What is Jared Diamond's thesis in Guns, Germs, and Steel? Specifically how does Dr. Diamond explain the development of European economic, military,...

Diamond
explicitly states that his book was written to answer a question asked to
him by his friend Yali concerning why the Europeans had so much more "cargo" (material
goods and technology) than the natives of Papua New Guinea. The central claim of the book is
that the reason for this is mainly an accident of geography rather than inherent differences in
the character of their cultures.

Diamond begins by pointing out that his
personal experience is that people all over the world are equally likely to be hardworking and
intelligent. He is opposed to the sort of racist views that tend to explain differences in
wealth and technology by arguing for innate differences in intellect among people of varied
ethnicities. Given that stance, he says we must search for another root cause of the differences
in the speed at which economies and technology evolved.

He finds the
explanation in geography. He argues that the key factor in differential development of wealth
and technology has to do with natural resources such as plants and animals that can be easily
domesticated. Also important is the existence of accessible east-west travel routes that allow
the spread of crops and domestic animals. In these matters, areas such as Egypt, Mesopotamia,
and other parts of Eurasia had major natural advantages over many other
regions.