Summary of Tonio Andrade's The Gunpowder Age

Everest Media

Description

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book.
Sample Book Insights:
#1 The story of gunpowder’s development into a deadly technology is a vital part of global history. It’s also fascinating and bizarre. Early gunpowder weapons were not like the weapons we think we know, such as cannons and muskets.
#2 The Chinese were the first to experiment with gunpowder weapons, and it was during this period that the process of developing new weapons took place. The Song Dynasty, 960-1279, saw the most momentous developments in military technology in human history until the twentieth century.
#3 The Song dynasty was a time of efflorescence in China, and the city of Kaifeng was the largest in the world. The Song developed an advanced monetary system that allowed their citizens to spend their cash on a wide variety of goods and services.
#4 The Song dynasty in China was home to many technological advances, from the magnetic compass to the toothbrush. The people of the Song may have even become anatomically modern before other people.

Sujets

• China
• Asia
• History
• Histoire

Informations

• Publié par: Everest Media LLC
• Date de parution: 26 mai 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9798822522749
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Insights on Tonio Andrade's The Gunpowder Age
Contents Insights from Chapter 1 Insights from Chapter 2 Insights from Chapter 3 Insights from Chapter 4
Insights from Chapter 1

#1

The story of gunpowder’s development into a deadly technology is a vital part of global history. It’s also fascinating and bizarre. Early gunpowder weapons were not like the weapons we think we know, such as cannons and muskets.

#2

The Chinese were the first to experiment with gunpowder weapons, and it was during this period that the process of developing new weapons took place. The Song Dynasty, 960-1279, saw the most momentous developments in military technology in human history until the twentieth century.

#3

The Song dynasty was a time of efflorescence in China, and the city of Kaifeng was the largest in the world. The Song developed an advanced monetary system that allowed their citizens to spend their cash on a wide variety of goods and services.

#4

The Song dynasty in China was home to many technological advances, from the magnetic compass to the toothbrush. The people of the Song may have even become anatomically modern before other people.

#5

The Song was the most developed country in the world, but it did not achieve hegemony in East Asia. The Song faced four primary foes: the Mongol Empire, which didn’t just overpower the Song, but its conquests stretched from Kiev to Baghdad, Kabul to Kaifeng.

#6

The Song dynasty, which ruled China from 960 to 1127, was unable to defeat its neighbors. This was not a sign of weakness, but of dynamism. The Song was constantly in communication with its neighbors, and Chinese culture was shared among all the states.

#7

The Song dynasty was established in 960, and it was extremely stable, which allowed for dynamism. The European state system was conducive to dynamism because the states were balanced against each other, which drove innovation.

#8

The Song Warring States Period was similar to the original Warring States Period in that it was a long-term state system, and it was similar in terms of geopolitical fragmentation to the European warring states period of 1450 to 1945. It was one of the most stable periods of non-unity in Chinese history.

#9

The challenge and response dynamic, which is caused by military rivalry, is present in the Song Warring States Period. States that survive a bout of warfare learn a bit, alter their technological and organizational structures, and then apply the lessons the next time they fight.

#10

The first effective formulas for gunpowder were recorded in the ninth century. They were called fire medicines, and they were used to make medicines. It was difficult to combine the ingredients in the correct proportions and form them into granules.

#11

The Chinese scholars who made the gunpowder mixtures used them to make batches of gunpowder, and although they found that the mixtures worked well, they were difficult to set alight. They needed a red-hot iron rod to do so.

#12

The use of gunpowder in warfare began during the Song dynasty. In 970, a military man named Feng Jisheng was sent by the head of a weapons manufacturing bureau to demonstrate for the emperor a new type of gunpowder arrow. The experiment succeeded and the inventor was rewarded handsomely.

#13

The Song dynasty made the manufacture of gunpowder weapons a part of its official armament policy. The Jin state, which rose in 1115, took experimentation with gunpowder weapons very seriously. They defeated the Liao in engagement after engagement, and captured the Liao Eastern Capital in 1116, the Liao Supreme Capital in 1120, and the Liao Central Capital in 1122.

#14

The Jin rulers saw no reason to stop expanding, and in 1126 they attacked the Song capital of Kaifeng. The Song defenders used gunpowder weapons, and the Jin were forced to withdraw. The Song fled southward, eventually establishing a new capital in today’s Hangzhou.

#15

The first detailed descriptions of the fire lance’s use come from an account of the Siege of De’an in 1132. Chen Gui, the prefect of the city, prepared carefully. He ordered the construction of defensive structures on top of the walls to hide his troops’ activities and protect them against enemy arrows and catapult rocks.

#16

The enemy was forced to start over. They fireproofed their moat-filling materials with a layer of bricks and mud, but eventually they realized that the moats had been filled in enough. The sky bridges began rolling toward the walls, escorted by soldiers with lances.

#17

A more detailed firsthand account of the battle reveals a different interpretation of the use of the fire lances. They were not used to burn the sky bridges, but to drive away the porters who were pulling them and the troops who were within them.

#18

The use of explosive bombs was a new threshold was reached in the early 1200s, and they became devastating weapons. In 1159, a Song fleet of 120 ships caught a Jin sea fleet at anchor near a place called Shijiu Island, and the Song commander ordered that gunpowder arrows be shot from all sides, and wherever they struck, flames and smoke rose up in swirls, setting fire to several hundred vessels.

#19

The Song defenders used thunderclap bombs to drive back a major Jin cavalry attack in 1206. The bombs played a key role in the Song victory, but were they true explosives. The term thunderclap bomb had appeared previously, most notably in the Wu jing zong yao of 1044, but in that text it refers to a pseudo-explosive.

#20

The first evidence of the iron bomb’s use in battle comes fourteen years after the Siege of Xiangyang, when the Jin besieged the Song city of Qizhou in 1221. The Jin artillerists were remarkably accurate, and their bombs blew apart houses, battered down towers, and blasted defenders from walls.

#21

The rise of the Mongols was a key event in the evolution of gunpowder technology. Their wars spread gunpowder technology westward. The Mongols had a chance to learn about gunpowder weapons from the Jin dynasty, but they never did.

#22

The Mongols used gunpowder weapons during the Siege of Kaifeng in 1232. The Jin responded by using gunpowder weapons of their own, including a new and improved version of the fire lance.

#23

The Song dynasty, which was supposedly weak, held off the Mongols for forty-five years.