Guns, Germs, and Steel

by

Jared Diamond

Teachers and parents! Our Teacher Edition on Guns, Germs, and Steel makes teaching easy.

Guns, Germs, and Steel Characters

Minor Characters
Yali
An intelligent, charismatic New Guinean politican who asks the question—“Why is it that you white people developed so much cargo … but we black people had little cargo of our own?”—to which Guns, Germs, and Steel is the 500-page answer.
Francisco Pizarro
Spanish conquistador in the early 16th century who conquered the Incan Empire and killed its emperor, Atahuallpa.
Levi
A Native American from the Blackfoot tribe who inspired Jared Diamond to research the environmental differences between Native American and European civilizations.
Johannes Gutenberg
A 15th-century German blacksmith, printer, and inventor often credited with designing the modern printing press, which marked a major milestone in European history.
Aristotle
Ancient Greek philosopher.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
French Enlightenment philosopher who posited that human beings are born in a state of perfection and are then corrupted by civilization.
Christopher Columbus
Italian explorer who, funded by Spanish royalty, led a series of voyages to the New World beginning in 1492 A.D.
Atahuallpa
The powerful Incan emperor defeated by Pizarro in the early 16th century.