Guns, Germs, and Steel 🔫🧫🔩

Viewing Guide:  Guns, Germs, and Steel: Episode 1

Directions: Before viewing the film, read each question below so you know what information and ideas you should be looking for as you watch Episode 1. Record your answers to each question by providing as many facts, details, and examples as possible to answer each question.

1. According to Jared Diamond, what are the three major elements that separate the world’s  “haves” from the “have nots”?

The three major elements are guns, germs and steel.

2. Jared Diamond refers to the people of New Guinea as “among the world’s most culturally diverse and adaptable people in the world”, yet they have much less than modern Americans.
Diamond has developed a theory about what has caused these huge discrepancies among different countries, and he says it boils down to geographic luck. Give several examples from the
film to support Diamond’s theory.

 The people in the area of New Guinea were very dependent on the small amount of resources the jungle supplied for them whereas in the Fertile Crescent the people had a large amount of resources. A larger amount of food resources and places to store them made them less dependent on the hunter-gatherers, but when the crescent was no longer fertile the people were having a harder time surviving.

 3. For thousands of years, people have been cultivating crops. Describe the process used to domesticate crops and create plants that yielded bigger, tastier harvests.

Domesticating crops is changing the way the crops are for the better of the people. By domesticating these crops the citizens chose only the bigger and tastier plants to harvest. 

4. According to Diamond, livestock also plays a significant role in a civilization’s ability to 

 become rich and powerful. How did the domestication of animals help people? Give several examples.

The domestication of animals helped people because the people changed them to make them more of what the humans needed. The did this by breeding animals for their meat and milk. They also used the skin as clothing. 

5. List the animals that can be domesticated and where they can be found.

llama- South America, Asia, North Africa 
goats, sheep, pigs, cows, horses, donkeys, camels, water buffalo, reindeer, yaks, nithans, and cattle- Europe

6. Looking at the list of animals and locations from question 5, discuss how Diamond’s theory about geographic luck applies here.

The more domesticated animals there are in one space the better the humans will be able to survive because of these animal adaptations. The more domesticated animals there are the greater productivity the people will have. The more productivity the more powerful they become.

7. How did the movement of the early civilizations of the Fertile Crescent (Middle East) further support Diamond’s idea that geography played a key role in the success of a civilization?

The Fertile Crescent didn't have the best land for farming and using the same land over and over made the land no longer accessible for farming. If the land was not good for farming then the civilization could not thrive because farming was the way the citizens got most of their food.

8. Do you agree with Jared Diamond when he says of a civilization's ability to gain power, 

 wealth, and strength, “…what’s far more important is the hand that people have been dealt, the raw materials they’ve had at their disposal.” Why or why not?

Yes because in order for a civilization to gain power, wealth and strength they need somewhere to start. The start could be the raw materials they were handed at the start. If the materials were not useful they would have a harder time surviving whereas if the materials were very useful and helpful the new citizens would have an easier time starting their civilization off right.