num_pages: 49
description: This essay explores the advent of gunpowder weapons and how the use of these weapons changed the balance of power in warfare transforming global history by leading to a period of dominance by Western European powers. The essay compares European Russian Islamic Chinese and Japanese uses of gunpowder weapons and explores how these powers fit guns into their political military and cultural systems. William H. McNeill is Robert A. Millikan Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus of History at the University of Chicago.
language: English
title: Age of Gunpowder Empires 1450-1800
publisher: Amer Historical Assn