The Gunpowder Age : : China, Military Innovation, and the Rise of the West in World History / / Tonio Andrade.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Princeton University Press Complete eBook-Package 2017
• VerfasserIn: Andrade, Tonio,
• Place / Publishing House: Princeton, NJ : : Princeton University Press, , [2016]; ©2017
• Year of Publication: 2016
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (448 p.) :; 21 halftones. 4 line illus. 10 maps.

The 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 starting in the 1500s while China slipped behind?Historians have long argued that gunpowder weapons helped Europeans establish global hegemony. Yet the inhabitants of what is today China not only invented guns and bombs but also, as Andrade shows, continued to innovate in gunpowder technology through the early 1700s-much longer than previously thought. Why, then, did China become so vulnerable? Andrade argues that one significant reason is that it was out of practice fighting wars, having enjoyed nearly a century of relative peace, since 1760. Indeed, he demonstrates that China-like Europe-was a powerful military innovator, particularly during times of great warfare, such as the violent century starting after the Opium War, when the Chinese once again quickly modernized their forces. Today, China is simply returning to its old position as one of the world's great military powers.By showing that China's military dynamism was deeper, longer lasting, and more quickly recovered than previously understood, The Gunpowder Age challenges long-standing explanations of the so-called Great Divergence between the West and Asia.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Introduction -- PART I. Chinese Beginnings -- CHAPTER 1. The Crucible -- CHAPTER 2. Early Gunpowder Warfare -- CHAPTER 3. The Mongol Wars and the Evolution of the Gun, 1211-1279 -- CHAPTER 4. Great Martiality -- PART II. Europe Gets the Gun -- CHAPTER 5. The Medieval Gun -- CHAPTER 6. Big Guns -- CHAPTER 7. The Development of the Classic Gun in Europe -- CHAPTER 8. The Gunpowder Age in Europe -- CHAPTER 9. Cannibals with Cannons -- PART III. An Age of Parity -- CHAPTER 10. The Frankish Cannon -- CHAPTER 11. Drill, Discipline, and the Rise of the West -- CHAPTER 12. The Musket in East Asia -- CHAPTER 13. The Seventeenth Century -- CHAPTER 14. A European Naval Advantage -- CHAPTER 15. The Renaissance Fortress -- PART IV. The Great Military Divergence -- CHAPTER 16. The Opium War and the Great Divergence -- CHAPTER 17. A Modernizing Moment -- CHAPTER 18. China's Modernization and the End of the Gunpowder Age -- Conclusions -- Acknowledgments -- Appendix 1. Timeline -- Appendix 2. Datasets -- Abbreviations -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index