![]() ![]() As people experimented with increasing the nitrate levels, they found a corresponding increase in the compound’s detonation velocity and destructive capacity. As long as the level of potassium nitrate in the gunpowder compound remained low, as low as 30 percent, the explosion’s destructive capacity was principally a product of its highly incendiary reaction. By the end of the 10th century, the Chinese were already putting gunpowder in grenades and bombs, which could be launched against opposing forces. Greek Fire was an effective weapon, but gunpowder far exceeded it in its destructive capacity. In addition to shooting flames in the direction of opposing forces, the incendiary chemical was also loaded into grenades so that it could be catapulted great distances. 4 Needham notes that large quantities of this chemical were used in Chinese warfare during the 10th-century Five Dynasties period, which strongly suggests that the Chinese had learned to distill it and had mastered its military application. Chinese militaries had earlier acquired from Arab traders the distilled petroleum product naft (naphtha), known in the West as Greek Fire, or, because of its role in naval warfare, Sea Fire. ![]() The Chinese had experimented with incendiary devices for military purposes since long before the discovery of gunpowder. Before long, gunpowder was used for a great variety of purposes in China, including entertainment, medicine, engineering, and warfare. Needham finds irony in the fact that the alchemist who discovered this explosive compound did so while on a quest to find the “elixirs of life and material immortality.” 3 Nevertheless, although the author of this passage did not present a specific formula (that would have to wait until 1044), he did identify the three key ingredients that are critical in producing the chemical explosive gunpowder-potassium nitrate (saltpeter), sulfur, and carbon-and he described the dramatic result. In Central Asia and other places where rulers could rely on large numbers of well-trained, fast-moving mounted archers and a nearly endless supply of horses, they found little reason to rush to embrace what for several centuries represented an expensive, slow, and unreliable technology. Chinese militaries employed hybrid forces to great effect, but in later years a lengthy peace during the Qing era slowed the implementation of new technologies. The Ottomans were the most aggressive in this regard, the Mughals preferred a hybrid force, and the Safavids long favored cavalry. The major Asian agrarian states of the Ottomans, Safavids, and Mughals (the so-called Gunpowder Empires) and the Ming and Qing dynasties in China implemented gunpowder weapons differently. ![]() Scholars have also come to recognize that there was no uniformity in the ways that states implemented gunpowder weapons, and that multiple factors relating to environment, demographics, and cultural preferences informed decisions about when and how to embrace the new technology. Historiography/Historical Theory and MethodĬontrary to long-held notions that gunpowder weapons technologies were devised in the West and gradually transmitted eastward into Asia, more recent scholarship indicates that innovations flowed in both directions. Citizenship and National Identity/Nationalism ![]()
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