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The Gunpowder Age - China, Military Innovation, and the Rise of the West in World History (Paperback)
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The Gunpowder Age - China, Military Innovation, and the Rise of the West in World History (Paperback)
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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.
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