History of gunpowder

Gunpowder was the first explosive ever created in the world. It is one of China's famous "Four Great Inventions" and was first made during the late Tang dynasty in the 9th century. The earliest written recipe for gunpowder appeared later, in the Song dynasty during the 11th century.

Soon after its invention, knowledge of gunpowder spread quickly across Eurasia, helped by events like the Mongol conquests. By the 13th century, people in the Middle East and Europe had begun using gunpowder in weapons. At first, it was used in things like fire arrows, bombs, and the fire lance, before guns were developed.

Gunpowder changed warfare forever. It led to the creation of large artillery pieces called bombards in the 15th century and helped firearms become the main weapons in Europe by the 17th century. As cannons became stronger, new types of forts like the star fort were built because old city walls could no longer protect cities.

Though gunpowder was later replaced by smokeless powder in the 19th century, it remained important for things like fireworks, mining, and building tunnels. Today, gunpowder is often called black powder to differ it from the materials used in modern guns.

Chinese beginnings

Gunpowder was invented in China during the first millennium AD. The earliest reference to gunpowder appeared in 142 AD during the Eastern Han dynasty when alchemist Wei Boyang wrote about a substance with gunpowder-like properties. At this time, saltpeter was produced in Hanzhong, but would later shift to Gansu and Sichuan.

Taoist alchemists continued to play a major role in gunpowder development due to their experiments with sulfur and saltpeter. The next reference to gunpowder occurred in the year 300 during the Jin dynasty. A Taoist philosopher named Ge Hong wrote down the ingredients of gunpowder in his surviving works.

The first confirmed references to gunpowder in China occurred during the Tang dynasty in Taoist texts. The first formula was a combination of six parts sulfur to six parts saltpeter to one part birthwort herb. Alchemists called this discovery fire medicine, and the term has continued to refer to gunpowder in China into the present day.

The earliest surviving chemical formula of gunpowder dates to 1044 in the military manual Wujing Zongyao, which contains a collection of entries on Chinese weaponry. These types of gunpowder weapons had odd names such as "flying incendiary club for subjugating demons" and "caltrop fire ball". Eventually they gave way to a smaller number of dominant weapon types, notably gunpowder arrows, bombs, and early guns.

Fire arrows

The early gunpowder formula contained too little saltpeter to be explosive, but the mixture was highly flammable. One of the first weapons was the fire arrow. The first possible reference to the use of fire arrows was by the Southern Wu in 904. Arrows carrying gunpowder were possibly the most applicable form of gunpowder weaponry at the time.

Rockets

The first fire arrows were arrows strapped with gunpowder incendiaries, but they eventually became gunpowder propelled projectiles (rockets). It’s not certain when this happened. In 969, two Song generals invented a variant fire arrow which used gunpowder tubes as propellants. These fire arrows were shown to the emperor in 970.

In 975, the state of Wuyue sent to the Song dynasty a unit of soldiers skilled in the handling of fire arrows and in the same year, the Song used fire arrows to destroy the fleet of Southern Tang. In 994, the Liao dynasty attacked the Song and laid siege to Zitong with 100,000 troops. They were repelled with the aid of fire arrows.

Explosives

Gunpowder bombs had been mentioned since the 11th century. In 1000 AD, a soldier demonstrated a design of a proto-bomb and other weaponry. In the military text Wujing Zongyao of 1044, bombs such as the "ten-thousand fire flying sand magic bomb" and "burning heaven fierce fire unstoppable bomb" were mentioned.

Fire lance

The Song relocated their capital and the fighting that ensued would see the first proto-gun, the fire lance, in action – with earliest confirmed employment by Song dynasty forces in 1132.

Naval bombs

Gunpowder technology also spread to naval warfare and in 1129 Song decreed that all warships were to be fitted with trebuchets for hurling gunpowder bombs. In 1159 a Song fleet caught a Jin fleet at anchor. The Song commander ordered that gunpowder arrows be shot from all sides. Song forces took another victory in 1161 when Song paddle boats ambushed a Jin transport fleet, launched thunderclap bombs, and drowned the Jin force.

