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Letters to the Editors |
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Dear World History Connected:
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I read the interview with Jared Diamond with interest.
It still seems to me that there are some major flaws in Diamond's account
of the world.
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His comments on the "fertile crescent"
seem to me excessively naive, yet he has apparently not changed them from
his earlier book. Here are some thoughts:
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Is
Geography Destiny?
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Is
human history a blind adaptation to ecological resources, or should we recognize
a major part for human agency? Various forms of a kind of ecological determinism
have been circulating recently. |
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In his Pulitzer Prize winning book, Guns, Germs,
and Steel, Jared Diamond argues the general point that ecological resources,
especially fertile land, an abundance of food crops, and the domestication
of various animals, contributed significantly in the past to cultural and
political success. Abundant agricultural resources create surpluses and
these allow human populations to thrive, leading to a leisure class who
can spend time on cultural, artistic, and eventually scientific and technological
innovation.
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In this straightforward version of the thesis, it
has some merit. But reading history in this narrow way leads some to think
that everything is in the presence or absence of agricultural good fortune.
A good example of that is Diamond's own claim that the fertile crescent
and eastern Mediterranean societies "committed ecological suicide."
This bold assertion takes no account of the fact that the Ottoman empire,
which included the fertile crescent for at least the last four hundred years
of its existence, was the longest surviving political regime in the history
of the world, c. 1300-1919.
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One could lay many grievances
at the door of the Ottoman rulers, but they did know how to maintain an
empire. When the "collapse" finally came it was not due to the
break down of a fragile ecology. It came about above all because of the
intervention of Western European powers, especially the British and the
French, but also the Russians during World War I. Those powers were eager
to take over the notable resources -of land, food crops, trade routes, and
taxable peasantry of a sprawling empire. That empire extended from Algiers
in the west, across the Middle East, and into the heartlands of Eastern
Europe, including Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and large parts of Hungary
and Romania. This was no ecologically collapsing domain. Indeed, geographic
units such as the "fertile crescent" have little political meaning. |
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Apart from the political
and military pressures exerted on the Ottomans by Europeans, the decline
of the Ottoman empire can more properly be attributed to its inadequate
economic policies and neglect of modern science and technology. The last
five hundred years of that empire saw the flowering of the scientific and
industrial revolutions in Europe. In practical terms this resulted in the
development of the steam engine, the spinning jenny, the steamboat and lots
of other mechanical inventions, along with the discovery of electricity,
the invention of the telegraph, the electric motor and many other electrical
devices. Nor should we forget that this exuberant period also witnessed
the Enlightenment and the development of the instruments of democratic constitutionalism
in the Western world. |
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While all this efflorescence
was going on in Europe, the Ottomans lagged greatly in learning about and
adopting this rich cargo of modern science and technology. But the fault
went deeper in that the Ottomans were unable to introduce European style
modern universities until the first decade of the 20th century, which meant
that traditional, Islamic style education prevailed throughout the empire
into the twentieth century. |
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From a strictly political
point of view it is evident that the Ottomans were unable to muster the
will and resources to internally support the revolution in science and technology
that was beginning to sweep the world. |
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Insofar as the economy
is concerned the Ottomans adopted unhelpful policies that favored European
rather than their own Ottoman merchants. But they also faced significant
legal impediments, such as the lack of the legal idea of a corporation,
which had existed in European law since the middle ages. This and
several other commercial devices gave Europeans significant advantages in
the world of trade. But the political, cultural, and economic deficits
that held the Ottomans back had practically nothing to do with ecological
issues. |
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Of course today there
are serious ecological issues in the old lands of the fertile crescent,
but the real problems are those of failed states and the problems created
by sectarian divisions and inadequate political leadership. The modern state
of Israel appears to be doing very well agriculturally in a major area of
the old fertile crescent. That doesn't mean that the ecology of the middle
East is not fragile; indeed it is, just as the ecology is fragile in many
other parts of the world. But drawing the conclusion that geography is destiny
seems a far cry from a realistic appraisal of human history and what human
actors actually achieved, with or without abundant natural resources. |
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Toby E. Huff Chancellor Professor Emeritus Center
for Policy Analysis UMass Dartmouth |
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Dear friends,
I thought you might be interested in seeing my review of [Jared Diamond's]
PBS program in July 8 Science. You can access a text version on my Web site
at: |
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http://www.michaelbalter.com/NeolithicNews/07_25_2005|Review_of_Guns_Germs_and_Steel.php
all best, Michael Balter |
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Michael Balter is a Paris-based writer for Science
and the author of The Goddess and the Bull: Catalhoyuk, An Archaeological
Journey to the Dawn of Civilization. |
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