episode 2

1. At the time that the Spanish conquistadores invaded the Inca Empire, they were armed with state of the art weaponry. Describe this weaponry.

horses that made them appear like god-like half man, half beast warriors, body armor, guns, and steel swords

2. What is Jared Diamond’s explanation for why the Spanish had advanced to steel swords while Inca’s were still making tools and weapons from bronze?

Because Europe was geographically close to the Fertile Crescent, they inherited the 7,000 years of metal technology that had been developed there. Because they had a diversified society that allowed for specialization, the Spanish devoted time and effort to producing the longest, strongest, sharpest swords possible.

3. How did the battle tactics used by the Spanish conquistadors help the small army defeat the Inca army that outnumbered it by the thousands?
The Spaniards begin by surprising the Incas, firing their guns and coming out of hiding on horseback. As they rode, the conquistadors used their swords to hack, cut, and stab the Incas who were panicking and fleeing rather than standing firm. Had the Incas known more about this style of fighting, they could have been victorious by sheer numbers if they had stood their ground against the cavalry.

4. According to Jared Diamond, what made the Europeans “accidental conquerors”?Because of their geographic location and history, the Europeans were the first to acquire guns, germs, and steel, therefore they could conquer other lesser developed civilizations.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

3/9/20 Philosophers

today in class we started a new slide about philosophers, we started on Socrates and during our discussion we started talking about the gay marriage rule that was passed years ago and if we were for or against it and how we felt about it and how it impacted our country even world tremendously. Socrates: - philosopher - looked to science and logic for the explanation of the world instead of believing in the gods - Socratic method fostered critical thinking - his most famous quote: "the unexamined life is not worth living." - he was charged with serious crimes when he was alive:     - impiety (disrespecting the gods)     - corrupting the youth of Athens - at his trial he described himself as a stinging gadfly (horsefly) and Athens as a lazy horse - he did not deny his actions, but embraced them and said he should be rewarded with free dinners - he was found guilty by the jury - he was sentenced to death by drinking poison hemlock Plato: - he was a stude...
Read more

episode 1

Alex Fuller 11/25/19 1. According to Jared Diamond, what are the three major elements that separate the world’s  “haves” from the “have nots”? Guns, germs, and steel 2. Jared Diamond refers to the people of New Guinea as “among the world’s most culturally diverse and adaptable people in the world”, yet they have much less than modern Americans.Diamond has developed a theory about what has caused these huge discrepancies among different countries, and he says it boils down to geographic luck. Give several examples from the film to support Diamond’s theory. people living in the Middle East and all of their resources compared to the relatively small amount of resources provided by the jungle areas of New Guinea, and how having more food resources and the ability to store them led people to become more agrarian and less reliant on being hunter-gatherers.  3. For thousands of years, people have been cultivating crops. Describe the process used to domesticate crops and create p...
Read more

Blog#16

Alex Fuller 11/12/19 at this moment about 7 billion people live on this earth. we are at a stable rate with how many births and deaths even out. many countries only limit their women to have two children but some don't care and they could have ten if they wanted. both of these situations are bad because 1 we shouldn't control how many kids a person wants but also some people are having 8 children. at a certain point something needs to happen. because these people that have many children can't always afford it, so they go to the government for money. this is not helpful for our society because instead of using it for the women who decided to have many children it could go toward something else that benifitted our country. but at the same time there are many deaths happening which might not always make up for all the people born.
Read more