GUNS, GERMS AND STEEL - Cloverport Independent Schools

5 2 • GUNS, GERMS, AND STEEL
Indonesia—a maze of coastlines offering the richest marine resources,
coral reefs, and mangroves in the world. As the colonists crossed the straits
separating each Indonesian island from the next one to the east, they
adapted anew, filled up that next island, and went on to colonize the next
island again. It was a hitherto unprecedented golden age of successive
human population explosions. Perhaps those cycles of colonization, adaptation,
and population explosion were what selected for the Great Leap
Forward, which then diffused back westward to Eurasia and Africa. If this
scenario is correct, then Australia / New Guinea gained a massive head
start that might have continued to propel human development there long
after the Great Leap Forward.
Thus, an observer transported back in time to 11,000 B.C. could not
have predicted on which continent human societies would develop most
quickly, but could have made a strong case for any of the continents. With
hindsight, of course, we know that Eurasia was the one. But it turns out
that the actual reasons behind the more rapid development of Eurasian
societies were not at all the straightforward ones that our imaginary
archaeologist of 11,000 B.C. guessed. The remainder of this book consists
of a quest to discover those real reasons.