Gunpowder technology originated in China, which the Chinese used to fight the Mongols. After the thirteenth century, the Chinese domination of gunpowder technology ended and the technique was passed along the ancient silk road to Europe and Islamic world. This led to the formation of the three gunpowder empires and moreover, the later on widespread imperialism is also a result precipitated from the gunpowder technique.
Gunpowder contributed largely to the expansion of certain empires and the death of innocent people during the period. The emergence of the gunpowder empires: Safavid, Ottoman and Mughal, was made possible by the gunpowder weapons that enabled the empires to conquer nearby territories, such as cannon. Moreover, European empires that adopted the technology began to set up colonies in the New World by defeating local citizens using gunpowder weapons.
Besides its impacts during the period, gunpowder weapons are responsible for the massive negative impacts throughout world history. Wars became more destructive as weapons advanced and caused more damages. It also increases the tension between nations as war turns into larger scales and more naitons are involved. Eventually this situation led to the arms race.
SPICE
Political- empire: The spread of gunpowder technology acted as the catalyst of the formation of the Ottoman, Safavid and Mughal empire. By using gunpowder weapons, the Muslims could easily conquer nearby territories that had relatively less advanced military power.
Political- Nations and nationalism: Gunpowder weapon marks the start of modern military technique in which stronger nations invented destructive weapons in order to demonstrate the nation’s power. This is due to the sense of nationalism and eventually the tension between nations merged into significant wars that caused millions of human death.
Economic- trade and commerce: Gunpowder technology was spread from China to Europe via the Silk Road during the earlier time period; Nowadays, gunpowder is sometimes sold by illegal merchants who sought to make profit.
Whipps, H. (2008, April 06). How Gunpowder Changed the World. Retrieved from
No comments:
Post a Comment