All About Luck

A question most of us haven’t thought about and most likely will not pass us is why the Europeans were the ones to conquer so much of our planet. We can look at Spain now, or France, or the UK and we will unanimously agree that those nations are a lot more civilized than third world nations like New Guinea. We buy our food in supermarkets, where everything have been processed for us. We can get from place A to place B in automated vehicles in short amounts of time. The New Guineans, however, have to gather their own food everyday without break. They travel on foot, searching relentlessly for food to keep themselves alive. They don’t have the time to play video games to to get an education. But why? Why is it that these nations are so different in lifestyle? In his book, Guns, Germs, and Steel, Dr Jared Diamond explain that it all comes down to geographic luck.

If we go back to a time when everyone on earth was pretty much on the same living standards, it would be much easier to find an answer. First, we look at the different types of crops that could have been cultivated and domesticated. Europe is along the same lines of latitude as the Fertile Crescent. And as we all should know, civilizations on the same lines of latitude share the same geography and climate. Therefore, whatever crops that are able to be grown in the Fertile Crescent were able to be grown in places east and west of that piece of land. That would be Europe and China. In the Fertile Crescent, there were two main cereal crops that the people relived heavily on: Barley and wheat. Not only did these two grasses provide the people with a steady source of carbs and protein, it was able to be stored for long periods of time without decaying or rotting. This meant that the people didn’t have to farm everyday of their lives, worrying whether a sudden change in the climate will affect what they have to eat tomorrow. Meanwhile, in New Guinea, the people harvested sorghum and bananas. Both are low on protein and carbs, so almost all the people there were and are malnourished. Large amounts of energy are required to harvest just a few pounds of sorghum, and both crops rot easily. There people would have to work everyday for their food while the people in Europe and the Fertile Crescent had time to delve into other ideas and come up with machines to make their lives and work easier. 

Diamond notices that the lines of latitude where the most bountiful crops grew are the same as where the “beasts of burden” were able to survive. Out of all the many animals that live on our planet, humans have only been able to domesticate 17. Out of that 17, the four main ones (cows, sheep, goat, and horses) are all found in the Fertile Crescent. The rest are scattered all over the planet, except for New Guinea, which is home to none of the domesticated animals. Beasts of burden, as their name suggests may be domesticated to lift the burden of carrying and moving heavy loads or ploughing our fields. They may also provide us with certain materials, like leather, hide, milk, wool, and a source of meat. Civilizations without these animals have to completely rely on their own human ability and strength to complete jobs that might have been easier if they had these beasts of burden. Another example when having beasts of burden domesticated in your land is during war. Wouldn’t it be so much easier to be victorious if your soldiers came riding in on horseback while your enemy was on foot? You would have the high ground. You could look down on your enemy and attack from atop. You wouldn’t have had to use up all your energy charging ahead. In recent years, the pig has been brought over to New Guinea. And even so, pigs don’t give any wool or hide, they have little muscle strength, and are too difficult to rear as a steady source of food. The New Guineans were on a disadvantage. Therefore, their road to a greater and flourishing civilization was a much steeper one than the Europeans’.

When your country is in turmoil from the outbreak of a contagious and lethal disease or infection, the economy inevitable tumbles and loses out. An example would be of the problem with the spread of malaria throughout Africa. Before Africa had been colonized, malaria stayed wherever it first began: In places where amount of stale water was present or by marshes and lakes. After Africa was colonized, they became forming civilizations that were closer and closer to each other, and therefore more people became infected with this disease. Nearly half the children that are hospitalized are there because of malaria. Quinine may be able to stop the first few generations of strains of malaria, but two problems come up. One, the human body is designed to adapt and become immune to certain diseases, like malaria, but at the same time, makes that person more vulnerable to a different strain of malaria that also is mutating faster and faster. The simple drugs are no longer strong enough to eradicate the disease. Two, medicine is expensive. Countries in Africa are few of the poorest in the world. Though it may seem like the parents of the sick children might work more to provide the medicine and care, malaria is the reason why Africa’s economy deteriorates by 1% each year. The parents of the very young children actually quit their jobs to look after their kids in the hospital. From there, they basically can’t do any more than that. When your economy is on a downhill like that, how can your nation prosper? When people cannot even find the time to take care of themselves, what else can they do for their community? On a different view, disease can also be used as a biological weapons to cause internal uprising in opposing nations. The advancement of technological weapons is also another topic that causes certain civilizations like Europe’s to grow. (I’ll need another paragraph to explain that, so I won’t go there.)

In the end, as Jared Diamond says, it's really all about location. Civilizations living in conditions like new Guinea will not prosper because its people will not have time to. They spend their life hunting and gathering food. The idea of expansion does not even pass their mind because they can’t even take care of themselves. The creation of technology because ideas of staying “at home” inventing machines does not appeal. Who would want to collect someone else’s share of food? This is why the New Guineans never learnt how to smelt steel or create weapons like the gun or the atomic bomb.  On the other side of the world, in Europe, the people had division of labour. They had people who specialized in certain areas and institutes. They had jobs so not everyone had to search for their own food because food itself wasn’t as hard to get. Eventually, they began roaming outside their comfort zone to other territories to conquer so they could expand their land. They traded their goods with other nations who needed them. In conclusion, the New Guineans were at a standstill because there was nothing else they could do. They weren’t able to become like how the Europeans are now because where they are situated. The Europeans are where they are in terms of how advanced they are now simply because of pure geographic luck.