Gunpowder
Item
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Title
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Gunpowder
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Creator/author/artist of the original item
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[Unknown]
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Date
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12th century
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Description
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Gunpowder was a key item in Europe beginning in the 13th century, though it was first invented in China in the 12th century and did not reach the west until the Mongols spread gunpowder technology into Europe. The influence of gunpowder it became especially prevalent in the 14th century with the rise of Niccolò Machiavelli and his value in role of war in a nation’s success. In Machiavelli’s words, “when princes think more of luxury than or arms, they lose their state” (Wiesner-Hanks, 95). Machiavelli believed that nobles, instead of concerning themselves with frivolous aspects of a wealthy life, needed to focus their efforts on broadening their political influence in order to encourage a prosperous state.
As wars raged throughout the 14th and 15th centuries in Europe, armies began to use gunpowder technology to increase their success on the battlefield. Initially, the cavalry, a group of soldiers on horseback with swords, was the primary force used in battles. These soldiers were typically nobles who would participate in battles as propaganda to encourage their people to support them (Wiesner-Hanks, 99). They were able to ‘fight’ in battle, while still literally sitting above the other soldiers. Now with the common foot soldiers wielding firearms, the nobles atop horses were less notable. To compensate for this, nobles were given pistols, a short-barreled firearm that allowed them to shoot from a very close range, reestablishing the social hierarchy within the army (Wiesner-Hanks, 99). While firearms and gunpowder made battles much more efficient, even beginning what some have called a “military revolution”, it was very expensive technology (Wiesner-Hanks, 101). Only kings, sultans, and emperors could afford to outfit their entire armies, nobles and other people in power did not have nearly enough funds to provide firearms for armies of thousands of people. Gunpowder is one of the most impactful technologies of military advancement, one that Machiavelli would be in full support of.
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Place
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China
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Source Citation
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Wiesner-Hanks, Merry E. *Early Modern Europe, 1450–1789.* 3rd ed. Cambridge History of Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2022. doi:10.1017/9781009160797.
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Rights / License
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Satirdan kahraman, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
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