Firearms: A Global History to 1700

by Kenneth Chase

• ISBN13: 9780521722407
• ISBN10: 0521722403
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2008-02-11
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

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.

Author Biography

Kenneth Chase is an attorney at the law firm of Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen and Hamilton

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	p. xii
Preface	p. xiii
Introduction	p. 1
The Oikoumene	p. 6
The Steppe	p. 8
The Desert	p. 12
Logistics	p. 16
Cavalry	p. 19
Firearms	p. 23
China to 1500	p. 28
The Invention of Firearms	p. 30
The Rise of the Ming	p. 33
The Ming Military	p. 35
The Hongwu Campaigns	p. 41
The Yongle Campaigns	p. 43
Vietnam	p. 47
The South Seas	p. 49
Tumu	p. 52
Europe	p. 56
The Introduction of Firearms	p. 58
Sieges and Battles	p. 61
Geography	p. 65
Guns and Horses	p. 68
Guns and Ships	p. 70
Guns and Bows	p. 73
Eastern Europe	p. 76
The Americas	p. 80
Western Islamdom	p. 83
Turkey	p. 84
The Ottoman Military	p. 86
The Balkans	p. 89
The Mediterranean	p. 93
Ottoman Success	p. 95
Egypt	p. 98
The Mamluk Military	p. 100
Border Wars	p. 101
Marj Dabiq	p. 104
Mamluk Failure	p. 106
The Maghrib	p. 107
Sub-Saharan Africa	p. 109
Eastern Islamdom	p. 112
Iran	p. 113
The Safavid Military	p. 115
Azarbayjan	p. 119
Khurasan	p. 122
Safavid Success or Failure?	p. 125
India	p. 127
The Afghans	p. 129
The Mughals	p. 131
The Portuguese	p. 134
Southeast Asia	p. 136
China from 1500	p. 141
Foreign Firearms	p. 142
New Chinese Firearms	p. 145
Institutional Change	p. 150
Japanese Pirates	p. 154
The Great Wall	p. 158
Wagons	p. 162
The Fall of the Ming	p. 166
The Conquest of the Steppe	p. 169
Korea and Japan	p. 172
Korea	p. 172
Japan	p. 175
Tanegashima	p. 178
Nobunaga	p. 180
Unification	p. 183
The First Invasion of Korea	p. 186
The Korean Response	p. 188
The Second Invasion of Korea	p. 190
The Tokugawa	p. 193
Conclusion	p. 197
Firearms after 1700	p. 199
The World after 1700	p. 202
Wagons and Pikes	p. 205
Firearms and Nomads	p. 207
Notes	p. 211
Bibliography	p. 257
Index	p. 285
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