Brief Chapter Summaries

Chapter 15: Yali’s people: The histories of Australia and New Guinea

Australia and New Guinea may be close to each other but differ greatly culturally because of

their difference in climate, geography, range of elevation, etc. New Guinea developed

agriculture unlike Australia (which has the driest climate and less fertile soil than anywhere else

on Earth); thus it had greater population density, which leads to a more technological advance

society. European colonist’s guns and diseases killed most of the Australian Aborigines; on the

other hand, New Guinea’s natives remain a significant part of the current population because

their tropical diseases made it difficult for Europeans to settle.

Chapter 16: How China became Chinese: The history of East Asia

China was one of the first places in the world to develop agriculture and animal domestication.

Northern China developed a writing system and under the Qin Dynasty, it forced other cultures

in East Asia to adapt to their system and language, as well as to unify. China’s rivers made it

easier to exchange technologies; they also influenced other cultures, like Japan and Korea, to

use their writing system.

Chapter 17: Speedboat to Polynesia: The history of the Austronesian expansion

The Austronesian expansion began with Austronesian-speaking farmers from coastal South

China spreading over Taiwan and the Philippines to western and central Indonesia; thus

eliminating the original hunter-gatherer groups that once populated those islands. The

Austronesian invaders arrived in New Guinea’s north and east coasts, and Bismark and

Solomon Archipelagoes but failed in conquering the islands due to them having little advantage

over the already established food-producing natives; however Austronesian culture has

influenced the islands. The Austronesians established themselves on Pacific archipelagoes and

eventually reached Polynesia where they faced different environments in which societies

evolved at different rates.

Chapter 18: Hemisphere’s Colliding: The histories of Eurasia and the America’s

compared

Many factors contributed to the Europeans of the Old World in developing faster and conquering

the Americas; among them are: Eurasians being settled to their environment first; having a

wider variety of domesticable plants and big animals (13 to 1 in the Americas); more successful

food production methods (livestock provides labor and fertilizer); geography enabled the spread

of crops, germs and ideas faster (the Americas contained more geographical barriers); more

advanced technology; etc. There were two Eurasian attempts in colonizing the Americas; the

first was from the Norse (originally from Norway) that settled in Greenland and visited the north-

eastern coast of North America often but failed in maintaining the colonies due to the lands
being unsuited for agriculture and the colonist not adapting the hunter-gather lifestyle. The

second attempt to colonize the Americas was commenced by Spain and was successful since

they had a major advantage over the natives, which they decimated with their weapons and

diseases.

Chapter 19: How Africa became black: The history of Africa

Africa is geographically very diverse and encompasses five major human races known as

blacks (predominant in the continent), whites, African Pygmies, Khoisan and Asians

(Austronesians originating from Borneo that moved to Madagascar). The Bantu farmers (black)

spread to dominate the once widespread hunter-gatherers groups of Pygmies and Khoisan;

some Khoisan groups survived in areas in S. Africa where the Bantu could not plant due to them

not having winter crops. In 1625, Dutch colonist-carrying winter crops arrived at Cape Town, S.

Africa and defeated the poorly equipped Khoisan; they later expanded east and faced the fierce

resistance of the Xhosas food producers (which they defeated after 175 years of war due to the

advances in technology).