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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 The military pattern of the Chinese past -- Part I. Chinese beginnings -- The crucible : the Song Warring States period -- Early gunpowder warfare -- The Mongol wars and the evolution of the gun -- Great martiality : the gunpowder emperor -- Part II. Europe gets the gun -- The Medieval gun -- Big guns : why western Europe and not China developed gunpowder artillery -- The development of the classic gun in Europe -- The gunpowder age in Europe -- Cannibals with cannons : the Sino-Portuguese clashes of 1521-1522 -- Part III. An age of parity -- The Frankish cannon -- Drill, discipline, and the rise of the West -- The musket in East Asia -- The seventeenth century : an age of parity? -- A European naval advantage -- The Renaissance fortress : an agent of European expansion? -- Part IV. The great military divergence -- The Opium War and the great divergence -- A modernizing moment : Opium War reforms -- China's modernization and the end of the gunpowder age -- A new Warring States period?
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