There is an old adage that says that the three most important factors in the real estate market are “location, location, location.” In episode one of Guns, Germs, and Steel, Jared Diamond makes the case for location as the decisive factor in shaping the destiny of civilizations. Some have criticized Diamond’s analysis for being overly deterministic–essentially for arguing that the triumph of certain civilizations was inevitable due to geography. Do you believe that history is basically determined by factors, like geography, that are beyond the control of individuals? Or rather do you believe that individual decisions and individual actions have a greater effect on the course of history and the rise and fall of civilizations?  Compose a 300 word essay in which you explain your own opinion. Please use examples from Guns, Germs, and Steel or the books or lectures from this class to support your opinion. ***In addition to submitting your work through BlackBoard, you are required to compose this paper on a word processor and save it to your computer.  If work is lost due to a BlackBoard glitch or other computer or internet problem I will ask you to send me your original file so that I can grade it.  Please pay attention to the file formats that BlackBoard will accept.  Note that Apple “.pages” documents cannot be opened by BlackBoard at this time.   
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