![]() ![]() Their lives were tough, and it seemed a terrible paradox of history that these extraordinary people should be the conquered, and not the conquerors. From his own experience in the jungles of New Guinea, he had observed that native hunter- gatherers were just as intelligent as people of European descent - and far more resourceful. Diamond knew that the answer had little to do with ingenuity or individual skill. Why were Europeans the ones with all the cargo? Why had they taken over so much of the world, instead of the native people of New Guinea? How did Europeans end up with what Diamond terms the agents of conq uest: guns, germs and steel? It was these age nts of conquest that allowed 168 Spanish conquistadors to defeat an Imperial Inca army of 80,000 in 1532, and set a pattern of European conquest which would continue right up to the present day. ![]() Diamond realized that Yali’s question penetrated the heart of a great mystery of human h istory - the roots of global inequality. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |