In this chapter, Diamond is arguing that the Europeans
were able to dominate the Australians because Europe (and Eurasia in general) was able
to create large societies based on food production. Meanwhile, Australians were not
able to produce food on any large scale.
Because the
Australians were not able to produce food, they had to remain as hunter-gatherers. This
meant that they could not form large, sedentary populations that could eventually create
technology. Because they had no technology, they could easily be dominated by the
Europeans and their technology.
This is consistent with the
main thrust of Diamond's whole book. He is arguing that places (like Australia) got
dominated because of their lack of technology. The lack of technology generally stemmed
from geographic disadvantages that made food production
difficult.
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