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The Gunpowder Age

China, Military Innovation, and the Rise of the West in World History

Author: Tonio Andrade

Publisher: Princeton University Press

ISBN: 1400874440

Category: History

Page: 448

View: 8843

The Chinese invented gunpowder and began exploring its military uses as early as the 900s, four centuries before the technology passed to the West. But by the early 1800s, China had fallen so far behind the West in gunpowder warfare that it was easily defeated by Britain in the Opium War of 1839–42. What happened? In The Gunpowder Age, Tonio Andrade offers a compelling new answer, opening a fresh perspective on a key question of world history: why did the countries of western Europe surge to global importance starting in the 1500s while China slipped behind? Historians have long argued that gunpowder weapons helped Europeans establish global hegemony. Yet the inhabitants of what is today China not only invented guns and bombs but also, as Andrade shows, continued to innovate in gunpowder technology through the early 1700s—much longer than previously thought. Why, then, did China become so vulnerable? Andrade argues that one significant reason is that it was out of practice fighting wars, having enjoyed nearly a century of relative peace, since 1760. Indeed, he demonstrates that China—like Europe—was a powerful military innovator, particularly during times of great warfare, such as the violent century starting after the Opium War, when the Chinese once again quickly modernized their forces. Today, China is simply returning to its old position as one of the world's great military powers. By showing that China’s military dynamism was deeper, longer lasting, and more quickly recovered than previously understood, The Gunpowder Age challenges long-standing explanations of the so-called Great Divergence between the West and Asia.
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How Transformative Innovations Shaped the Rise of Nations

From Ancient Rome to Modern America

Author: Gerard Tellis,Stav Rosenzweig

Publisher: Anthem Press

ISBN: 1783087943

Category: Business & Economics

Page: 332

View: 4558

Over the last 2,000 years, critical innovations have transformed small regions into global powers. But these powers have faded when they did not embrace the next big innovation. Gerard J. Tellis and Stav Rosenzweig argue that openness to new ideas and people, empowerment of individuals and competition are key drivers in the development and adoption of transformative innovations. These innovations, in turn, fuel economic growth, national dominance and global leadership. In How Transformative Innovations Shaped the Rise of Nations, Tellis and Rosenzweig examine the transformative qualities of concrete in Rome; swift equine warfare in Mongolia; critical navigational innovations in the golden ages of Chinese, Venetian, Portuguese and Dutch empires; the patent system and steam engine in Britain; and mass production in the United States of America.
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Periods of World History

A Latin American Perspective

Author: Charles A. Truxillo

Publisher: Jain Publishing Company

ISBN: 0895818639

Category: History

Page: 287

View: 6797

Periods of World History: a Latin American Perspective is the first serious attempt to write a world history narrative in which Latin America receives serious consideration. The chronology of the work covers the normative period of world history to date?1800 B.C. to 1800 A.D. During this time, differentiation of world societies was at its height. The six civilized core areas of the ecumene interacted but were not moving toward uniformity as was characteristic of the first phase of world history?Theocratic civilizations 3500-1500 B.C. Over the last two centuries, global societies have also tended to coalesce because of westernization, industrialism, nationalism, ideology, and the media. During the normative phase of human history, Latin America moved from being a periphery of Afro-Eurasia to the status of becoming the economic crucible of Spain's vast Catholic monarchy, which was the ecumene's first global power (1492-1648 A.D.), Latin America was again reduced to peripheral status. Periods of World History explains these processes in the larger context of a truly global historical narrative, and as such makes an extraordinary contribution to understanding human social development. Charles Truxillo is a professor of Chicano Studies at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque. He received his Ph.D. in Latin American history at UNM, and has published two other books, History of Islam, and By the Sword and the Cross. Dr. Truxillo is dedicated to teaching Chicano Studies in the context of Latin America and world history.
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Gunpowder

Alchemy, Bombards, and Pyrotechnics: The History of the Explosive that Changed the World

Author: Jack Kelly

Publisher: Hachette UK

ISBN: 0786739002

Category: History

Page: 272

View: 5505

When Chinese alchemists fashioned the first manmade explosion sometime during the tenth century, no one could have foreseen its full revolutionary potential. Invented to frighten evil spirits rather than fuel guns or bombs—neither of which had been thought of yet—their simple mixture of saltpeter, sulfur, and charcoal went on to make the modern world possible. As word of its explosive properties spread from Asia to Europe, from pyrotechnics to battleships, it paved the way for Western exploration, hastened the end of feudalism and the rise of the nation state, and greased the wheels of the Industrial Revolution.With dramatic immediacy, novelist and journalist Jack Kelly conveys both the distant time in which the “devil's distillate” rose to conquer the world, and brings to rousing life the eclectic cast of characters who played a role in its epic story, including Michelangelo, Edward III, Vasco da Gama, Cortés, Guy Fawkes, Alfred Nobel, and E. I. DuPont. A must-read for history fans and military buffs alike, Gunpowder brings together a rich terrain of cultures and technological innovations with authoritative research and swashbuckling style.
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The Face of Battle

