History of Gunpowder essays

History of Gunpowder essays It could easily be argued that one of the most important inventions or discoveries in history has been gunpowder. And there are many things that can be argued about gunpowder itself. Such as where was it originated, when was it originated, and how did it spread across the world. These are three questions I will be looking at in this paper. However the purpose of this paper is to prove that gunpowder gave rise to the powerful western world while it inevitably left the China and the Eastern World behind. It is generally determined that the discoverers of gunpowder were the Chinese. As early as in the T'ang dynasty (AD 618-906) there seem to have existed what were called "fire trees" and "silver flowers." Chinese legend has it that some herdsmen who were trying to keep warm saw their campfire leap and fizzle around like a torch. They soon discovered that the fire pit was built on sulfur with a rock containing potassium perchlorate, the ingredients of gunpowder. This soon became a common mixture to make fire. To transport the mixture with so much firepower, the herdsman used a hollow bamboo stick with mud at both ends. The stick, accidentally fell into a fire and exploded with a bang. Thus the fire trees and silver flowers were born. Later on in the year 1161, when the Chinese were suffering invasion from the Chin Tatars from the north some historical documents state that they successfully used explosives to defeat their attackers. This seems to be definite proof of a knowledge of gunpowder among the Chinese at this period. However there has been considerable argument as to whether these references to explosives indicate that the Chinese knew about the use of a cannon and also if the explosives were in fact gunpowder. Chinese records state that when the Mongols laid siege to the North China city of Kaifeng in 1232, the people within the city terrified the Mongols with ...