Military technology - Gunpowder, Revolution, 1300-1650

military technology

Table of Contents

Introduction
General considerations
Prehistory
- The earliest military weapons
- From precious metals to base metals
Antiquity and the classical age, c. 1000 bce–400 ce
- Defensive weaponry
  - Helmets
  - Shields
  - Body armour
    - Bronze
    - Mail
    - Plate-iron armour
- Offensive weaponry
  - The ax
  - The spear
  - The javelin
  - The sling
  - The sword
  - The bow
    - The early bow
    - The composite recurved bow
    - Arrows
- Mechanical artillery
- Fortification
  - Fortress design
  - Field fortification
  - Siege towers
- Land transportation
  - The horse
  - The elephant
  - The chariot
The age of cavalry, c. 400 ce–1350
- The war-horse
- Personal armour
  - Mail
  - Plate
- The castle
  - The motte-and-bailey castle
  - Stone fortifications
- Siege weapons
  - The trebuchet
  - Greek fire
- The horse archer
  - The Huns and Avars
  - The Byzantine cataphract
  - The Turks
  - The Mongols
The infantry revolution, c. 1200–1500
- The crossbow
- The English longbow
- Halberd and pike
  - The halberd
  - The pike
The gunpowder revolution, c. 1300–1650
- Early gunpowder
  - Chemistry and internal ballistics
  - Serpentine powder
  - Corned powder
  - Refinements in ballistics
- The development of artillery
  - Wrought-iron muzzle-loaders
  - Wrought-iron breechloaders
  - Cast bronze muzzle-loaders
  - Cast-iron cannon
- Early use of artillery
  - Terminology and classification
  - Special-purpose shot
  - Gunnery
- The first small arms
  - The matchlock
  - The wheel lock
  - The flintlock
- Fortification
  - From medieval to modern
  - The sunken profile
  - The bastioned trace
  - Duration of early modern fortification

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Few inventions have had an impact on human affairs as dramatic and decisive as that of gunpowder. The development of a means of harnessing the energy released by a chemical reaction in order to drive a projectile against a target marked a watershed in the harnessing of energy to human needs. Before gunpowder, weapons were designed around the limits of their users’ muscular strength; after gunpowder, they were designed more in response to tactical demand. Technologically, gunpowder bridged the gap between the medieval and modern eras. By the end of the 19th century, when black powder was supplanted by nitrocellulose-based ...(100 of 19804 words)

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