A Study of Agincourt, Waterloo, and the Somme

Author: John Keegan

Publisher: Penguin

ISBN: 9781440673993

Category: History

Page: 368

View: 1207

Master military historian John Keegan’s groundbreaking analysis of combat and warfare The Face of Battle is military history from the battlefield: a look at the direct experience of individuals at the "point of maximum danger." Without the myth-making elements of rhetoric and xenophobia, and breaking away from the stylized format of battle descriptions, John Keegan has written what is probably the definitive model for military historians. And in his scrupulous reassessment of three battles representative of three different time periods, he manages to convey what the experience of combat meant for the participants, whether they were facing the arrow cloud at the battle of Agincourt, the musket balls at Waterloo, or the steel rain of the Somme. “The best military historian of our generation.” –Tom Clancy
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The gunpowder-treason

with a discourse of the manner of its discovery; and a perfect relation of the proceedings against those horrid conspirators; wherein is contained their examinations, tryals, and condemnations: likewise King James's speech to both houses of Parliament, on that occasion; now re-printed. A preface touching that horrid conspiracy, by the Right Reverend Father in God, Thomas [Barlow] lord bishop of Lincoln. And by way of appendix, several papers or letters of Sir Everard Digby, chiefly relating to the gunpowder-plot, never before printed

Author: James I (King of England),Thomas Barlow,Sir Everard Digby

Publisher: N.A

ISBN: N.A

Category: Gunpowder Plot, 1605

Page: 263

View: 2493

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War Made New

Weapons, Warriors, and the Making of the Modern World

Author: Max Boot

Publisher: Penguin

ISBN: 1101216832

Category: History

Page: 640

View: 2205

A monumental, groundbreaking work, now in paperback, that shows how technological and strategic revolutions have transformed the battlefield Combining gripping narrative history with wide-ranging analysis, War Made New focuses on four ?revolutions? in military affairs and describes how inventions ranging from gunpowder to GPS-guided air strikes have remade the field of battle?and shaped the rise and fall of empires. War Made New begins with the Gunpowder Revolution and explains warfare?s evolution from ritualistic, drawn-out engagements to much deadlier events, precipitating the rise of the modern nation-state. He next explores the triumph of steel and steam during the Industrial Revolution, showing how it powered the spread of European colonial empires. Moving into the twentieth century and the Second Industrial Revolution, Boot examines three critical clashes of World War II to illustrate how new technology such as the tank, radio, and airplane ushered in terrifying new forms of warfare and the rise of centralized, and even totalitarian, world powers. Finally, Boot focuses on the Gulf War, the invasion of Afghanistan, and the Iraq War?arguing that even as cutting-edge technologies have made America the greatest military power in world history, advanced communications systems have allowed decentralized, ?irregular? forces to become an increasingly significant threat.
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Wired for War

The Robotics Revolution and Conflict in the 21st Century

Author: P. W. Singer

Publisher: Penguin

ISBN: 9781440685972

Category: Technology & Engineering

Page: 512

View: 2797

P. W. Singer explores the great­est revolution in military affairs since the atom bomb: the dawn of robotic warfare We are on the cusp of a massive shift in military technology that threatens to make real the stuff of I, Robot and The Terminator. Blending historical evidence with interviews of an amaz­ing cast of characters, Singer shows how technology is changing not just how wars are fought, but also the politics, economics, laws, and the ethics that surround war itself. Travelling from the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan to modern-day "skunk works" in the midst of suburbia, Wired for War will tantalise a wide readership, from military buffs to policy wonks to gearheads.
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Rethinking Military History

Author: Jeremy Black

Publisher: Routledge

ISBN: 1134477015

Category: History

Page: 272

View: 8343

Rethinking Military History is a bold new 'thought book' that reconsiders military history at the beginning of the twenty-first century. The chapters provide a valuable and concise survey of the main themes in the study of military history from 1500 to the present day as Jeremy Black reveals the main trends in the practice and approach to military history and proposes a new manifesto for the subject to move forward. This must-read study demonstrates the limitations of current approaches, including common generalizations, omissions, and over-simplications. Engaging theoretical discussions, with reference to specific conflicts, suggest how these limitations can be remedied and adapted, whilst incorporating contributions from other disciplines. Rethinking Military History is essential reading for all those with an interest in military history, and all who wish to take part in moving the discipline forward.
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Science between Europe and Asia

