GUNS, GERMS, & STEAL day 4

We continued watching the video today in class. We learned that out of the 14 domestic animals that are used for physical labor, South America had the llama, and the other 13 animals came from north Africa, Asia, and Europe. The middle east was the area that was home to some of the best crops and animals in the world, this area was called the Fertile Crescent. The people of the Fertile Crescent where geographically blessed them with access to some of the best crops and farm animals in the ancient world, it gave them a huge head start. What started with the sowing of wheat and penning of goats, was leading to the first human civilization. As villages grew bigger, more people could work on the land. More people could produce more food more efficiently. Freed from the burden of farming some people were able develop more skills and more technologies. Making plaster from lime stone was a major technological breakthrough. Understanding how to work with fire was the first step to work with steel.

According to Diamond the people of new guinea never advanced in technology because the spent too much time and energy feeding them selves, but then Westerners arrived and used their technology to colonize the country. The reason why "while man had so much cargo, and new Guineans have so little" it is because of geography.