Aaron Jones |
Thesis Paper
Everyone knows what a gun is right? But do you REALLY know the impact that gunpowder has caused? Gunpowder has been around for centuries, over a millennia to be more exact. So, how has Gunpowder effected Warfare, and life as we know it? It’s a fickle thing. You would never think about how gunpowder may have affected the existence of the electronic device you’re using right now. But its effects are longer lasting than one might have ever thought. The smart phone in your pocket? It exists because of the Industrial revolution, which was powered by Gunpowder. The Computer this is being written on? Same reasoning. The Car you drive, the toaster in your kitchen? All the same reason.
Now let’s start off from the top of Gunpowder. If I were to tell you that Gunpowder came to be because some Chinese alchemists were trying to create a potion of immortality would you believe me? No? Good. Regardless, in the early 900’s it was discovered on accident. (5) Gunpowder was found originally in China, some Taoist monks were trying as hard as they could to find a way to make an immortality potion. They found out how it blew up if dropped or was set on fire, it was put to use against the invading Mongols by the existing Song Dynasty in China right away. The first recorded use of Gunpowder was when the Chinese strapped a tube filled with Gunpowder to arrows, they then lit these arrows on fire and shot them at the invading Mongolians. (5) They were extremely effective at scaring them. Why? Go fire a gun around a newborn child. The reaction you get from them is similar to how a person would react if they never knew what a Gun or Gunpowder was. It was this effective. Soon after that, the Chinese tried to put the Gunpowder in catapults, and eventually made a crude form of Grenades. They experimented with various things and even though they were ahead of their time, they eventually dropped the use of Gunpowder around the time it started to arrive to Europe and the Middle East through the Silk Road. From there, the Moors and the Ottoman Turks created their own forms of firearms. The Moors fought the Europeans in Spain for control of the area, and not even a year after that war the first Firearms were finished in Italy. These early guns were crude, but effective. Soon after that the first Cannons began to appear, the earliest to appear was from the Turks, they created the Bombard. Which was this HUGE cannon, bigger than one could imagine. (10)This bombard was one of the key weapons that caused the “City that could not fall” to fall. Constantinople. In its lifetime it had only fallen twice. Once when it was taken at first by the Romans, and second when the Turks came along. With it, fell the recipe of another type of Gunpowder, which was mostly used as an early form of Flame Thrower. There is little knowledge about it, so there is no way to cover any information on it. As time passed Gunpowder continued to get better. Now, fast forward to the Mid-15th century, by now the Austrians and the Spanish had begun to use Pikes and Guns together, both of them were the first couple of Major European Powers to use Gunpowder (6). This flexibility allowed them to experiment with how to place the Muskets in the battlefield, one of the uses of them was Muskets on the sides, and the Pikes in the middle. It was believed that the Pike was a superior killing weapon, and the Muskets were only useful to scare the enemy. To counter the Pike and Musket formation, a form of Carbine was invented. This, was used by people on horseback. The use of Horseback Carbines was so useful, the use of the lance went extinct within 100 years. For a few centuries Guns got slowly better, but no Major progress was made. However, when Gustav Adolph came to power in Sweden he introduced a sort of Wheel lock, instead of the Matchlock. This, got rid of the need to put the Gunpowder in the barrel of the gun. (6) It was also much more efficient. Later on, after Gustav, the Flintlock was invented. The flintlock itself, was a much more efficient weapon, and as always, it got to be much more efficient than how it was started. Throughout all of these better mechanisms for the guns, one thing got to be more prevalent. The time needed to train the troops had been reduced. It is much easier to give a guy a gun, and show him how to reload it in a simple manner, than it is to give a guy a gun, show him how to reload it in a complex way, and then hope his arm doesn’t blow off from the force of it. Around the time all this was going on, in the late 18th century, the Industrial Revolution began. This was because of advancements in Technology, enabled by Gunpowder. Pressed harder by the need to mass produce Guns to outfight rival nations. However, in the long term, it produced much more than one could ever imagine. The Industrial Revolution itself was single handedly the most important event in history for us today. Without that, we’d be still hand making everything with no machines to aid us. This changed Transportation (Giving us Trains, and later on cars), Communication (Telegraph, Stock Exchanges), (1) the Quality of Life, and the influence to make more inventions. Giving the normal person the ability to invent something. This