Hard-shell explosives

The iron bomb made its first appearance in 1221 at the siege of Qizhou, and this time it would be the Jin who possessed the technological advantage.

Hand cannon

The early fire lance is not considered a true gun because it did not include projectiles. In 1259 a type of "fire-emitting lance" made an appearance and according to the History of Song: "It is made from a large bamboo tube, and inside is stuffed a pellet wad. Once the fire goes off it completely spews the rear pellet wad forth, and the sound is like a bomb that can be heard for five hundred or more paces."

Archaeological samples of the gun, specifically the hand cannon, have been dated starting from the 13th century. The oldest extant gun whose dating is unequivocal is the Xanadu Gun because it contains an inscription describing its date of manufacture corresponding to 1298.

Use by the Mongols

The Mongols and their conflicts with the Jin and Song dynasties helped shape the growth of gunpowder technology. They often used experts from other places, including China, who brought their knowledge of gunpowder. Though there are not many written records from the Mongols themselves, some believe they played a big role in spreading gunpowder across Eurasia. Others think this idea is not fully proven.

The Mongols attacked the Jin dynasty starting in 1211 and fully took over by 1234. During a big attack on the city of Kaifeng in 1232, they used gunpowder weapons. The Jin people defended themselves with their own gunpowder bombs and special arrows. These bombs were very loud and could cause big damage, sometimes turning people to ashes.

The Mongols also fought against the Song dynasty. In 1237, they attacked a city called Anfeng and used large gunpowder bombs to break down the city’s defenses. The Song soldiers fought back with their own bombs. Later, during a very long siege of Xiangyang from 1268 to 1273, both sides used many types of gunpowder weapons.

Gunpowder weapons continued to be used in battles across Europe, Japan, and Southeast Asia. In Japan, paintings and writings from the time show that bombs were used during battles with the Mongols. In Java, the Mongols also brought many gunpowder weapons, which may have helped improve local weapon technology.

Historiography of gunpowder and gun transmission

Main article: Historiography of gunpowder and gun transmission

Most historians agree that gunpowder was first made in China. However, some people think it might have been invented in Europe, the Middle East, or India instead. Those who doubt the Chinese origin point out that Chinese records are not very clear about using gunpowder in weapons. They also say that early Chinese guns were small and not very reliable. Some even suggest that guns might have been developed first in Europe.

Supporters of the Chinese origin say there is little evidence that anyone else was experimenting with gunpowder before the Chinese. When gunpowder appeared in Europe, it was already ready to be used in wars, without the many years of testing that happened in China. Early European gunpowder recipes had the same mistakes as Chinese ones. Some words for gunpowder-related things in Muslim countries even sound like Chinese words. Europeans also had a hard time getting one of the main ingredients, which was scarce in Europe. Many believe that knowledge of making guns came directly from China to Europe, rather than being invented separately.

Spread throughout Eurasia and Africa

Gunpowder, the first explosive created, was invented in China during the 9th century. Its earliest recorded formula appeared in the 11th century. Knowledge of gunpowder spread quickly across Eurasia, possibly due to Mongol conquests in the 13th century. Written formulas for gunpowder appeared in the Middle East between 1240 and 1280, and in Europe by 1267.

In the Middle East, the Muslim world learned about gunpowder after 1240. By the late 13th century, Hasan al-Rammah wrote in Arabic about recipes for gunpowder and instructions for purifying saltpeter. Early Muslim sources suggest this knowledge came from China, perhaps through Mongol invaders. Arabic texts referred to saltpeter as "Chinese snow" and fireworks as "Chinese flowers."

In Europe, the earliest mention of gunpowder was by Roger Bacon in 1267. He described a firecracker toy found worldwide. The oldest European recipes for gunpowder appeared between 1280 and 1300. The first known European depiction of a gun was in 1326. By the 1320s, guns began spreading across Europe, and by the late 14th century, they became common in battles.

In Southeast Asia, gunpowder reached the Ayutthaya Kingdom by 1352. The Mongol invasion of Java in 1293 also brought gunpowder to the region. In India, gunpowder technology likely arrived by the mid-14th century, possibly through the Mongols. Korea began producing gunpowder in the 1370s and developed rockets and cannons. Japan first learned of gunpowder around 1270, but widespread use began after Portuguese matchlocks arrived in 1543.