Historical Studies on the Transmission, Adoption and Adaptation of Knowledge

Author: Feza Günergun,Dhruv Raina

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

ISBN: 9789048199686

Category: Science

Page: 279

View: 7399

This book explores the various historical and cultural aspects of scientific, medical and technical exchanges that occurred between central Europe and Asia. A number of papers investigate the printing, gunpowder, guncasting, shipbuilding, metallurgical and drilling technologies while others deal with mapping techniques, the adoption of written calculation and mechanical clocks as well as the use of medical techniques such as pulse taking and electrotherapy. While human mobility played a significant role in the exchange of knowledge, translating European books into local languages helped the introduction of new knowledge in mathematical, physical and natural sciences from central Europe to its periphery and to the Middle East and Asian cultures. The book argues that the process of transmission of knowledge whether theoretical or practical was not a simple and one-way process from the donor to the receiver as it is often admitted, but a multi-dimensional and complex cultural process of selection and transformation where ancient scientific and local traditions and elements. The book explores the issue from a different geopolitical perspective, namely not focusing on a singular recipient and several points of distribution, namely the metropolitan centres of science, medicine, and technology, but on regions that are both recipients and distributors and provides new perspectives based on newly investigated material for historical studies on the cross scientific exchanges between different parts of the world.
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Osman's Dream

The Story of the Ottoman Empire 1300-1923

Author: Caroline Finkel

Publisher: Hachette UK

ISBN: 1848547854

Category: History

Page: 704

View: 9956

The Ottoman chronicles recount that the first sultan, Osman, dreamt of the dynasty he would found - a tree, fully-formed, emerged from his navel, symbolising the vigour of his successors and the extent of their domains. This is the first book to tell the full story of the Ottoman dynasty that for six centuries held sway over territories stretching, at their greatest, from Hungary to the Persian Gulf, and from North Africa to the Caucasus. Understanding the realization of Osman's vision is essential for anyone who seeks to understand the modern world.
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Civilians and War in Europe 1618-1815

Author: Erica Charters,Eve Rosenhaft,Hannah Smith

Publisher: Liverpool University Press

ISBN: 1781388938

Category: History

Page: 304

View: 7134

Civilians and War in Europe 1618-1815 examines the relationship between civilians and warfare from the start of the Thirty Years War to the end of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. The volume interrogates received narratives of warfare that identify the development of modern 'total' war with the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, and instead considers the continuities and transformations in warfare over the course of two hundred years. The contributors examine prisoners of war, the cultures of plunder, the tensions of billeting, and war-time atrocities throughout England, France, Spain, and the German territories. They also explore the legal practices surrounding the conduct and aftermath of war; representations of civilians, soldiers, and militias; and the philosophical underpinnings of warfare. They probe what it meant to be a civilian in territories beset by invasion and civil war or in times when 'peace' at home was accompanied by almost continuous military engagement abroad. Their accounts show us civilians not only as anguished sufferers, but also directly involved with war: fighting back with shocking violence, profiting from war-time needs, and negotiating for material and social redress. And they show us individuals and societies coming to terms with the moral and political challenges posed by the business of drawing lines between 'civilians' and 'soldiers'. With contributors drawn from the fields of political and legal theory, literature and the visual arts, and military, political, social, and cultural history, this volume will appeal to all those with an interest in the history of warfare and the evolution of the idea of the civilian.
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Engineering Victory

The Union Siege of Vicksburg

Author: Justin S. Solonick

Publisher: SIU Press

ISBN: 0809333910

Category: History

Page: 289

View: 1335

After opening with a sophisticated examination of nineteenth-century military engineering and the history of siege craft, Solonick discusses the stages of the Vicksburg siege and the implements and tactics Grant's soldiers used to achieve victory. As Solonick shows, though Grant lacked sufficient professional engineers to organize a traditional siege - an offensive tactic characterized by cutting the enemy's communication lines and digging forward-moving approach trenches - the few engineers available, when possible, gave Union troops a crash course in military engineering. Ingenious midwestern soldiers, in turn, creatively applied engineering maxims to the situation at Vicksburg, demonstrating a remarkable ability to adapt in the face of adversity. When instruction and oversight were not possible, the common soldiers improvised.
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Rome at War

Farms, Families, and Death in the Middle Republic

Author: Nathan Stewart Rosenstein

Publisher: Univ of North Carolina Press

ISBN: 9780807828397

Category: History

Page: 339

View: 2434

Historians have long asserted that during and after the Hannibalic War, the Roman Republic's need to conscript men for long-term military service helped bring about the demise of Italy's small farms and that the misery of impoverished citizens then became