Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond was intended to answer a question asked to Diamond by his friend Yali, a native of Papua New Guinea. Yali asked:
Why is it that you white people developed so much cargo and brought it to New Guinea, but we black people had little cargo of our own?
In the Prologue, Diamond examines this question. He says that in his years working as an anthropologist he has met people from many different cultures who are intelligent and hardworking and thus was, like Yali, puzzled as to why some cultures developed great wealth and advanced technology and others did not.
After rejecting racist answers and cultural stereotyping, Diamond seeks answers in the natural environment, arguing that certain geographic areas contained more of the necessary preconditions for the development of wealthy, technologically advanced civilizations. Among these preconditions were the ability to support plants and animals that could be easily domesticated and similar natural resources as well as accessible east-west travel routes.
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