Guns, Germs and Steel

In the movie Guns, Germs and Steel, Jared Diamond tries to explain the reasons behind the many problems surrounding Africa and its natives. Diamond believes that it began with the European settlers who came to Africa many years ago. This group of people took over native land from the Africans. This displaced many of the natives forcing them to move away from their home land. The European settlers were able to accomplish this because of their developed lifestyle. They had important resources like large animals, developed technology and sophisticated medicine. These factors all contributed to the decline in African power. Once the Europeans had taken over southern Africa they started pushing towards the interior of Africa to gain more land and resources. However, with this conquest the Europeans experienced more problems. They faced more resistance from larger African tribes, which they had not seen before. The Europeans combated this by advancing their steel technology. The industrial revolution led the Europeans to the creation of more advanced guns (the multi-shot and continuous gun). This invention helped the Europeans to take over more land and travel farther toward the interior of Africa. However, this movement to the interior parts of Africa posed greater problems for the Europeans. Their initial settlements were in southern Africa, which were equally the same distance from the equator as they were in Europe. This helped to produce similar climates and conditions that they were accustomed too. When the Europeans moved more towards the interior they moved into a more tropical climate. They were subjected to a new environment that they and their animals had never experienced. The land was very different and this affected their farming and agriculture because their crops would not successfully grow. The new climate also brought new illnesses and diseases that they had never seen. They didn’t have the proper medicine to combat these various problems. This caused the Europeans to eventually leave this land, but after they left the damage upon Africa and their natives was already done. The colonization that the Europeans had enforced on the Africans was one factor that has contributed to their problems and still exists today. Africans used to live in different regions that were very spread out, but now they live in high density locations. This has increased the rate of infection of different illnesses and diseases. It is easier to pass and contract an illness when living in close proximity of more individuals. This has also affected their medicine because the more medicine the doctors give out the more likely the strains of disease can mutate and combat the effect of the medicine. This has caused medicine in Africa to become less effective causing more sickness and more deaths. Before the Europeans arrived in Africa, African culture was very diverse with many tribes. Each tribe had their own culture made up of a different set of beliefs and values. They also had their own unique language. Since different tribes of Africans were forced to live in close proximity, many problems have cropped up amongst the different tribes. Besides having to live in close proximity to each other, other factors that have contributed to this rise in conflict are the language and cultural barriers between different groups of Africans. Understanding the impact the European Settlers had when they came to Africa and colonized helps to understand how the tension started among the Africans and why conflict still exists today.

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