Guns, Germs, and Steel

Chapter 1:

Up to the Starting Line

Upright humans began c. 4 million years ago... Human history made a Great Leap Forward c. 50,000 years ago when standardized stone tools, cave paintings etc. appeared. This was approximately synchronous with a major extension of the range of humans to Australia and New Guinea using watercraft c. 40-30,000 years ago. Mass extinctions of large mammals occurred simultaneously. The Americas were colonized with the Clovis culture c. 11,000 BC--this corresponded to the end of the Pleistocene Era, the recession of the last Ice Age, and the beginning of the Recent Era, and was also associated with mass extinctions...

Chapter 2: A Natural Experiment of History

The Maoris overran the Morioris in the Chatham islands in 1835, though both were of Polynesian extraction, due to greater warlike capability of the Maoris, etc. Polynesia presents a moderately varied set of climates, geography, resources, size, political and social complexity, isolation, etc. leading to moderate diversity of human populations and adaptations.

Chapter 3: Collision at Cajamarca

JD details the conquest