gunpowder

Examples of gunpowder in the following topics:

• Expansion Throughout Central and Western Asia

  • Under Genghis Khan, the Mongols, who began using catapaults and gunpowder in their invasions, conquered the Kara-Khitan Khanate and the Khwarazmian Empire.
  • The Mongol tactics were precise and often brutally efficient, including heavy cavalry, siege tactics, and even gunpowder weapons.
  • The Chinese may have used these same catapults to hurl gunpowder bombs.
  • In fact, historians have suggested that the Mongol invasion brought Chinese gunpowder weapons to Central Asia.
  • The earliest known written formula for gunpowder, from the Chinese Wujing Zongyao, a military compendium, of 1044 CE.

• Technological Advancements under the Song

  • The application of new weapons using gunpowder enabled the Song to ward off its militant enemies—the Liao, Western Xia, and Jin—with weapons such as cannons until its collapse to the Mongol forces of Kublai Khan in the late 13th century.
  • Advancements in weapons technology enhanced by gunpowder, including the evolution of the early flamethrower, explosive grenade, firearm, cannon, and land mine, enabled the Song Chinese to ward off their militant enemies until the Song's ultimate collapse in the late 13th century.
  • The Wujing Zongyao manuscript of 1044 was the first book in history to provide formulas for gunpowder and their specified use in different types of bombs.
  • In turn, the invading Mongols employed northern Chinese soldiers and used this same type of gunpowder weapons against the Song.
  • By the 14th century the firearm and cannon could also be found in Europe, India, and the Islamic Middle East, during the early age of gunpowder warfare.

• The Southern Song Era

  • During these battles the Song navy employed swift paddle-wheel driven naval vessels armed with trebuchet catapults aboard the decks that launched gunpowder bombs.
  • Battles between the Song and Jin brought about the introduction of various gunpowder weapons.
  • There were also reports of battles fought with primitive gunpowder bombs like the incendiary huopao or the exploding tiehuopao, flammable arrows, and other related weapons.

• Nitrogen Compounds

  • One of the earliest uses of a nitrogen compound as an explosive was potassium nitrate, also called saltpeter, used in gunpowder.
  • Potassium nitrate, or saltpeter, was a constituent of early gunpowder.

• Lexington and Concord

  • Both the British and the rebels in New England began to prepare for conflict by turning their attention to supplies of weapons and gunpowder.
  • General Gage stationed 3,500 troops in Boston, and from there he ordered periodic raids on towns where guns and gunpowder were stockpiled, hoping to impose law and order by seizing them.

• Dover Castle in England

  • By the Tudor age, the defenses themselves had been superseded by gunpowder.

• The Silk Road

  • Gunpowder hastened the failing integration, and the Silk Road stopped being a shipping route for silk around 1453 CE.

• The Mongols in Eastern Europe

  • The Mongols had acquired Chinese gunpowder, which they deployed in battle during the invasion of Europe to great success, in the form of bombs hurled via catapults.
  • The Mongols have been credited for introducing gunpowder and associated weapons into Europe.

• The Storming of the Bastille

  • The commandant at the Invalides had in the previous few days taken the precaution of transferring 250 barrels of gunpowder to the Bastille for safer storage.
  • The crowd gathered outside around mid-morning, calling for the surrender of the prison, the removal of the cannon, and the release of the arms and gunpowder.

• The First Stuarts and Catholicism

  • On the eve of the state opening of the parliamentary session on November 5, 1605, a soldier called Guy Fawkes was discovered in the cellars of the parliament buildings guarding a pile of slaves, not far from about twenty barrels of gunpowder with which he intended to blow up Parliament House the following day and cause the destruction. 
  • A Catholic conspiracy led by a disaffected gentleman called Robert Catesby, the Gunpowder Plot, as it quickly became known, had in fact been discovered in advance of Fawkes's arrest and deliberately allowed to mature in order to catch the culprits red-handed and the plotters unawares.