Scott's+Final

Yali is a local politician who quizzed Diamond on many aspects of world history, about the birds Diamond studied in New Guinea, and how Yali's ancestors reached New Guinea. Eventually, Yali asked Diamond, "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?"


 * cargo is a New Guinean's description of all the stuff whites brought when they arrived: steel axes, matches, medicines, clothing, soft drinks, umbrellas

Students: How would you answer Yali?

Work Cited [|http://www.public.iastate.edu/~cfford/342GGSCh7.htm]
 * The answer is more to do with where white Europeans lived versus where Africans and New Guineans generally live.
 * Geographically, white people lived in areas that allowed them to settle down and domesticate livestock.
 * For example, in the fertile crescent, the climate was just right for both growing crops and raising livestock.
 * Some of the first animals to be domesticated were cows, sheep, goats, and pigs.
 * Since most white civilizations did not have to worry about looking for food, they could concentrate on inventing steel and guns, and which also allowed for the development of germs.
 * Also, people that lived in the white European civilizatons had more inventions. This goes back to the fact that they did not have to spend all their time looking for food and hunting animals for food, so they could focus on other things.
 * The surplus, or extra food that farming generated, could feed the people that were working on inventing things and who made sure that the society ran in a orderly fashion.
 * Eventually, farming made many white societies so stable that those societies were able to branch out and try to explore new worlds
 * Slowly, their agenda went from exploring new worlds, to conquering new worlds.
 * White Europeans have their baggage because they need it to help them use their guns, germs, and steel to conquer new and different lands.

media type="custom" key="374877"