The answer to
this can be found in Chapter 15. Specifically, it can be found starting on p. 317 and ending on
p. 319 of the paperback edition of the book. Throughout this book, Diamond says that
geographical factors are the basic cause of most things that have happened in the long run of
world history. It is geographical factors that he credits for allowing the New Guineans to
escape being conquered by Europeans.
The first geographical factor that
helped New Guineans was the presence of malaria and other tropical diseases in the New Guinea
lowlands (317). This made it very hard for Europeans to get a foothold in New Guinea. Diamond
says that Americans and Europeans have trouble living in New Guinea today, even with modern
medicine. It was worse, of course, before modern medicine.
The second factor
is the proximity of New Guinea to Indonesia. This proximity meant that many Indonesians came to
New Guinea over the years and brought germs from Asia. Therefore, New Guineans had some
immunity to Eurasian diseases.
The third factor was that European crops and
livestock do not do well in New Guinea. Crops from the West have not grown well. Animals that
are brought to New Guinea suffer from indigenous diseases and likewise do not do well. This
meant that the Europeans could not really set up their own sorts of economies in New
Guinea.
All of these geographic factors prevented Europeans from dominating
New Guinea.
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