GUNS, GERMS AND STEEL - Cloverport Independent Schools

3 6 0 • GUNS, GERMS, AND STEEL
in Eurasia were largely confined to the Arctic reindeer herders, the Siberian
hunter-gatherers, and the hunter-gatherer enclaves in the Indian subcontinent
and tropical Southeast Asia.
The Americas had two empires, those of the Aztecs and Incas, which
resembled their Eurasian counterparts in size, population, polyglot makeup,
official religions, and origins in the conquest of smaller states. In the
Americas those were the sole two political units capable of mobilizing
resources for public works or war on the scale of many Eurasian states,
whereas seven European states (Spain, Portugal, England, France, Holland,
Sweden, and Denmark) had the resources to acquire American colonies
between 1492 and 1666. The Americas also held many chiefdoms
(some of them virtually small states) in tropical South America, Mesoamerica
beyond Aztec rule, and the U.S. Southeast. The rest of the Americas
was organized only at the tribal or band level.
The last proximate factor to be discussed is writing. Most Eurasian
states had literate bureaucracies, and in some a significant fraction of the
populace other than bureaucrats was also literate. Writing empowered
European societies by facilitating political administration and economic
exchanges, motivating and guiding exploration and conquest, and making
available a range of information and human experience extending into
remote places and times. In contrast, use of writing in the Americas was
confined to the elite in a small area of Mesoamerica. The Inca Empire
employed an accounting system and mnemonic device based on knots
(termed quipu), but it could not have approached writing as a vehicle for
transmitting detailed information.
THUS, EURASIAN SOCIETIES in the time of Columbus enjoyed big
advantages over Native American societies in food production, germs,
technology (including weapons), political organization, and writing. These
were the main factors tipping the outcome of the post-Columbian collisions.
But those differences as of A.D. 1492 represent just one snapshot of
historical trajectories that had extended over at least 13,000 years in the
Americas, and over a much longer time in Eurasia. For the Americas, in
particular, the 1492 snapshot captures the end of the independent trajectory
of Native Americans. Let us now trace out the earlier stages of those
trajectories.