Weapons which have changed the history of mankind

Ancient Warfare

“Wars may be fought with weapons, but they are won by men. It is the spirit of the men who follow and of the man who leads that gains the victory.” – George S. Patton

Point weapons and technologies that made civilizations to triumph over the others

Objective:

A viscous liquid that burns even contacting the water

Used mainly by the bizantines against Turkish invasions

Till today there’s no knowledge about its real composition

Greek Fire 11th century“Instrumental or mechanical science is the noblest and, above all others, the most useful.” – Leonardo da Vinci

Bizantine Empire

The knight now could benefit from the strenght of the horse.

Years before the discovery any direct attack will make the knight fall from the horse leaving him unprotected

Mongols led by Genghis Khan dominated almost the entire Asia because their profient using horses

Stirrup In Europe 6 th century“A horse, a kingdom for a horse.” William Shakespeare

Mongolian Empire

One of the most important weapon in Europe during the high middle age

2 meters high, D shaped. High accuracy

Range up to 200meters Penetration 600 Newtons

England’s main weapon on the 100 year war.

English Longbow ( 1300-1450)

“The haft of the arrow had been feathered with one of the eagle’s own plumes. We often give our enemies the means of our own destruction.” – Aesop

CrossBow (1300-1500)

Called the “Besta” by the Christians

Fire rate, penetration and attack range all lower than the Longbow

Even a peasant could fire a Crossbow due its simplicity

Good Acurracy

Very common in France

"A god from the machine." - Menander

When men started to cluster in cities, swords and axes were ineffective, so a new kind of weapons were needed. Slow and powerful they were.

Siege Weapons“How happy are those whose walls already rise!” – Virgil

The energy is stored within the tensioned string following:

Epel= 0.5 k x² ( They did not know this on that time)

Range 200-300 mts

Good agains stonewalls

Slow and mathematically inaccurated

Catapult (400 a.C-)

“Mathematics is the gate and key to the sciences.” – Roger Bacon

Uses a counterweight to launch the projectile

Uses the gravity to accelerate the rock

Could launch a 1000 kg projectile at a 300mts

Enginners and phycisists were needed to make it work

Trebuchet (1200-1400)“Measure what is measurable, and make measurable what is not so.” – Galileo

Usually the projectile were:

Big rocks to crack walls

Sick corpses to spread diseases

Flaming pots to blaze the city

Weak Points

Slow, expensive to make hard to use

The base for the modern weapons

Much more eficcient suply energy for weapons

Samuel Colt has construted the first personal revolver

Gunpowder ( Europe 1450 -)

“God made man but Samuel Colt made them equal” Advertising slogan for Colt Manufactuting