Germs, Guns, and Steel - Marxism In his book Jared Dimond tries to respond the question of: Why do white people have so much cargo and we New Guineans/ have so little? He answers this question in a quest that took him over 15 years. Over his study he focuses on the fact that Eurasians people dominate the world in wealth and power. He came to the conclusion that it was because Eurasians dominated the gun power, the agriculture, and the steel. The factor for this was the advantage they had on their land. He focus on the fact that the soil were Eurasia was located was richer for agriculture and with much more advantages than other territories. The differences in wild plants and animal species available initially for domestication were better in Eurasia than in other continents. Eurasia for the most part had the vast majority of large docile pack animals, which
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were ideal for domestication and advantages for different usages. America had only one animal the llama. In my opinion Jared Dimond forget to talk about the migration Europeans and Asians had along those years and the population. For me is really important to realize that going east to west from France to Japan involve a similar climate, day length, and geographical factors. In America to cross from South America to North America involve crossing desserts, jungles, mountains, etc. this barriers were more important in America at the time that they were in Europe and Asia. The fact that colonies in America could not benefit from advantages in the territories in the same continent was a key factor for the evolution of the people. Europeans and Asians manage agriculture in a place called the Fertile crescent, this place was a rich and very productive soil, but at the moment the soil stop being productive the move to different position through the same continent moving in the same line were the fertile crescent was located, conquering everything that was at their position. We have to mention also the advantages on animals they benefit from the domestication of animals that help with the labor of the agriculture but a lot of those animals came from Asia. Jared Dimond Uses the term Eurasians but the true is the Europeans benefit more from Asia than Asia from them. The objective of Asia was to create a society to develop as a community and for the Europeans they saw power in conquering territories. Europeans conquer territories using guns another key factor Jared Dimond establish on his book as an element for success but we cannot give credit to Europeans for the develop of the guns (fire guns). The Asians develop gunpowder and the fire guns, and the Europeans benefit from it. They used them to conquer other communities. In his book Jared Dimond never give credit to the Asians for this. Also a lot of the animals were from different territories but the location of the territory and the
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geographical factor allow Eurasia to benefit from it. In America the only domesticate animal was the llama that was used by the Incas and it was very important for the evolution of the agriculture in South America and for its meat and wool. In South America way before the Spanish people conquer the continent, the Incas were dominating the agriculture and the steel. They had some of the best and richest soil and cultivate corn and potatoes, and hunt for animals. They also had the structure of a community and their develop was incrementing but Europeans came and conquer America and erase all the Inca community. Europeans benefit from the gold and benefit from the food the Incas were cultivating to take to Europe. The Europeans enter to an era of colonization were they would conquer and make the people of the other lands their slaves, working for producing goods and creating wealth for Europe. It was some kinds of capitalism were slaves or the economic and technological minority dominates and exploits the working class majority for the producing goods and wealth for Europeans. In contrast to the Marxism that is against the differentiation between social classes. For the Marxism everyone is equal and everyone works the necessary to produce the goods to consume. In a tribe of that era they work in a system of primitive communism were everyone works together and they are in a co-operative tribal societies. Then the capitalism of Europeans came and create an era of slave society, then past to the Feudalism and arriving to Capitalism and finally to the Socialism were the working class through a proletarian revolution depose the capitalism and eliminate the social classes. In contrast to capitalism the Marxism would conclude to give the economic power to the mass and not to the hands of the few.