In Africa, the Adal Empire and the Abyssinian Empire used gunpowder weapons during their wars. The Adalites were the first to introduce cannons to Africa, imported from Arabia and the Islamic world.

Transition to early modern warfare

Further information: Early modern warfare

Early Ming firearms

Main article: Gunpowder weapons in the Ming dynasty

Further information: Huolongjing and Wubei Zhi

Gun development in China continued strongly during the Ming dynasty. The founder, Zhu Yuanzhang, who began his rule as the Hongwu era or "Great Martiality," is often credited with this success because of his smart use of guns.

Most early Ming guns were small, weighing two to three kilograms, while larger guns at the time weighed about seventy-five kilograms. These guns could shoot stones and iron balls but were mainly used against people rather than for breaking ships or walls. They were not very accurate and could only reach about 50 paces.

Even with their small size, some designs of Ming gunpowder weapons followed global trends. The length-to-bore ratio of the guns grew, matching European developments until around 1450. By 1370, a method called "corning" gunpowder was developed to make explosions stronger in land mines, and it may have also helped guns. Around this time, Ming guns started using iron instead of stone for bullets, which made them more powerful. The Ming also created rocket launchers called "wasp nests" in 1380, used by general Li Jinglong in 1400.

The peak of Chinese cannon design before European influence in the 1500s was shown in the "great general cannon," which could fire a four-kilogram lead ball. An even heavier version, the "great divine cannon," could fire several iron balls and up to a hundred iron shots at once. These were the last Chinese cannon designs before European models arrived.

China did not build very large siege cannons like other parts of the world, partly because Chinese walls were so thick that even big cannons could not break them. Also, larger guns were not very useful against China's usual enemies, who were horse riders.

Big guns

Main article: History of artillery

Further information: Culverin and Italian Wars

The building of large artillery pieces began in Burgundy. This small European state grew to become very powerful in the 1300s and led in siege warfare. The Duke of Burgundy, Philip the Bold, focused on using big guns and supported research and development in gunpowder weapons. He created factories and hired more cannon makers than any other European power at the time.

While most European guns before 1370 weighed about 20 to 40 lbs (9–14 kg), the French siege of Château de Saint-Sauveur-le-Vicomte in 1375 used guns over a ton (900 kg) that shot stones over 100 lbs (45 kg). Philip used these big guns to capture Odruik in 1377. These guns could shoot much heavier projectiles than before, smashing city walls and starting a new era of artillery warfare, which helped Burgundy grow quickly.

Europe began a race to build ever-larger artillery. By the early 1400s, both French and English armies had big guns called bombards, weighing up to five tons (4,535 kg) and shooting balls up to 300 lbs (136 kg). Artillery used by Henry V of England in the Sieges of Harfleur and Rouen in 1415 and 1419 helped break French defenses, and artillery played a key role in French victories under Joan of Arc in the Loire Campaign of 1429.

These weapons changed European warfare. A hundred years earlier, a French writer, Pierre Dubois, said a castle could hardly be taken in a year, and even then, it cost more than it was worth. But by the 1400s, European walls fell very regularly.

The Ottoman Empire also built its own artillery. Mehmed the Conqueror wanted big cannons to capture Constantinople. A Hungarian maker named Urban built a six-meter cannon for him, but during the siege of Constantinople, it did not work well. However, many other large cannons attacked Constantinople’s walls for 55 days, and despite strong defense, the city’s walls were broken.

Further information: Star fort and Bastion

In response to gunpowder artillery, European forts began to use new designs with lower, thicker walls in the mid-1400s. Cannon towers were built with rooms for cannons to fire through slits in the walls. However, this was tricky because the slow firing, loud noises, and smoke made it hard for defenders. Gun towers also limited how many and what size cannons could be used because the rooms could only be built so big. Examples of surviving artillery towers include a seven-layer defense built in 1480 at Fougères in Brittany, and a four-layer tower built in 1479 at Querfurth in Saxony.

