Guns, Germs, and Steel + The World is Flat

(October 15)

Earlier this week our class was watching Guns, Germs and Steel part 2 and 3.  It is a documentary based on a book written by Jared Diamond, describing how geographic luck and where you live affects you and shaped history and the modern world. Diamond's theory is that places like Europe and the Middle East were geographically lucky because they lived and places where they had resources such as metal and animals that can be domesticated such as cows and goats. These cultures were ‘lucky’ because they had everything they needed right where they were.  The animals helped greatly with farming because they could plow. Whereas places like Papua New Guinea were not as lucky because they only had pigs which could not perform like the other animals. They didn’t have the natural resources like steel of clay or even good vegetation.

I apologize for making you throw up ):
Germs? This could affect the world for better or worse but the result is usually bad. It turns out; it was a huuuge factor in society, altering history for the benefits and negative in each continent. It grew great empires and demolishing the biggest empires, such as the conquistador’s germs against the Aztec empire. The conquistadors brought an unknown germ and disease to the Aztecs. This disease was Small pox which killed huge amount of Aztecs. Germs affected South Africans to such as Malaria. This disease killed so much people. The main killer of the Aztecs was small pox because they did not have the immune system to protect against the sickness.

The World is Flat is a text that we read during social class. We went to the computer lab several times to read this horrifically long chapter. We only read the first chapter but I learned a lot. It talked about Columbus and his voyages and then they talked about how in India they were developing technology. He talked about how India looked almost like America because it was so globalized. He couldn’t eve ntell them apart.  The world is Flat is a really good title because it isn’t literal, he’s talking about how the playing field is becoming more fair. He’s talking about how most countries are catching up to America and Canada so they have a chance to exceed us. He wasn’t talking about how the world itself is becoming a flat instead of spherical. Other countries are developing technology so they are becoming more of the same.