We know that, for millennia, since humanity began to organize itself in a more complex way in tribes, small communities and, mainly, in the first cities, conflicts have always been gifts. Such conflicts began to take on greater proportions over time, giving rise to the first warrior societies, such as the assyrians, who lived in the region of Mesopotamia and who are considered the “fathers” of the first organized army in history. However, until the 12th century (the century when gunpowder began to be used to fire solid artifacts), mainly melee weapons, catapults, fire and, rarely, some type of explosive based on sulfur. The emergence of gunpowder, between the Chinese, in the Middle Ages, changed the history of wars.
There was a process of many centuries of experimentation in alchemy and practical use of certain chemical compounds so that the Chinese could arrive at the final product called gunpowder. It all started in Han Dynasty, about 200 years before Christ, when alchemists linked to the
Taoism they sought the “elixir of immortality” based on experiments with substances such as sulfur and saltpeter (potassium nitrate). One of these alchemists even drafted a treatise entitled “The Book of the Link of the Three”, which warned practitioners of the alchemical art about the explosive mixture of these elements.During the Middle Ages, in the Tang Dynasty, in the ninth century, that other alchemists, adding precise amounts of coal to saltpeter and sulfur, managed to arrive at gunpowder, called by them as “huoyau”. The “hou yau”, being more controllable than the explosives known until then, started to be used, initially, in fireworks, flares, religious rituals and parties. Shortly thereafter, the same artifact became part of the composition of simple grenades and materials for catapults. Gunpowder then became a military component as important as the various bladed weapons used by the Chinese. Its formula has even been included in the list of Wujing Zongyao, a manuscript, written in 1040, on weapons used in war.
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Between the 10th and 13th centuries, in the Song Dynasty, the use of gunpowder became more sophisticated and began to compose contraptions that fired solid artifacts, such as small spherical stones, rockets and cannons. The contraptions were made of bamboo trunks, on which the gunpowder was pounded, the stone was placed inside a hole, a fire was set on an external wick, and the explosion was awaited. The stone could hit targets and pierce them at a distance of 50 meters. Many of the gunpowder-fired cannons and rockets contained poisonous chemical mixtures such as arsenic and mercury. It was the beginning of a military revolution.
The arrival of gunpowder in Europe, in the transition from the Middle Ages to the Modern Age, at the time of merchants, led to the development of the first more sophisticated rifles and cannons.
By Me. Cláudio Fernandes