GGS - Chapter 18

At least, Diamond has reached the case study he opened the book with: the conflict between Eurasia and the Americas. Why did European societies so easily conquer American ones? One major reason was the mass extinction of large, domesticatable animals following the introduction of humans to the American continents. Compared to the 13 large animals domesticated in Eurasia, America had no large sources of meat, milk and animal labor (they only had alpacas/llamas). Second, the paucity of candidate plants limited food production and America had more prevalence for hunter-gatherers than Eurasia. This was not something inherit to the climate (as evidence by the introduction of Eurasian cereals later) but the lack of local plants, the limited ability of diffusion (major north-south axis), the lack of animal power and the nutritional deficit of the plants domesticated.

The difference in plant and animal domestication proved to be the deciding ultimate factor that gave rise to the proximate differences. Without a large population of animals, fewer germs developed in America. This was also stymied by the less urban and connected societies of America. Denser populations and trade routes allowed for Eurasia to develop more technologies (metal, warfare, horse warfare, guns), more political power (larger, more numerous empires) and economic specialization leading to writings expansion away from the elite.

Diamond distills these shortcomings of America into a couple factors: the head start of Eurasia in human settlement, the more effective food production (due to the available domesticates and the benefits of staying hunter-gatherer in America) and the ecological barriers and north-south major axis of America that prevented diffusion of domesticates and technology and caused societal isolation.