The star fort, also called the bastion fort, became popular in Europe during the 1500s. It was developed in Italy by Giuliano da Sangallo, who created a detailed defense plan using angled bastions. These bastions could support each other with crossfire, making them very hard to attack. Artillery on the flanks could fire into the opposite bastion, providing cover fire and stopping digging parties. Artillery on the bastion platform could fire forward, overlapping with fire from the opposite bastion. This made sieges longer and harder. By the 1530s, the bastion fort became the main defense in Italy.

Outside Europe, the star fort helped small European forces hold off much larger armies. Wherever they were built, local people found it very hard to remove European invaders. In China, Sun Yuanhua suggested building angled bastion forts so their cannons could support each other better. Officials Han Yun and Han Lin noted that cannons on square forts could not support each side as well as bastion forts. Ma Weicheng built two bastion forts in his home county, which helped stop a Qing attack in 1638. By 1641, there were ten bastion forts in the county. Before they could spread further, the Ming dynasty fell in 1644, and they were mostly forgotten as the Qing dynasty was often on the attack and did not need them.

Classical cannon

Gun design and building in Europe reached its "classic" form in the 1480s – longer, lighter, more efficient, and more accurate than guns just three decades earlier. This design stayed mostly the same, and cannons from the 1480s look very similar to cannons from the 1750s. This 300-year period of dominance gives it the name "classic cannon."

Early classic European guns are shown by two cannons from 1488 kept in a square in Neuchâtel, Switzerland. One is 224 centimeters long with a bore of 6.2 centimeters, and the other is slightly longer at 252 centimeters with the same bore size. They differ from older guns in several ways. Their longer length helps the bullet go farther. They were also lighter because the barrel walls were thinner, allowing heat to escape faster. They did not need a wooden plug to load because the bullet fit tighter in the barrel, making them more accurate. Developments like better gunpowder and iron bullets also made them deadlier. When these guns reached China in the 1510s, Chinese people were very impressed, especially because of their longer, thinner barrels.

There are two main ideas about why the classic gun appeared. One idea is that longer barrels were needed because of a new type of gunpowder called "corned" powder, which kept better, was more powerful, and easier to load. Before corned powder, gunpowder often mixed apart and was unreliable. The faster reaction of corned powder worked well in smaller guns, while large guns could have thinner walls. However, some argue that powder makers cared more about spoilage than how corned powder affected guns, and that corning had been used in China since the 1370s for explosives.

The second idea is that a new way of building guns, casting them muzzle side up, was key. Smith says: "The surviving guns from earlier in the 1400s are big with large bores. They look like parallel-sided tubes with flat ends. The explanation is probably that they were cast muzzle down in the traditional bell-making method, while the long thin guns were cast muzzle up.… Perhaps this marks the real 'revolution' in artillery. Once the technique of casting muzzle up with its advantages was mastered by cannon makers, the way was open for the development of the 'classic' form of artillery." However, Smith himself says it is not clear what advantages this method gave, even though it was used widely.

The arquebus was a handgun that appeared in Europe and the Ottoman Empire in the early 1400s. Its name comes from the German word Hakenbüchse. Although the term arquebus was used for many types of handguns from the 1400s to 1700s, it originally described "a handgun with a hook-like part on its bottom, useful for steadying it against walls or other objects when shooting." These "hook guns" were first defensive weapons on German city walls in the early 1400s, but by the late 1400s they became hand-held guns, with heavier versions called "muskets" that were fired from Y-shaped rests appearing by the early 1500s.

The musket could go through all types of armor of the time, making armor useless, and therefore heavy muskets as well. Although there is little design difference between arquebus and musket except in size and strength, the term musket stayed in use until the 1800s. It might not be wrong to say the musket was just a larger arquebus. At one point, the musket and arquebus were even used to mean the same gun, and were called an "arquebus musket." A Habsburg commander in the mid-1560s called muskets "double arquebuses." The meaning of arquebus and similar guns is complicated because the term was used for different guns and also got several names like hackbut, harquebus, schiopo, sclopus, tüfenk, tofak, matchlock, and firelock. Some say the hackbut was an early form of the arquebus.

