Paste the last thing you copied.

[Miles]

The book itself is divided into four segments. In part one, Diamond examines history from about 11,000 B/C up until the European conquest of the Americas, in the sixteenth century. Diamond frequently references Polynesians in the Pacific to lay the groundwork for his ultimate thesis. The section ends with Pizarro’s journey to the New World and his surprisingly effortless ousting of Incan Emperor Atahuallpa. The rest of the book would essentially be an explanation of why Pizarro was able to defeat the Incas, and not vice versa. The next segment is dedicated to the more basic aspects of human civilization, such as methods of food production. These are what Diamond dubs the ‘immediate’ factors of the rise or decline of civilizations.