INVENTION OF THE GUN

The invention of hand-held firearms was a major military accomplishment and advantage. In China the early form of the gun allowed ordinary farmers to take back their land from the impervious Mongolian army. Artillary also allowed the French to outmatch the infamous English longbow in the One Hundred Year War. Most importantly, it allowed the Spanish to reclaim Spain from the Moors during the Reconquista, with use of the first "hand-held cannon" known as the harquebus, first invented by the Chinese in the middle of the fourteenth century and later spreading to Europe by the early 1500s where it was modified. The hand-held gun, especially the harquebus, was a huge turning-point in warfare and set the stage for modern weaponry and tactics using explosive material, such as weapons of mass destruction.