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In conclusion for me the key element more than guns, germs, or steel was the rate of diffusion they had from continent to continent and not had America or Australia. Europe and Asia benefit from each others discovers and use them to conquer other lands and create slaves for the production of goods and their economic growth. In my opinion it was just the time that benefits Eurasians and not other continents they saw the opportunity and take and conquered everything they had on their way. More important than guns, germs, or steel was the diffusion they had that other continents had not this advantages. Karl Heinrich Marx (May 5, 1818 March 14, 1883) Karl Marx was a German philosopher, social scientist, historian and revolutionary, whose ideas are recognized as the founders for the modern communism. He is consider to be the most influential and important social thinker to emerge in the 19 th century. His social, economic, and political gained rapid acceptance in the socialist party after his death in 1883, becoming his more important job The Communist Manifesto published in 1848. Karl Heinrich Marx was born in a middle-class home in Trier, in the kingdom of Prussias province of the Lower Rhine in Germany on May 5, 1818. His father was Heinrich Marx a lawyer who was devoted to the ideas of Kant and Voltaire. His mother was Henrietta Pressburg who was born in Netherlands. At the age of seventeen, Marx enrolled in the faculty of Law at the University of Bonn. At the university he met Jenny Von Westphalen and become engaged to her, she was the daughter of Baron Von Westphalen, who was responsible for enrolling Marxs into Romantic literature and Saint-Simonian politics. The Following years Marxs father send him to the best universities in Berlin where he remained for four years until he changed his major and abandoned the romanticism for the Hegelianism which ruled in Berlin at the time. Marx becomes a member of the Hegelian movement witch in the group included
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David Friedrich Strauss who later become his long time friend and partner. The Hegelian movement produced a radical critique of the Christianity and the liberal opposition to the Prussian autocracy. Marx moved into journalism and became editor of the Rheinische Zeitung in October of 1842, a liberal newspaper backed up by industrialists. Marx articles forced the Prussian government to close the paper and as a response Marx immigrated to France. Marx arrive at Paris at the end of 1843 he rapidly made contact with the migr German workers and with different French socialist groups. In Paris Marx become a communist and set down his ideas in a series of writings know as the Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts in 1844, but it was not publish until the 1930s. In the manuscript Marx outlines a humanist conception of communism based in the comparison between the alienated nature of labor under capitalism and a communism society in which human being freely develop their nature in cooperative production. In Paris also Marx develops his lifelong friendship and partnership with Friedrich Engel. At the end of 1844 Marx was expelled from Paris and with his friend Engels moved to Brussels where he devoted his studies of history and elaborated what came to known as the materialist conception of history. This was developing in a manuscript call The German Ideology of which the thesis was the nature of the individuals depend on the materials conditions determining their production. Marx predicted the collapse of the industrial capitalism to be replaced with the communism. At the same time he was writing The Property of Philosophy against the idealistic socialism of P. J. Proudhon, and also joined the communist league. At one conference of the communist league Marx and Engels were commissioned to write a declaration of their position, it then became one of Marx biggest work The Communism Manifesto published in 1848.
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Marx moved back to Paris where he founded the Neue Rheinische Zeitung, a paper who supported a radical democratic line against the Prussian autocracy. Marx paper was suppressed and he found refuge in London in 1849. During the 1850s Marx and his family lived in poverty and his basically only source of income was his friend Engels family business in Manchester and some weekly articles he write as a foreign correspondent for the New York Daily Tribune. Marx and his wife Jenny had six children which only three survive. Following the death of his wife, Marx develops a catarrh that kept him in a bad condition followed by bronchitis and pleurisy that killed him in March 14, 1883 in the city of London. He was buried at the Highgate Cemetery in North London. Marx contribution to society has been enormous, his understanding of society, his stress on the economic factor in society and his analysis of the class structure in class conflict have had an enormous impact in history, sociology, and the study of human culture.
