Historical Perspectives: HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVES: WHO DEvELOPED GUNS?

The development of gunpowder and its use in guns revolutionized world history. However, historians presented various arguments to explain who was responsible for starting this revolution.

Chinese Claims and European Doubts While the Chinese long took credit for developing both gunpowder and guns, European historians were traditionally skeptical because they doubted the Chinese had the technological ability to make such advances. For example, Henry Hime, a British military officer, argued in his 1904 book, Gunpowder and Ammunition: Their Origin and Progress, that the Chinese “possessed little genius for mechanical or chemical inventions” so they had probably “obtained their first gunpowder and firearms from the West.”

Fireworks European scholars gradually recognized Chinese contributions to the technologies that led to the development of guns. They first recognized that the Chinese had invented gunpowder and that knowledge of the explosive substance had been carried by traders and the Mongols to Europe in the 13th century. However, European historians continued to argue that the Chinese had used gunpowder only for fireworks, not for weaponry. Historian Jack Kelly, in a recent book about the history of gunpowder, noted that historians had not moved much beyond Hime’s argument in their views of Chinese abilities. “The notion of China’s benign relationship with gunpowder sprang in part from Western prejudices about the Chinese character. Some viewed the Chinese as amateurs who stumbled onto the secret of gunpowder but couldn’t see its potential. Others saw them as pacifist sages who wisely turned away from its destructive possibilities.”

Agreement The next step was for Europeans to acknowledge that the Chinese historians were correct, and that the Chinese had begun using gunpowder to make early forms of guns since the 10th century. British scholar Joseph Needham revolutionized Western attitudes toward China with his multivolume work Science and Civilization in China. Begun in 1954, it continued after Needham’s death under other scholars and now includes more than 25 volumes. Needham called the development of gunpowder “no doubt the greatest of all Chinese military inventions.” And he concluded that the Chinese had developed the first gun “before other peoples knew of the invention at all.”

Develop an Argument: Evaluate the extent to which historical evidence supports one of the perspectives on the historical development and use of gunpowder. (Review outside sources as necessary.)