Front cover image for Firearms : a global history to 1700

Firearms : a global history to 1700

Kenneth Chase traces the history of firearms from their invention in China in the 1100s to the 1700s, when European firearms had become clearly superior. In Firearms, Chase asks why it was the Europeans who perfected firearms, not the Chinese, 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 incompatible with firearms. 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 lasting consequences. After earning his doctorate from Harvard in the area of East Asian Languages and Civilizations and traveling extensively in Asia, Kenneth Chase pursued a career in the law. His interest in history endures unabated, however, and after nine years of research on firearms, he is now working on a history of international trade in the Indian Ocean region in the 1300s and 1400s
Print Book, English, 2003
Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, 2003
History
xvii, 290 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm
9780521822749, 9780521722407, 0521822742, 0521722403
51022846
Oikoumene
Steppe
Desert
Logistics
Cavalry
Firearms
China to 1500: Invention of firearms
Rise of the Ming
Ming military
Hongwu campaigns
Yongle campaigns
Vietnam
South Seas
Tumu
Europe: Introduction of firearms
Sieges and battles
Geography
Guns and horses
Guns and ships
Guns and bows
Eastern Europe
Americas
Western Islamdom: Turkey
Ottoman military
Balkans
Mediterranean
Ottoman success
Egypt
Mamluk military
Mamluk warfare
Marj Dabiq
Mamluk failure
Maghrib
Sub-Saharan Africa
Eastern Islamdom: Iran
Safavid military
Azarbayjan
KhurasanSafavid success or failure?
India
Afghans
Mughals
Portuguese
Southeast Asia
China from 1500: Foreign firearms
New Chinese firearms
Institutional change
Japanese pirates
Great Wall
Wagons
Fall of the Ming
Qing dynasty
Korea and Japan: Korea
Japan
Tanegashima
Nobunaga
Unification
First invasion of Korea
Korean response
Second invasion of Korea
Tokugawa
Conclusion: Firearms after 1700
World after 1700
Wagons and pikes
Firearms and nomads