Gunpowder - Couverture rigide

Ponting, Clive

Couverture rigide

ISBN 10 : 0701177527 ISBN 13 : 9780701177522

Editeur : Chatto & Windus, 2005

Synopsis

The formula for gunpowder was discovered in China in 800 AD. Known as 'fire-drug', its origin was the alchemists' search for an immortality elixir, and it was initially a medicine not an explosive; but the Chinese went on to develop every type of weapon that ever used gunpowder - incendiaries, bombs, rockets, cannon and hand-held guns - as well as fireworks. For 400 years, the Chinese kept gunpowder to themselves, until a Mongol soldier leaked the secret to the Islamic world. The Ottoman empire was built on gunpowder, after the spectacular capture of Constantinople using new siege tactics, while the Moghuls conquered India with muskets and artillery mounted on 700 carts held together with ox-harnesses. The use of gunpowder in Europe was inhibited by a shortage of saltpetre, but archers soon gave way to gunners, while gunpowder destroyed the last vestiges of feudalism and changed the balance of power in the medieval world. Small groups of Europeans with guns, rapidly subdued vast numbers of first native defenders in the New World, while in the Far East Japanese, muskets and cannons defeated the Koreans on land, but the Korean armoured ships were triumphant at sea.

A propos du livre

À propos de l'auteur

Clive Ponting was until very recently Reader in the department of politics and international relations at the University of Wales, Swansea. His Green History of the World was an international bestseller, and he is the author of The Pimlico History of the Twentieth Century and World History: a new perspective. His books on military history include The Crimean War: the truth behind the myth, Thirteen Days: the road to the first world war, and Armageddon, an analysis of the second world war. He has just moved to a Greek island, where he has built a house with views of 365 degrees.

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: Chatto & Windus
• Date d'édition: 2005
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 0701177527
• ISBN 13: 9780701177522
• Reliure: Relié
• Nombre de pages: 272
• Coordonnées du fabricant: non disponible
• Personne responsable: non disponible