Friedrich Engels (November 28, 1820 August 5, 1895) Engels was a German philosopher son of German industrialist; he was born in Bardom on 28th November 1820. As a teenager his father sent him to England to work on the family business a cotton factory in Manchester. Living in Manchester Engels the saw poverty the people was living in and began writing an account that was published as Condition of the Working Class in England. He also made friends with the leaders of the chartist movement in Britain. In 1844 Engels start contributing to a radical paper that was edited by Karl Marx in Paris, the radical journal was called Franco-German Annals. Later in the same year Engels met Marx
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and the two men became close friends. Engels and Marx had the same views and ideas on capitalism and after they first met he thought they virtually agree in all theoretical fields. Engels and Marx decide to work together, they support each other in wherever areas were Marx was at his best dealing with difficult abstract concepts, and Engels had the ability to write for a mass audience. While working on their first paper, The Holy Family, The Prussian authorities put pressure on the French government to expel Karl Marx from the country. It was on January 25 of 1845 that Karl Marx received a order from the French government deporting him, Marx and Engels decided to move to Belgium, where they could express their ideas with greater among of freedom than in other country in Europe. Friedrich Engel support financially Karl Marx and his family by giving him all the royalties of his book, Condition of the Working Class in England and arranged that other sympathizer to make donations to support Marx. These donations enable Marx the time to study and develop his theories on the economic and political. In July 1845 Engels took Marx to England where they spent their time at the Manchester library consulting books and meeting several Chartist leaders. Engels and Marx returned to Brussels in 1846 they set up a Communist Correspondence Committee. The basic plan was to link together different socialist leaders living in different parts of Europe. They establish a new organization called The Communist League, were Engels attended as a delegate and took part in developing a strategic of action. Engels and Marx began writing a pamphlet based on the draft produced by Engels called the Principles of Communism; Marx finished the pamphlet that was and accessible account of communism ideology. Written for a mass audience The Communism Manifesto summarized the forthcoming revolution and the nature of the communism society. The Communism Manifesto was published in February, 1848. In the same year the Belgium government expelled Engels and
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Marx from the country and they visited Paris before deciding to move to cologne. In cologne they found a radical newspaper call New Rhenish Gazette. With the newspaper Engels and Marx hoped to encourage the revolutionary atmosphere they saw in Paris. Engels helped from an organization called the Rhineland Democrats. In September 25 of 1848, several of the leaders of these groups were arrested by the police, but Engels was able to escape and forced to leave the country. Marx continued with the news paper but was expelled in May of 1849. Engels and Marx moved to London and the Prussian authorities applied preasure to the British government to expel them but the Prime Minister at the time John Russell held liberal views and believed on the freedom of speech and refused the request of the Prussian authorities. Karl Marx and his family lived in extreme poverty, to support Marx with and income Engels moved back to Germany to work with his father. The two keep constant contacts and Engels supported with some income Marx and his family. Engels continues to publish some books including The Peasant War in Germany in 1850, Anti-Duhring in 1878, and the Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State in 1884. In 1883 Karl Marx died and Engels devoted his life to editing and translating Marxs writings. One of the writings was the second volume of Das Kapital in 1885, and by 1894 Engels wrote the third volume of the book using the notes of Marx. Friedrich Engels died in London on August 5 of 1895. Vladimir Illich Lenin (1870 1924) Vladimir Lenin was born on April 10, 1870. He was the son of a Russian nobleman inspector of schools in Simbirsk and his mother was a land owning physician. Lenin was successful in the school, he prove himself to be very bright in school and excelled in his studies
