Overview

The development of feudalism in Europe was accompanied by the introduction of the heavily armored, horse-mounted knight and the fortified castle. While Eastern technology helped pave the way for these developments, it also helped to ensure their eventual obsolescence. Gunpowder was a Chinese invention that revolutionized warfare. The Chinese used explosives on a wide scale beginning in the tenth and eleventh centuries. The cannons, flamethrowers, and grenades that they used in battle were quickly adopted by European forces for battles on land and at sea. However, Europeans refined the applications of gunpowder and improved the devices that used gunpowder, producing weapons that dramatically transformed the nature of warfare.

Background

The formula for gunpowder is deceptively simple. It is formed from the...