Host: Modern history has been shaped by
conquests, the conquest of the world by
Europeans. A: [foreign language] Host: The
Conquistadors led the way, a few hundred
men who came to the New World and
decimated the native population. The
secret of their success: guns, germs, and
steel. Ever since people of European
origin have dominated the globe with the
same combination of military power, lethal
microbes, and advanced technology. But how
did they develop these advantages in the
first place? Why did the world ever become
so unequal? These are questions that
Professor Jarred Diamond has spent more
than 30 years trying to answer. One of the
most original thinkers of our age, Diamond
has traveled the world looking for clues.
He set himself a daunting task, to peel
back the layers of the past and explore
the very roots of power in the modern
world. Jarred Diamond: Whatever I work on
for the rest of my life, I can never work
on questions as fascinating as the
questions of guns, germs, and steel,
because they're the biggest questions of
human history. Host: What separates the
haves from the have-nots? How have guns,
germs, and steel shaped the history of the
world?
