It all began with an observation I made to my brother: Why did India lag behind so much in scientific advancement? And my brother who can generally be relied to answer such questions told me to read Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond. At least it will partially answer your question, he said.
Funnily enough the book begins with a similar conversation that Jared Diamond has with a New Guinea citizen.
Diamond's hypothesis is that the nations where agriculture flourished along with domestication of cattles became more technologically advanced as compared to the other parts of the world. Agriculture began in the Fertile crescent and spread into modern day Europe as well as into India. This was facilitated, of course, by the availability of wild plants that could be easily domesticated. The spread was across the latitude where the temperature was uniform and thus, plants domesticated in one area could be grown in another area. In contrast, the availability of such wild plants in American Continent was less and further, after domestication of few available plants, the spread was slow because it had to move across the longitude. There as a greater variation in climate making the spread slow.
He uses the same argument to explain why domestication of animals happened much earlier in the Fertile crescent as opposed to the other continents. And then he explains how domestication led to human diseases like small pox that could decimate populations not exposed to these germs.
This is the basis of the entire book. He uses this argument to explain the spread of Europeans to America, Australia, and Africa. He also acknowledges, fleetingly, that some cultures were more open to innovation and ideas while some cultures that were open to innovation initially became more closed later.
If you read the book you get the feeling that human intention had no role to play in the colonization process. And that left me with a dissatisfied feeling. Surely, it is much more complicated than a simple explanation of how agriculture and domestication of cattle led to the colonization of almost the entire world by the Europeans by 19th century. Partly yes. Development of agriculture and domestication of cattle led to the formation of cities and complicated governments. However, there was also human agency at hand and it was not all that passive as Jared Diamond portrays in the book.
Trawling through the net I learnt that a later book by Jared Diamond explored the human angle. I do not know whether I will read it or not. For the time being, it is on the list of books that I should read.
Funnily enough the book begins with a similar conversation that Jared Diamond has with a New Guinea citizen.
Diamond's hypothesis is that the nations where agriculture flourished along with domestication of cattles became more technologically advanced as compared to the other parts of the world. Agriculture began in the Fertile crescent and spread into modern day Europe as well as into India. This was facilitated, of course, by the availability of wild plants that could be easily domesticated. The spread was across the latitude where the temperature was uniform and thus, plants domesticated in one area could be grown in another area. In contrast, the availability of such wild plants in American Continent was less and further, after domestication of few available plants, the spread was slow because it had to move across the longitude. There as a greater variation in climate making the spread slow.
He uses the same argument to explain why domestication of animals happened much earlier in the Fertile crescent as opposed to the other continents. And then he explains how domestication led to human diseases like small pox that could decimate populations not exposed to these germs.
This is the basis of the entire book. He uses this argument to explain the spread of Europeans to America, Australia, and Africa. He also acknowledges, fleetingly, that some cultures were more open to innovation and ideas while some cultures that were open to innovation initially became more closed later.
If you read the book you get the feeling that human intention had no role to play in the colonization process. And that left me with a dissatisfied feeling. Surely, it is much more complicated than a simple explanation of how agriculture and domestication of cattle led to the colonization of almost the entire world by the Europeans by 19th century. Partly yes. Development of agriculture and domestication of cattle led to the formation of cities and complicated governments. However, there was also human agency at hand and it was not all that passive as Jared Diamond portrays in the book.
Trawling through the net I learnt that a later book by Jared Diamond explored the human angle. I do not know whether I will read it or not. For the time being, it is on the list of books that I should read.
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