Download or read book The Artillery of the Dukes of Burgundy 1363 1477 written by Robert Douglas Smith and published by Boydell Press. This book was released on 2005 with total page 406 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A major new exploration of the history and development of gunpowder weapons in the 15th century based on the artillery of the Dukes of Burgundy. The four Valois Dukes of Burgundy created, in little more than a century, a fabulously wealthy and independent state. Their centralised control and chancellery have bequeathed to us a vast treasure trove of documents, including accounts and inventories of the Masters of the artillery under the later Dukes. Although many of these were extracted and transcribed in the late nineteenth century, modern historians have largely ignored their unprecedented insights into fifteenth-century guns and their use. When Charles the Bold, the last Valois Duke, took on the combined Swiss confederate forces in 1476 he lost not just the battles and his personal fortune, but much of his artillerytrain as well. Of the dozens of cannons captured, at least 25 pieces survive in Swiss museums. The documents that survive from the Valois state give us, almost for the first time in medieval Europe, the ability to see the course of history in a period when Europe was undergoing some of the most profound changes before the 20th century. The Artillery of the Dukes of Burgundy is the first attempt to combine all these sources, bringing newand fresh insights into the development and use of artillery in the fifteenth century. Moreover this is the first modern study of medieval cannon, one of the most important discoveries of the post-classical world. KELLY DeVRIES has authored numerous books and articles on medieval warfare. ROBERT DOUGLAS SMITH formerly Head of Conservation in the Royal Armouries, Tower of London, is an acknowledged expert on medieval artillery. This study is thefirst major fruit of their combined researches.
Download or read book The Gunpowder Age written by Tonio Andrade and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2017-08-29 with total page 444 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A first look at gunpowder's revolutionary impact on China's role in global history The Chinese invented gunpowder and began exploring its military uses as early as the 900s, four centuries before the technology passed to the West. But by the early 1800s, China had fallen so far behind the West in gunpowder warfare that it was easily defeated by Britain in the Opium War of 1839–42. What happened? In The Gunpowder Age, Tonio Andrade offers a compelling new answer, opening a fresh perspective on a key question of world history: why did the countries of western Europe surge to global importance starting in the 1500s while China slipped behind? Historians have long argued that gunpowder weapons helped Europeans establish global hegemony. Yet the inhabitants of what is today China not only invented guns and bombs but also, as Andrade shows, continued to innovate in gunpowder technology through the early 1700s—much longer than previously thought. Why, then, did China become so vulnerable? Andrade argues that one significant reason is that it was out of practice fighting wars, having enjoyed nearly a century of relative peace, since 1760. Indeed, he demonstrates that China—like Europe—was a powerful military innovator, particularly during times of great warfare, such as the violent century starting after the Opium War, when the Chinese once again quickly modernized their forces. Today, China is simply returning to its old position as one of the world's great military powers. By showing that China’s military dynamism was deeper, longer lasting, and more quickly recovered than previously understood, The Gunpowder Age challenges long-standing explanations of the so-called Great Divergence between the West and Asia.
Download or read book Gunpowder Explosives and the State written by Brenda J. Buchanan and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-12-05 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Gunpowder studies are still in their infancy despite the long-standing civil and military importance of this explosive since its discovery in China in the mid-ninth century AD. In this second volume by contributors who meet regularly at symposia of the International Committee for the History of Technology (ICOHTEC), the research is again rooted in the investigation of the technology of explosives manufacture, but the fact that the chapters range in scope from the Old World to the New, from sources of raw materials in south-east Asia to the complications of manufacture in the West, shows that the story is more than the simple one of how an intriguing product was made. This volume is the first to develop the implications of the subject, not just in the sense of relating it to changing military technologies, but in that of seeing the securing of gunpowder supplies as fundamental to the power of the state and imperial pretensions.The search for saltpetre, for example, an essential ingredient of gunpowder, became a powerful engine of sea-going European trade from the early seventeenth century. Smaller states like Venice were unable to form these distant connections, and so to sustain a gunpowder army. Stronger states like France and Britain were able to do so, and became even more powerful as the demand for improved explosives fostered national strengths - leading to a development of the sciences, especially chemistry, in the former case, and of manufacturing techniques in the latter.