lead to everything we know today. This led to larger dense Urban Areas, leading to further inventions. (1) On the flip side, this also lead to Factories. Which, are a great thing in concept. But, in reality, they were harsh and even killed people because of poor conditions inside, and forced labor. Unlike today’s factories, there were no standards, and this all lead to a harsh life for the poor people, and to an extent the middle class. People could be worked to the point where losing a limb, or a finger, wasn’t rare. (1) All of this up until now, was a more raw form/use of Gunpowder and how it had been helpful for us until now. Now, moving swiftly on to Dynamite. Dynamite, is a raw explosive, and is mostly used in Construction, and mining. It’s not exactly a better form of Gunpowder, but it’s the closest thing that ever existed to an improvement of it. Dynamite was made in the 1860’s, and as stated, is used in a limited number of ways. It was used [ in warfare for a short while, but today mostly people see old buildings being blown up with it. Dynamite never really grew to be as big as a large influence on the world, unlike its father. One might ask, why touch on Dynamite if it doesn’t really impact us all that much anymore? That’s a great question! Now, Dynamite helped lead to the worst weapon of killing that’s been invented to date. The Atomic Bomb. It’s because of Gunpowder that we figured out how to split the atom some 1,000 years later. While it didn’t directly lead to that, it influenced everything in its path that caused us to discover the Atomic Bomb. Now, the Atomic Bomb and what came after it is no joke. Nuclear weapons, and splitting the Atom is dangerous. The first two atomic bombs dropped on Japan took a total of around 70,000 people in mere minutes from the first bomb alone. Not counting the people injured. (9) Why though? Why would someone do this? Why would someone make a whole city vanish in the time of a few minutes? What caused someone to make this? The answer, is because we tried to save lives. Attempting to save lives by taking lives never ends well. Such as this situation. But, getting back on topic, the Atomic Bombs dropped in Japan were the ONLY nuclear weapons detonated to date. Most scientists agree, these should never of been discovered, let alone used. But why did we try to figure out why these things existed? Because Gunpowder drove us to. Most of everything we’ve created up to this point has been influenced by gunpowder in some way. Gunpowder is a dangerous thing, and we really don’t understand its true powers until it’s too late. Nuclear weapons are the most recent thing that Gunpowder influenced directly in warfare. Anything else it’s influenced is either something we use in everyday life, or something so deadly its use has been banned by the United Nations. Gunpowder has effected both warfare, and life as we know it, beginning at Fireworks and crude handguns, and ended at Atomic bombs and electronics. It’s fascinating how something so small, or just a single idea has changed the Human race so much. Gunpowder was made to create a potion of immortality, and instead created the most dangerous thing and the most helpful thing mankind would ever discover. From Handguns to Rifles to the Industrial Revolution to the Atomic Bomb, Gunpowder has done everything for us. No matter how much we wish we didn’t create this, we can’t go back. We’re here and we got to live with it. So next time you text your best friend, or go watch the most recent movie with guns in it, remember; this all exists because we wanted immortality. And all it gave us is a recipe for death, and chaos. 1. "Explosives - History." Science.Jrank. Web. 15 Mar. 2015. HERE 2. "Gun and Gunpower." Silk-Road. SilkRoad Foundation, Web. 12 Mar. HERE 3. "Human Nature, Technology & the Environment." Human Nature, Technology & the Environment. Web. 13 Mar. 2015. HERE 4. Orleans, Valerie. "Gun Power." Calistate.fullerton.edu. California State University -Fullerton, 01 Nov. 2006. Web. 13 Mar. 2015. HERE 5. Ross, Cody. "Middle Ages Tech - Gunpowder." Four Rivers Charter. Web. 11 Mar. 2015. Here 6. "The Age of Gunpowder." Global Security. 13 Sept. 2012. Web. 15 Mar. HERE 7. Whipps, By Heather. "How Gunpowder Changed the World." LiveScience. TechMedia Network, 06 Apr. 2008. Web. 01 Mar. 2015. HERE 8. "Industrial Revolution." History.com. A&E Television Networks, 2009. Web. 22 Feb. 2015. HERE 9. "The Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki." Hiroshima & Nagasaki Atom Bombs. Atom Central, Web. 02 Apr. 2015. HERE 10. Sammon, John. "The Great Turkish Bombard." Guns.com. Guns.com, 04 Jan. 2012. Web. 01 Apr. 2015. HERE
4 Comments
Gary Sanchez
5/17/2018 05:46:14 am
This site sucks monkey balls
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God
5/17/2018 10:38:18 am
same. will you suck mine?
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9/27/2018 06:29:54 am
Hey Cody, This is Jeffery from kaboom gun powder. You seem very knowledgeable on guns and we would like to offer you 10,000 Chinese dollars to come to our annual gun conference. Get back to us and wow us with your knowledge about bullcrap gunpowder facts.
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