The matchlock firing part’s first appearance is not fully known. The first mentions of what may have been arquebuses (tüfek) by the Janissary corps of the Ottoman army date from 1394 to 1465. However, it is unclear whether these were arquebuses or small cannons until 1444, but the fact that they were listed separate from cannons in mid-15th century records suggests they were hand-held guns. In Europe, a shoulder stock, probably inspired by the crossbow stock, was added to the arquebus around 1470, and the matchlock mechanism appeared a little before 1475. The matchlock arquebus was the first handgun with a trigger.

Matchlock became a common name for the arquebus after it was added to the gun. Before the matchlock, handguns were fired from the chest, tucked under one arm, while the other arm moved a hot pricker to the touch hole to light the gunpowder. The matchlock changed this by adding a firing part with two pieces: the match, and the lock. The lock held a two to three feet long piece of smoldering rope soaked in saltpeter, which was the match. Connected to the lock lever was a trigger, which lowered the match into a pan when pulled, lighting the priming powder, causing a flash to go through the touch hole, lighting the gunpowder in the barrel, and shooting the bullet out the front.

While matchlocks were a big help because they let the user aim the gun with both hands, they were also hard to use. To avoid lighting the gunpowder by mistake, the match had to be taken off while loading the gun. Sometimes the match would go out, so both ends were kept lit. This was awkward because both hands were needed to hold the match during removal, one end in each hand. The process was so complicated that a 1607 drill book by Jacob de Gheyn in the Netherlands listed 28 steps just to fire and load the gun. In 1584 the Ming general Qi Jiguang wrote an 11 step song to practice the steps in rhythm: "One, clean the gun. Two pour the powder. Three tamp the powder down. Four drop the pellet. Five drive the pellet down. Six put in paper (stopper). Seven drive the paper down. Eight open the flashpan cover. Nine pour in the flash powder. Ten close the flashpan, and clamp the fuse. Eleven, listen for the signal, then open the flashpan cover. Aiming at the enemy, raise your gun and fire." Reloading a gun in the 1500s took from 20 seconds to a minute under the best conditions.

The arquebus is considered the first portable "shoulder" handgun. Arquebuses were used as early as 1472 by the Spanish and Portuguese at Zamora. Likewise, the Castilians used arquebuses in 1476. In 1496 Philip Monch of the Palatinate wrote an illustrated book on guns and "harquebuses." The Mamluks were resistant to gunpowder weapons. When they faced cannons and arquebuses used by the Ottomans, they criticized them, saying, "God curse the man who invented them, and God curse the man who fires on Muslims with them." Insults were also made against the Ottomans for bringing "this contrivance artfully devised by the Christians of Europe when they were incapable of meeting the Muslim armies on the battlefield." Eventually, the Mamluks under Qaitbay were ordered in 1489 to train in the use of al-bunduq al-rasas (arquebuses). However, in 1514 an Ottoman army of 12,000 soldiers with arquebuses defeated a much larger Mamluk force. The arquebus became a common infantry weapon by the 1500s because it was cheaper – a helmet, breastplate and pike cost about three and a quarter ducats while an arquebus cost just over one ducat. Another benefit of arquebuses over other gear and weapons was their short training time. While a bow could take years to master, an effective arquebus user could be trained in just two weeks. According to a 1571 report by Vincentio d'Alessandri, Persian arms including arquebuses "were superior and better tempered than those of any other nation."

In the early 1500s a larger arquebus called the musket appeared. The heavy musket, while hard to handle and needing a fork rest to fire properly, could go through the best armor at 180 meters, regular armor at 365 meters, and an unarmed person at 548 meters. However, both the musket and arquebus were limited to a range of only 90 to 185 meters because they were very inaccurate. Some sources say a smoothbore musket could not hit a person-sized target past 73 meters. While rifled guns existed at this time as grooves cut into the barrel, they were special weapons and not many were made. In some ways this made the smoothbore musket worse than the bow. For example, an average Mamluk archer could hit targets only 68 meters away but could shoot six to eight times a minute. In comparison, sixteenth-century matchlocks shot once every several minutes, and much less when including misfires and problems which happened up to half the time. This does not mean firearms of the 1500s were worse than the bow and arrow, because they could go through armor better and needed less training, but the downsides of the musket were real, and it was not until the 1590s that archers were mostly replaced in European warfare. This was perhaps because of the increased effectiveness of musket fighting due to the rise of volley fire in Europe first used by the Dutch. At this time, gunners in European armies made up as much as 40 percent of infantry forces.

