University of Wisconsin students, faculty and Madison community
members listened to author and Pulitzer Prize winner Jared
Diamond’s stories concerning the conquest of continental Europeans
throughout the world.

<p>Hundreds of UW students have become familiar with
Diamond’s books, especially “Why is Sex Fun?” and his million-copy
seller “Guns, Germs and Steel.” UW professor Dr. Tim Allen uses
these books in a class he teaches. Allen, who teaches the two
courses featuring the books, ILS 252 or Botany 240, introduced
Diamond, saying the author’s success was due to his unique approach
to scientific writing.

<p>Instead of just using effective equations to describe
science, Diamond’s use of analogies to tell the story of the
Western civilization of the Americas is what makes him such an
effective theorist.

<p>”The bottom line is, he tells wonderful stories,” Allen
said.

<p>Diamond, who now teaches in the School of Medicine at
the University of California in Los Angeles, mostly described his
“Guns, Germs and Steel” book, testifying to Eurasia’s apparent
dominance of the world in the past 13,000 years compared to the
other continents.

<p>Diamond explained his theory, saying agricultural
advancement in Eurasia and China helped those cultures’ dominance
of Native Americans. The Eurasian continent has an “unequal
geographic distribution.” He also said technology dispersed
throughout the Old World, making advancement and conquest
possible.

<p>The issue of new technology saturating the world now
poses a problem, according to Diamond. Whereas earlier in history
native islanders used new tools like muskets to war with each
other, the question of nuclear weapons proliferating in the world
now poses a serious concern. However, the spread of new innovations
does not always spread like the “musket wars,” Diamond said, noting
that German breweries do not use the American breakthroughs in
their bottling and refrigeration methods. Diamond explained that
Germany does not have massive “national breweries” like America’s
Miller, Budweiser or Coors and that most German beer is sold only
about 30 miles from its origin.

<p>”The spread of technology is not inevitable,” Diamond
said. He added that nuclear weapons are yet to be seen in North
Korea.

<p>Diamond also said the difference of the unity in China
and the diversity of rulers in continental Europe is the reason a
Chinese explorer did not discover America or take over Europe
before Columbus landed in the Caribbean. Diamond further explained
that a Chinese sea captain with ocean-worthy ships answered only to
one Chinese emperor, and the captain had no alternative but to
follow the emperor’s decision after the emperor refused further
exploration. This was not the case for Columbus.

<p>”When one prince [in Europe] said no to Columbus,
Columbus had other princes to ask,” Diamond said.

<p>Diamond went further to say the diversity in rulers and
obvious intercommunication can be correlated to the business
sector. Whereas closed-off businesses delay innovation,
corporations providing interdepartmental communication and
organization foster growth.

<p>Diamond ended his lecture by saying geography and germs
still matter to societal developments, even though technology has
provided instant communication such as the Internet.

<p>