And finishing the book, I think Diamond better answered the question 'why certain empires from the Old World were able to conquer the New World rather than vice versa'. The central question of this book ('Yali's Question') is why Europeans colonised the New World rather than vice versa. It doesn't have to be one or the other, I still lean very much towards societies having the ability in choosing their own course, but within the material parameters set out by their times I suppose. I personally had some slight impressions of this before reading it, however, I really think it's just explaining history through the factoring in of many different scientific fields. Further, he compares classes of hunter gatherers, bands, tribes and empires.ĭiamond is careful to note of specific critiques of 'geographical determinism'. He takes a very broad approach of singling out continents rather than specific nations or empires, and a timeline spanning thousands of years rather than centuries or decades. Diamond gives fascinating insights into the developmental effects upon a society by factors such as: food production, geography, climate, proximity to other societies and even the axis of continents. Indeed, this is so much so that I've been thinking of the term 'Eurasia' a lot lately in contrast to 'Europe' and 'Asia' as we know it today. What I learnt was how interconnected so much of the world already was, thousands if not tens of thousands of years ago. Alhamdulilah, this book only contributed to furthering my interest in these subjects, not lessening it. I usually find these subjects a bore, especially geography, but I am currently trying to read more of them. Amazing read! It is unexpected how much I enjoyed reading this, especially since the main focus being of history through the lenses of geography and science in their many technical facets.

Guns germs and steel book