Download or read book Materializing the Military written by Bernard S. Finn and published by National Museum of Science and Industry. This book was released on 2005 with total page 204 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Artefacts is a book series in which the editors encourage authors to use objects as evidence for their studies of the history of science and technology. In Materializing the Military, with its focus on military technology, the results are innovative and provocative. Topics as diverse as fourteenth-century Burgundian artillery and twentieth-century US Army Air Corps sextants, uniforms for volunteers and prosthetics for the disabled, the material culture of warfare and the cultural implications of the material relics of warfare are all given new meaning through interpretation based on examining the objects themselves, as witnessed by the generous use of photographs of the artefacts. Also included is an essay on the specific problems of presenting military history through the use of objects in military collections, together with an annotated list of selected military, naval and air museums. Authors, who are from academic institutions and museums, bring a variety or perspectives to these writings from such disciplinary backgrounds as archaeology, museum studies, military history and the history of medicine, as well as the history of science and technology.This book will appeal to serious students of military history, to curators and others in all museums of the history of science and technology, as well as specifically military museums. Nevertheless, the level of writing and the subjects covered should also make it valuable to a range of amateur historians interested in these subjects.
Download or read book Guns and Men in Medieval Europe 1200 1500 written by Kelly DeVries and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2002 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Kelly DeVries's study of medieval warfare is focused upon the men and technology of the day. He discusses the evolution of technological warfare and associated areas including surgery, metallurgy, and the centralization of government.
Download or read book Nineteenth Century Short title Catalogue phase 1 1816 1870 written by and published by . This book was released on 1984 with total page 628 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Science and Civilisation in China Part 7 Military Technology The Gunpowder Epic written by Joseph Needham and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1987-01-22 with total page 838 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Gunpowder Epic is one of three planned publications on military technology within Dr Needham's immense undertaking. The discovery of gunpowder in China by the 9th century AD was followed by its rapid applications. It is now clear that the whole development from bombs and grenades to the invention of the metal-barrel hand gun took place in the Chinese culture area before Europeans had any knowledge of the mixture itself. Uses in civil engineering and mechanical engineering were equally important, before the knowledge of gunpowder spread to Europe in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Dr Needham's new work continues to demonstrate the major importance of Chinese science and technology to world history and maintains the tradition of one of the great scholarly works of the twentieth century.
Download or read book written by Joseph Needham and published by . This book was released on 1954 with total page 752 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For contents, see Author Catalog.
Download or read book Arrian s History of Alexander s Expedition written by Arrian and published by . This book was released on 1814 with total page 520 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Business History of the World written by and published by Greenwood. This book was released on 1993-10-25 with total page 584 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first chronology of worldwide business history, this volume complements Robinson's earlier chronology, United States Business History, 1602-1988. It provides a basic chronology of the business world outside the United States from prehistory through the 1980s. It records representative events in the evolution of business, identifying entrepreneurs, managers, and enterprises, and also records general background events relevant to the marketplace. The volume includes indexes of names, places, and subjects.
Download or read book Chambers Book of Facts written by and published by . This book was released on 2007 with total page 992 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Nowhere else can such a wealth of facts and figures be found in one conveniently sized book. Chambers Book of Facts is the most up-to-date, reliable source of facts and figures available, with over 160,000 facts covering all fields of inquiry, including history, science, arts and culture, sports, and more. Additional resources such as mini-biographies provide a depth of information not found in other almanacs or fact-finders. This accessible reference will satisfy the needs of readers looking for quick answers and invite more leisurely browsing through its fascinating pages. - 600 headings covering 280 fields of interest - Up-to-date and easy to use, with an index for quick and easy reference - An indispensable aid to the trivia buff and the crossword-puzzle solver
Download or read book Medicine in the Middle Ages written by Ian Dawson and published by Enchanted Lion Books. This book was released on 2005 with total page 70 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Learn about how medicine was practiced long ago.
Download or read book When Where why how it Happened written by Reader's Digest Association and published by . This book was released on 1993 with total page 452 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: History's most dramatic events ... and how they changed the world.
Download or read book The United States Army and Navy Journal and Gazette of the Regular and Volunteer Forces written by and published by . This book was released on 1906 with total page 528 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Academic American Encyclopedia written by and published by . This book was released on 1996 with total page 432 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Great Pestilence A D 1348 9 Now Commonly Known as the Black Death written by Francis Aidan Gasquet and published by DigiCat. This book was released on 2022-08-15 with total page 199 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: DigiCat Publishing presents to you this special edition of "The Great Pestilence (A.D. 1348-9), Now Commonly Known as the Black Death" by Francis Aidan Gasquet. DigiCat Publishing considers every written word to be a legacy of humankind. Every DigiCat book has been carefully reproduced for republishing in a new modern format. The books are available in print, as well as ebooks. DigiCat hopes you will treat this work with the acknowledgment and passion it deserves as a classic of world literature.
Download or read book A List of the Early Settlers of Georgia written by Ellis Merton Coulter and published by Genealogical Publishing Com. This book was released on 1983 with total page 126 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Information pertaining to each settler consists, generally, of name, age, occupation, place of origin, names of spouse, children and other family members, dates of embarkation and arrival, place of settlement, and date of death. In addition, some of the more notorious aspects of the settlers' lives are recounted in brief, telltale sketches.
