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Background
It has been said that the ChineseWhen used as an adjective, Chinese refers to anything that originates from China, e. Chinese cuisine. When the word is used as a noun, it means one of the following: the Chinese language, either in general or specifically Chinese written language, Chinese invented gunpowder some time during the eleventh century, not for military purposes, but for children’s toys. Around three hundred years later, gunpowder was being used by the European nobles for primitive types of guns. These ironThis article is about metallic iron. For the ironing device, see ironing manganese iron cobalt Fe Ru Full table General Name, Symbol, Number iron, Fe, 26 Chemical series transition metal Group, Period, Block 8 (VIIIB), 4 , d Density, Hardness 7874 kg/m3, cannons were initially used in defense of castles, villages, and permanent military installations because they were too heavy to be moved around. Moveable cast-iron cannon were not built or implemented in warfare until the late fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. These large moveable cannons were used in such notable battles as the Siege of Constantinople by the Ottoman Turks in 1453 and also the later part of The Hundred Years War. As these cannons became lighter in weight and smaller in size, they were also placed aboard naval vessels for warfare on the seas. These large guns were very effective in laying down sieges when attempting to crush stone fortresses, but unfortunately took so much man power to set them up and operate them that they could only fire a few shots per day. By the late fifteenth century, the Spaniards revolutionized the infantry foot soldier by building the first personal firearm.
This first musket made warfare less glorious when compared to battles where good swordsmanship was crucial to victory. No longer were highly trained knights and nobles of the sword crucial for a king to have in his mercenary army. A highly trained swordsman, archer, and even cavalryman would later prove obsolete to an infantryman with a musket. Romanticized and glorious warfare, which the nobles prided themselves on, was one of the first few stages in eliminating their involvement in the military and later their power in government.
Feudal Monarchy to A Sovereign State----
No longer were kings almost forced to hire highly skilled swordsman to do their fighting if they wanted to win in battle. A standing army of infantrymen with muskets slowly eliminated the privately owned and operated armies of the nobles. Nobles then entered their king’s service as paid and permanent military leaders and commanders in service to the king fighting for only one country. Rather than relying on their old traditional role as vassals giving military service to the crown and then returning home when the battles were finished, these new nobles served for one state and its king with careers as military leaders. Now that nobles served in the kings permanent military, they ultimately lost their power to tax the people in their respective provinces. Taxation became the right of the sovereign state, the king, who also then became the only one allowed and also wealthy enough to wage war.
Warfare was a necessary part of a king’s rule in order to gain more lands and increase the size of his nation; therefore, taxation increased in order to fund the king’s newly formed standing army and military campaigns. Another reason for the nobles’ loss of military power may have also been that the new weaponry from the invention of gunpowder was extremely expensive. If the nobility were unable to purchase such weaponry and instead used their obsolete and outdated materials for warfare, the crown would not hire them to fight; modern artillery then became a monopoly of the crown. One of the first major conflicts where all major countries involved used foot soldiers with muskets and cavalry was the Thirty Years War.
Military strategy and tactics had to be changed immensely because of the direct effect gunpowder had on the battle field. During the Thirty Years War, it took time for the military leaders to realize that the art of warfare had changed dramatically in just a couple hundred years and older medieval tactics were obsolete when fighting with muskets. As history has shown us many times, even when new military weapons have been built, it always takes longer than it should to find and implement new tactics and strategies in order to use the new weaponry effectively. Napoleon Bonaparte was one man who would later show Europe and the world how to implement his artillery, cavalry, and infantry on the battlefield in an effective manner. This is not to say that no other leader before Napoleon used gunpowder weaponry effectively. Both King Philip and Queen Elizabeth were prime examples of how they used gunpowder to their advantage in warfare, but Napoleon implemented new tactics and strategies, further making modern artillery more effective. Since firing a musket could be done by less skilled soldiers, when compared to the old sword nobles, many lower class and peasantry served in the military as infantryman. Standing armies then became extremely large, with the ability to travel farther away from their central commander, the king.
Lasting Impact
As these newly formed sovereign states gained experience in warfare and in government, leaders began to realize that new tactics were essential on the battlefield. The feudal monarchies of the Middle Ages were very rapidly eliminated by the effects of gunpowder on warfare and government. This new invention can be credited with aiding in the formation of the European countries as we see them today. As countries began to become larger by the lands gained from victorious military campaigns, governments became increasingly centralized and more powerful over the people in their lands. People tried to associate themselves with countries who believed in the same religion, but the newly formed sovereign states many-of-times saw a divide country on the issue of religion as a weakness in the nation itself. Many times, these highly centralized sovereign states were less interested in the safety and success of the people living in their lands and more concerned with military victories and living lavishly. This military Revolution not only completely changed warfare, but also led to the development of sovereign states financially capable to take their influence world wide.
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