Firearms - Chase, Kenneth; - Prospero Internet Bookshop
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Firearms

A Global History to 1700
 
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Date of Publication:
 
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GBP 26.99
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Short description:

This book asks why Europeans perfected firearms when the Chinese had invented them by looking at how firearms were used throughout the world.

Long description:
This book is a history of firearms across the world from the 1100s up to the 1700s, from their invention in China to the time when European firearms had become clearly superior. It asks why it was the Europeans who perfected firearms when it was the Chinese who had invented them, and answers this question by looking at how firearms were used throughout the world. Early firearms were restricted to infantry and siege warfare, limiting their use outside of Europe and Japan. Steppe and desert nomads imposed a different style of warfare on the Middle East, India, and China - a style with which firearms were incompatible. By the time that better firearms allowed these regions to turn the tables on the nomads, Japan's self-imposed isolation left Europe with no rival in firearms design, production, or use, with consequences that are still with us today.

"The gun (cannon, musket, rifle, machinegun, etc.) has been the prime tool of war for most of a thousand years. The Chinese invented it, but it was the Europeans who refined it and made it an instrument of world hegemony. That mysterious migration of technology and obsession from east to west is the subject of Kenneth Chase's insightful book, along with what firearms did to and for Turks, Mughals, Japanese, and all the rest of us."
- Alfred W. Crosby, Professor Emeritus, University of Texas, Austin
Table of Contents:
Introduction: The Oikoumene; The Steppe; The Desert; Logistics; Cavalry; Firearms; China to 1500: The invention of firearms; The rise of the Ming; The Ming military; The Hongwu campaigns; The Yongle campaigns; Vietnam; The South Seas; Tumu; Europe: The introduction of firearms; Sieges and battles; Geography; Guns and horses; Guns and ships; Guns and bows; Eastern Europe; The Americas; Western Islamdom: Turkey; The Ottoman military; The Balkans; The Mediterranean; Ottoman success; Egypt; The Mamluk military; Mamluk warfare; Marj Dabiq; Mamluk failure; The Maghrib; Sub-Saharan Africa; Eastern Islamdom: Iran; The Safavid military; Azarbayjan; Khurasan; Safavid success or failure?; India; The Afghans; The Mughals; The Portuguese; Southeast Asia; China From 1500: Foreign firearms; New Chinese firearms; Institutional change; Japanese pirates; The Great Wall; Wagons; The fall of the Ming; The Qing dynasty; Korea and Japan: Korea; Japan; Tanegashima; Nobunaga; Unification; The first invasion of Korea; The Korean response; The second invasion of Korea; The Tokugawa; Conclusion: Firearms after 1700; The world after 1700; Wagons and pikes; Firearms and nomads.