The answer to your question can be found in Chapter Four,
entitled "Farmer Power." In this chapter, Diamond discusses how the move from being a
society that is based on hunting and gathering to a mainly agricultural society also
resulted in the political development of that society. This is mainly due to the way
that the move also involves a huge population boost, which then enables the development
of specialists:
A separate consequence of a settled existence is
that it permits one to store food surpluses, since storage would be pointless if one
didn't remain nearby to guard the stored food... Two types of such specialists are kings
and bureaucrats... when food can be stockpiled, a political elite can gain control of
food produced by others, assert the right of taxation, escape the need to feed itself,
and and engage in full-time political
activities.
This is why the
agricultural societies that Diamond explores are often arranged into political units
that have a greater population and a higher level of organisation which enables them to
mobilise armed forces and invade other territories. Hunter-gathering is thus shown to be
a profound limitation in early societies. Those that got ahead of the starting line were
those that quickly developed into agricultural societies before their
neighbours.
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