20^th centuries, such as the Open Door Policy in China at the turn of the 20^th century. Rarely is it considered how especially influential countries gained their power in the first place. Jared Diamond dives deep into this concept of cultural dominance in his work Guns, Germs, and Steel. One of Diamond’s main points is that European dominance is due to the geographical location of the Earth’s earliest people. He explained this success as not due solely to geography itself, but what that geography allowed to arise for our earliest ancestors – agricultural success as well as the ease at which innovation and ideas flowed from population to population. Though Diamond’s two major points were valid, he neglected to mention two important factors that played a huge part in Europe rising to power, namely coincidence and culture.

Diamond’s arguments make a lot of sense. From the very title of his account, he presents his most relatable argument – Europe has dominance over the world because of their effective use of guns, germs, and steel. From the very first chapters of his book, he dispels the racist argument that Europeans were simply more competent than non-Europeans and therefore European innovation and culture could further take over. Rather, Diamond points out that the geographical location of certain nations was an indicator of supremacy in those nations. However, sheer size and location of a civilization alone is not a telltale sign of future superiority. As a counterexample, Diamond considers the African continent; if superiority did depend solely on geographic size and location, Africa would be the superpower of the world. Rather, Diamond explains that it is specific aspects of geography that lead to more widespread influential power of a nation.

Agriculture is an important aspect of geography that determines a civilization’s influence on other nations. As figure and table 5.1 show, the origins of food production began in developments that were highly influential at one point, such as China, the eastern United States, and the Fertile Crescent. Another geographical detail is the length of the horizontal axis of the continent in which a society exists. Because Africa and South America have such long vertical axes, any group settled on this continent would struggle to spread ideas. Diamond’s idea is that those continents with longer horizontal axes are better suited to the spreading of innovation because they are in similar environments. As a result of this, the climate is more consistent in two societies of the same latitude than those of the same longitude. The idea of a longer horizontal axis leading to an easier spreading of innovation on a continent links with agriculture as well because crops and animals can dwell in similar environments. Diamond explains that using both agriculture and axis relation acts as a sort of catalyst when diffusing ideas–the more surrounding civilizations adopt an idea, an increased number of civilizations will further adopt said idea. The influence grows exponentially, thus giving the original civilization more strength and power on a continental, and eventually, a global scale.

While Jared Diamond’s ideas are clear and easy to accept, there are more ideas that are just as impactful, though he chose not to include them. First, there is the role that the culture of a people as a whole plays on their impact on the world. For example, the Orient tends to think of the individual as a subordinate member of a bigger, more important group. Therefore, individuals within the Orient tend to be submissive to the larger, more important whole, resulting in a lack of outright creativity that tends to be necessary for innovation. In contrast, the Occident sees the individual as very important. They see the individual diversity within the group as something that gives their societies an advantage in cultural dominance compared to their eastern counterparts. Compare two countries with similar geography (with regard to longitude), one from the Orient, China; and one from the Occident, the United States of America. In this comparison, it becomes clear how much culture affects domination and spreading innovation. China has not developed much further in the past few decades and has a spirit of contentment with older traditions compared to the United States. The United States is rarely content with the present and is always looking for the newer, seemingly better thing, rewarding the individual who invents the next best thing with both fortune and fame.

Diamond does mention China having its power being taken over by western cultures in chapter 20, but claims China slowed its development down because of political unification. Rather, this vast difference between the United States and China – as well as most Oriental and Occidental societies – is caused by religion, something only briefly mentioned by Diamond in Guns, Germs, and Steel. One of the main influences on a society’s culture is religion. The emphasis on being submissive and content that appears in many Asian cultures is because of the most popular religions there. One of the fundamental principles of Taoism is being content with life the way it is. One of the four steps in Buddhism is eliminating pain through eliminating desires. The people of the Orient are fundamentally taught that contentment leads to happiness and exaltation. Therefore, innovation is rare in the Orient because everyone is content with what they already have. Compare that with the Occident, where Christianity is about us being saved through Christ’s mercy, good deeds, and undying faith – a very individualistic approach. The religious aspects of different societies were only touched on by Diamond, when they had a much greater effect on cultural dominance than many of his larger points.

Diamond also neglects to mention the power of sheer coincidence in cultural supremacy. Diamond admits that most of his points do not prophesy which nation will overshadow the rest, but he also does not give the credit to chance, which it deserves. We see chance rear its head and dictate who gets what power throughout history. One very recent example is that of the presidential election in 2000 between George Bush and Al Gore. Bush got elected as the Executive of the United States by a small enough margin that his success over Gore’s in the election is usually seen as luck of the draw. However, those years that Bush was in office were arguably some of the most crucial in recent American history–terror struck, war broke out, and our culture as the United States changed. It poses an interesting question–what if Al Gore had become America’s Chief Executive instead? Would our country still be such a massive superpower? As this is a hypothetical exercise we cannot talk in absolutes. However, it shows that sheer chance does play a huge role in a nation’s cultural dominance. It may, perhaps, be an even bigger than those mentioned in the book. Diamond is valid in giving credit to geography, agriculture,  and domestication. However, the fact that most of these things occurred together in the right environment is due to chance, and Diamond does not mention it.

The points made by Jared Diamond in Guns, Germs, and Steel are valid and true. He makes it clear that cultural dominance and the appearance of technology did not occur for purely biological reasons, but claims that societal dominance has generally been influenced by geography in one way or another. It is valid that Diamond’s reasoning does go back to this main idea, and his arguments for geography are both well written and explained. However, Diamond’s argument is found to be lacking when he fails to clearly outline that both culture and chance were also large contributors to European domination today.