HCOL 185 outside of class evaluation.
Name __Meghan Burke________________________
5 Dec 2012
Please answer all four questions below with respect to Diamond's book. 5 points each. You may reference the book, but should not consult with others. Please email your answers by 5pm on 14 Dec 2012.
1. Explain why the Dominican Republic and Haiti are in such different environmental and economic states despite sharing the same island.
The Dominican Republic is currently the richer and more successful country.
This is due to a number of different factors- environmental and social. The
Dominican Republic receives more rainfall than Haiti on the other side of the island.
It also receives more water from rivers, flowing to the Dominican Republic’s side from high mountains. It also has richer soils and more varied terrain. This makes it more suitable for agriculture than Haiti, which is drier and has less flat land for agriculture. It also has a smaller population to sustain.
The deforestation issues in Haiti are more severe than in the Dominican
Republic. The Haitians rely on charcoal from trees as energy, while the Dominican
Republic has invested in hydroelectric dams and importations of propane and natural gas. The Dominican Republic has also taken both bottom up and top down management methods to solve its environmental problems such as deforestation.
The Dominican Republic is also more developed due to its historical openness to immigrants and trade, and the desire of European immigrants to settle on the side of the island with European descendants that spoke a familiar language.
These immigrants contributed to the country’s economy as many were professionals. The Dominican Republic’s dictator, Rafael Trujillo, was also interested in and invested money into developing the country and its economy.
2. What does Diamond claim is the primary driver behind the Rwandan genocide?
Discuss.
Diamond claims that the primary driver behind the Rwandan genocide was a dense population with high growth rates. The population of Rwanda grew as more food became available, but then the amount of food couldn’t keep up with the population growth. All of the land was divided between families, but each farm wasn’t enough to support even the richer land owners. This led to famine and disputes over land, which encouraged farmers to participate in the genocide and kill those with large amounts of land or those who were competing with them for land.

3. What is 'creeping normalcy' and how does Diamond relate it to the collapse of complex societies?
“Creeping normalcy” refers to long term trends that change slowly over time, so they are less likely to be noticed and fluctuations may throw observers off.
“Creeping normalcy” makes it difficult for societies to recognize and respond to a problem, because they may not know it is occurring if it is happening so slowly.
Diamond uses the example of global warming, stating that the world’s temperatures have been increasing over decades, but slightly fluctuating year to year. He also compares this to the Greenland Norse’s climate becoming colder and the Maya’s and
Anasazi’s climates becoming drier. Since these changes occurred so slowly, they were difficult to perceive and respond to.
4. Do you agree with Diamond's general framework for understanding the collapse of complex societies? Why or why not?
I agree with Diamond’s general framework for understanding the collapse of complex societies. His five factors- environmental damage, climate change, hostile neighbors, loss of support from friendly trade partners, and the society’s response to its problems- were able to explain much of the problems these societies faced, at least with the evidence that Diamond provided. While there may be other factors involved in the collapse of a particular society, many factors fit into these five categories, and those categories do make a big impact on how successful a society is.
Many of the collapses that occurred in the societies that Diamond presents us with are based on loss or lack of resources which led to starvation and civil unrest and conflict, and this can all be connected to the five factors.