Guns, Germs, And Steel: Theoretical Analysis

It has long been considered indisputable fact, in many academic circles, that European explorers and conquistadors conquered the native populations of the Americas due to their technological superiority, the diseases they brought and the militarily superior weapons. Jared Diamond’s book Guns, Germs, and Steel continues to justify and show support for European dominance. However, Diamond’s argument is a Eurocentric oversimplification of the reasons that led to European dominance across the world. Diamond’s whole theory is propagated on the concept that the sheer happenstance of ancient agricultural advances, domestication of animals, and technological advances in weaponry in the area of Eurasia is the reason those populations flourished where …show more content…
In the example of Mexico, many native groups or states sought to be free of the imposed Imperial rule of native empires, such as The Triple Alliance. Historian David Cahill argues that, “The arrival of the Spanish interlopers suddenly made independence from imperial rule a practical possibility. Accordingly, it was not a small band of gallant conquistadors who conquered the Incas and Aztecs, but an alliance consisting of a core of militarily trained Spaniards together with breakaway, populous states that sought independence from tyrannical overlords” While Cahill suggests that alliances brought down the native empires, Diamond makes erroneous claims about Native and Spanish interaction claiming, “In five battles in which respectively 169, 80, 30, 110, and 40 Spaniards slaughtered armies of thousands to tens of thousands of Incas, with not a single Spaniard killed and only a few injured.” Diamond chooses to favor a mode fantasied rendition of conquest which is swift, effective and in which the native populations passively accept their fate or are blown away by the guns of their oppressors. In reality, conquest is none of the above mentioned things. Spanish colonial conquest in Mexico, for example, took centuries and many natives …show more content…
Diamond’s inaccuracy has led to multiple instances of flip flopping on his ideas, from Agriculture being the “Worst Mistake in the history of the human race” as he pronounced in a 1987 article to then claiming in Guns, Germs, and Steel that Agriculture is the shining reason that certain civilizations became superiority to others. Diamond also claims that the Europeans were accidental conquers and that natives passively accepted their fate to be subjugated in Guns, Germs, and Steel, only to later write in Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed that human agencies have great influence and consequences based off their decision or indecision. Diamond’s seemingly juxtaposed opinions on these matters draws into question his own understanding and authority on the subjects at hand. While a historian’s job is to continuously learn and examine history from new angles, Diamond appears to make indisputable claims in a book only to eight years later write something that support the opposite idea with no explanation or reasoning behind his change of heart. As has already been pointed out, even singularly in Guns, Germs, and Steel, Diamond seems incapable of deciding whether to place responsible for successful conquest on the accidental superiority Europeans or on their savage sociopolitical manipulation and

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