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but suffered alienation. When Lenin was young two tragedies occur that affected him, in 1886 his father died from a cerebral hemorrhage follow by the hung of his brother Alexander because he was plotting to assassinate Tsar Alexander III. Then Lenin renounced religion and the political system. He tried to study but got many doors closet to him because he was the brother of a death revolutionary until he managed to be accepted in a Kazan University where he study law. Three months later he was expelled for attending a peaceful protest. He couldnt find other place to study so he decided to study law on his own and passed the exam, coming first in a class of 124 in 1891. In 1893 he moved to St. Petersburg where he practice law and develop a Marxist underground movement. In this movement he met his future wife Nadezhda Krupskaya. He traveled to Switzerland to meet social democrats and to argue about bringing change in Russia. He met Georgi Plekhanov and he wanted to include the liberal middle class; while Lenin favored the rise of the proletariat. This disagreement led to the split of the social democratic party into Mensheviks and Bolsheviks. Lenin went back to Russia and he carried with him illegal pamphlets because he wanted to start a revolutionary paper. At the time of its publication, Lenin and other leaders were arrested. He served 15 months in prison and when he completed his sentence he was exile to Siberia were he get married to Nadezhda Krupskaya in 1898. In 1900 he finished his period of exile and moved to Switzerland were he finally manage to establish his paper called Iskra or Spark in English. By 1905 the St. Petersburg Massacre spurred Lenin to advocate violent action. Lenin returned to Russia for two years but the promised revolution did not happen because Tsar made enough concessions to mollify the people and Lenin went back to Germany. In 1917 finally the revolution starter in Russia, Tsar power collapsed and the Duma led by Alexander Kerensky took
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power. Lenin made a deal with the Germans if they could get him safe back to Russia, he would take the power and finish the war. In the other hand Kerensky refused to take Russia out of the war and the country was suffering severe losses. Lenin got the power in October after a bloodless coup. At the age of forty seven Vladimir Lenin was named president of the Soviet of Peoples Commissars or the communist party. He immediately ended the war with Germany. From 1919 to 1921 famine and typhus ravage Russia and left over 27 million people dead. To counter this Lenin passed a new economic plan in order to revitalize the flagging economy. However he never got to see in full effect his measures, because in May 1922 Lenin suffered the first of a series of strokes. In the following years he tried to correct some of the excesses he did under his regimen and realize it was necessary to coexist with some capitalist countries and eliminate the inefficiency of his bureaucracy. He wanted that Trotsky succeeded him and not Stalin. At the end Stalin got the power after Lenin had a stroke that left him paralyzed and speechless in 1923. In January 21, 1924 Vladimir Illich Lenin died of a cerebral hemorrhage. Current Events and Implications for the future Cuba is leaving in a extreme communism society were people are trying to escape to other countries to find a new future and are waiting for the moment the president Fidel Castro will die. We always hear Cubans that have leave the island and saying the country is a chaos with no future for the children and no chance for improvement, also that theres no free expression and the possibility of getting things from others countries because the island is close from almost the rest of the world except some countries. We have to say also that there are a lot of people who are happy or appear to be happy in the island; all the people in the country have free medical
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attention, free schools, and free transportation. I am not accepting the ways Fidel Castro have been using his power to control Cuba but we have to agree that there are some good things in the mentality of the communism, In the movie Sicko of Michael Moore he talks to some Fire fighter and policemans that help on the tragedy of 9-11, months after the tragedy they had respiratory problems in the US no one help them, no one give them the appropriate medical care they deserved. Michael Moore took those people and took them to Cuba were they not only received the proper medical care they deserve but also a treatment for the future and the fire fighter of the country made them a memorial to honor them and the ones they lost. We have to say that there will never be a perfect communism or capitalism and Vladimir Lenin realize the importance of using some of the capitalism for the improvement and development of the country.
Reference Page (Dimond) (pbs) (McNeill) (Essortment) (The History Guide)
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Badertscher, Eric. "Karl Marx." Karl Marx (9781429813785) (2005): 1-2. History Reference Albert, Resis. "Lenin, Vladimir Ilich." Britannica Biographies (2010): 1. History Reference Center. EBSCO. Web. 19 Apr. 2010. Oscar J., Hammen. "Engels, Friedrich." Britannica Biographies (2010): 1. History Reference Center. EBSCO. Web. 19 Apr. 2010. McCall, Daniel F. "GUNS, GERMS, AND STEEL (Book Review)." International Journal of African Historical Studies 32.2/3 (1999): 453. History Reference Center. EBSCO. Web. 19 Apr. 2010. Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th Edition (2009): 1-2. History Reference Center. EBSCO. Web. 22 Feb. 2010. (Fusfeld, The Age of the Economist) (Marxists Internet Archive) (Peet and Hartwick)
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