The Gunpowder Age

A first look at gunpowder''s revolutionary impact on China''s role in global historyThe Chinese invented gunpowder and began exploring its military uses as early as the 900s, four centuries before ...

A first look at gunpowder''s revolutionary impact on China''s role in global historyThe Chinese invented gunpowder and began exploring its military uses as early as the 900s, four centuries before the technology passed to the West. But by the early 1800s, China had fallen so far behind the West in gunpowder warfare that it was easily defeated by Britain in the Opium War of 1839–42. What happened? In The Gunpowder Age, Tonio Andrade offers a compelling new answer, opening a fresh perspective on a key question of world history: why did the countries of western Europe surge to global importance s