Guns, Germs and Steel
Later in the book, Diamond talks about why European countries developed more inventions than the rest of Eurasia. Because of this, some European countries were the first places to be changed by the Industrial Revolution and they also formed empires that ruled over distant lands (known as colonialism). Until the 15th century, China actually had more inventions than Europe. Diamond suggests that this changed because many European countries were in competition with each other. European countries had to keep changing and using new inventions, to avoid being conquered by other countries. Meanwhile, China was ruled as one empire that did not have to worry about this. Diamond also believes that geography affected this pattern. Geography made it hard for Europe to unite into large countries, but made it easy for China.