As the advantages of the musket became clear, it was quickly adopted across Eurasia so that by 1560 even in China generals praised the new weapon. Qi Jiguang, a supporter of the musket, praised its effectiveness in 1560:

It is unlike any other of the many types of fire weapons. In strength it can pierce armor. In accuracy it can strike the center of targets, even to the point of hitting the eye of a coin [i.e., shooting right through a coin], and not just for exceptional shooters.… The arquebus [鳥銃] is such a powerful weapon and is so accurate that even bow and arrow cannot match it, and … nothing is so strong as to be able to defend against it.

— Jixiao Xinshu

Other East Asian powers such as Đại Việt also adopted the matchlock musket quickly. Đại Việt was considered by the Ming to have made the most advanced matchlocks in the world during the 1600s, better even than Ottoman, Japanese, and European guns. European observers of the Trịnh–Nguyễn War agreed with the Ming about the skill of Vietnamese matchlock making. The Vietnamese matchlock could go through several layers of iron armor, kill two to five men with one shot, yet also fire quietly for a gun of its size.

Gunpowder Empires

The term "Gunpowder Empires" refers to three big empires: the Ottoman, Safavid, and Mughal empires. The name was first used by a historian named Marshall Hodgson in a book called The Venture of Islam. He described these empires as strong states that used gunpowder weapons like cannons and guns in their armies.

Another historian, William H. McNeill, explained that these empires grew powerful because they could control and use new types of weapons. However, some historians think that using gunpowder weapons wasn't the main reason these empires became so large and strong. Even so, all three empires used guns and cannons early on and they became very important in their battles.

Civil engineering

Gunpowder was used to help build waterways and canals in China as early as 1541. In Europe, it helped build the Canal du Midi in Southern France, connecting the Mediterranean sea to the Atlantic sea. It was also used in building the Erie Canal in New York.

Before gunpowder, large rocks were broken up by hard work or by heating them and then cooling them quickly. The first known use of gunpowder in mines was in Hungary in 1627. It was brought to Britain in 1638. This work was very risky because of the thick smoke and danger of sparks, especially in coal mines.

Gunpowder was also important in building railways. Early railways followed the land's shape or used bridges. Later, railways cut through hills and built tunnels. For example, building the Box Tunnel in Britain needed a lot of gunpowder. Another big tunnel, the Mont Cenis Tunnel, took many years to finish, even with gunpowder helping the work.

United States

Revolutionary War

During the American Revolutionary War, people dug in caves to find a substance called saltpeter, which was needed to make gunpowder because supplies from Europe were stopped. Abigail Adams is said to have made gunpowder on her family farm in Massachusetts.

The New York Committee of Safety wrote some papers about making gunpowder in 1776.

Civil War

During the American Civil War, most of the saltpeter used to make gunpowder for the Union armies came from British India. This supply was at risk when Union ships stopped a British ship, the RMS Trent, and took two Confederate diplomats off it. In response, the British government stopped sending saltpeter to the United States, which could have hurt their gunpowder supply. But the problem was fixed, and the diplomats were let go.

The Union Navy blocked ships from reaching the southern Confederate States, making it harder to get gunpowder from other countries. The Confederate Nitre and Mining Bureau was created to make gunpowder from materials found in the South. While carbon and sulfur were easy to find, potassium nitrate was made from Calcium nitrate found in cave dirt, tobacco barns, and other places. Many caves were dug up for this purpose.

Decline

In the late 1800s, new discoveries like nitroglycerin, nitrocellulose, and smokeless powders were made. These new materials quickly took the place of traditional gunpowder for most uses, both in everyday life and in the military.