Description or summary of the book: Weapons and Warfare in Renaissance Europe explores the history of gunpowder in Europe from the thirteenth century, when it was first imported from China, to the sixteenth century, as firearms became central to the conduct of war. Bridging the fields of military history and the history of technology-and challenging past assumptions about Europe's 'gunpowder revolution'-Hall discovers a complex and fascinating story. Military inventors faced a host of challenges, he finds, from Europe's lack of naturally occurring saltpeter-one of gunpowder's major components-to the limitations of smooth-bore firearms. Manufacturing cheap, reliable gunpowder proved a difficult feat, as did making firearms that had reasonably predictable performance characteristics. Hall details the efforts of armorers across Europe as they experimented with a variety of gunpowder recipes and gunsmithing techniques, and he examines the integration of new weapons into the existing structure of European warfare.
Estimated reading time (average reader): 14H7M59S
Other categories, genre or collection: Military History, Weapons & Equipment, Military Engineering, Development Economics, Early History: C 500 To C 1450/1500, History Of Science, European History, Early Modern History: C 1450/1500 To C 1700
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