I've read that because the Americas extend north to south

File: Continental_axes_by_Jared_Diamond.png (51KB, 747x370px) Image search: [Google]

51KB, 747x370px

>>3192370
Read Guns, Germs and Steel for an in-depth analysis for this argument

Or read the wiki:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guns,_Germs,_and_Steel#Geography

>>3192393
That's a great article, thanks for sharing

>>3192370
If i'm not mistaken an additional reason Jared Diamonds gives is that there were simply less domesticated animals in the americas, meaning humans had less contact with animals and therefore less germs.

The whole north-south versus east-west thingy seemed convincing to me. As for Africa Diamond wrote that this had an impact on sub-saharan Africa as well, but to a lesser extent compared to the americas. No idea if diamond had any studies to back these ideas up.

The major barriers in the americas were according to diamond the deserts between the aztecs and north america and the isthmus of Panama, with it's jungles and shit blocking the way between mexico and the incas. As for africa, the main barrier eas obviously the sahara desert. Certain crops suited for most of Africa would not grow in the far south of the continent, limiting the spreas of agriculture.

>>3192520
Damn typos. I should stop phoneposting.

>>3192370
There are swamplands that act like natural barriers, like the Darien.
Even a few years ago there was a livestock aftosa epidemic in Paraguay and it didn´t spread thanks to Ibera swamplands in Argentina and Pantanal in Brazil

>>3192520
I've started reading G,G&S and it everything Diamond mentions sounds good so far. A few things still bug me though. Like in one chapter he mentions that big mammals like horses were extinct in the Americas after the Ice Age but survived in Asia, where they later spread to Europe.

Does he say why horses and camels went extinct in North America but not Asia? Were they hunted more often in North America than in Asia, or was climate change less prominent in Asia?

>>3192849
I am unsure but i think the horses might have gone extinct before humans arrived in the americas. I remember hearing that the main reason horses didnt die out was that humans domesticated them. No idea if this is true though.

>>3192849
Oh, and as for camels, i think llamas and alpacas are closely related to them. So they were present in the americas i guess.

>>3193176
>>3193195
Interesting. Something else I'm wandering about is how important was climate in affecting Human and animal migration patterns in the Americas?

I've read that climate zones in Eurasia cover more land over there than they do in the Americas.. Like how the Mongolian steppes extend from Mongolia to Russia, Kazakhstan, and even to the Ukraine I think. Since Europe and Asia share such similar climate zones over such a wide space, this made it easier for animals, people, crops, etc to migrate.

Why wasn't this the case for the Americas? North and South America share a lot of similar climate types, just in different places, like glaciers, plains, rainforests, etc. Was the geography of the Americas more of a hindrance to Human, crop, and animal migration patterns than in Eurasia?

>>3192370
Probably, the latitudinal "belts" of similar ecozones, climates, etc, are limited and distorted by high mountain ranges.

>>3192849
when human arrived there was something called a "megafauna extinction" in the America's. It's not necessarily humans, it could be the climate changing, but it's more likely humans done did it. These animals most likely weren't scared of tiny scrawny humans killing them.

>>3194881
It is the case for America, it's just the climate zones are more similar in an East West direction instead of North South. And since the Americas are longer in a North-South direction instead of an East-West, it was harder for technology to difuse among settled populaces. You can see an example of this in the Old world between Sub-Saharan Africa and Europe

>>3196032
>it was harder for technology to difuse among settled populaces

Why was that? Because of the climates or because of the sheer size of the continents?

>>3196032
>>3197822
Oh nvm. Re-read your post and it is due to climate. But did the size of the Americas affect anything as well?

And is there a particular reason(s) Eurasian climate zones are so similar, or is it all just chance?