How do you feel about this book. Were the theories about the

It was pretty much correct, just not comprehensive.

>>3051849
I never understand why it's such a meme, everything seems correct.

It's harder to build a civilisation when your only livestock is a shitty llama/you have no tin for bronze/you live in a desert with no flood plain/you have a poor immune system against common external diseases

>>3051882
It's a meme because people cite it as if it was a compressive textbook spanning from the bronze age to the 20th centry

>>3051849
It's an interesting meme, but there are lots holes in it. If taken in conjunction with other theories it's useful.

>>3051849
>has nothing really to say about ideology, religion, politics that shaped imperial structures

It's trash.

>>3051849

>inb4 100 posts about muh zebra

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I think it's incredible

>>3051849
Bigoted

>>3051849
Kinda agree with his theory that "the gaps in power and technology between human societies originate primarily in environmental differences, which are amplified by various positive feedback loops."

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>>3051849
>believing anything from Jared "The Spanish single handedly conquered the Aztec Empire with a few men armed with primitive firearms" Diamond

>>3051849
Diamond is correct in that certain geographic areas are more advantageous for civilizations to develop based on the resources native to those lands; such as native livestock, crops and reliability of the soil to grow those crops, ease of travel across terrain and a myriad of other factors.

the main problem is that while geography is a major factor in the foundation and development of civilizations, Diamond plays it up to be a sole linchpin instead of one of many puzzle pieces that make up the whole picture.

what his argument lacks is the other pieces, such as the exchange of ideas with other peoples/regions and how trade between these geographic regions is a major factor that propels civilizations forward through cooperation between people.

An example of that would be ancient Carthage, a city built on land that had average benefits at best, with modern Tunisia lacking the resource benefits of Egypt, Mesopotamia, and other places, but it was the city's ability to trade and exchange ideas and build off of those ideas that turned a trading outpost into an impressive empire with enough riches to fight entire wars off of that wealth alone.

Or more starkly, that European trade through the Silk Road with China eventually introduced chinese gunpowder to the continent, who then applied their own ideas to make weapons more impressive than the very inventors of black power in China.

tl;dr: geography is a major factor, but not the be-all-end-all for it has to be coupled with cooperation and exchange between regions in order to truly propel civilizations forward.

>>3051849
It's literally Marxism AKA economic determinism (MUH BASE DICTATES EVERYTHING)

>>3051849
Moses used Gods power against Egypt an ""advanced"" civilization and won.No guns, no steel and no germs.

>>3053451

this isn't to disprove your point overall but just a factual mistake for this example.

>An example of that would be ancient Carthage, a city built on land that had average benefits at best, with modern Tunisia lacking the resource benefits of Egypt, Mesopotamia, and other places, but it was the city's ability to trade and exchange ideas and build off of those ideas that turned a trading outpost into an impressive empire with enough riches to fight entire wars off of that wealth alone.

North Africa at that time was actually a bread basket. Hanno "the Great" tried to take advantage of that and it was shown also by Carthage's adept agriculture skills. Carthage after the second Punic war and after final Roman occupation (not the city cuz you know...but the area) supplied grain for the whole Western part of Rome. It was until about the time of St. Augustine I think that it became arid.