Weapons That Changed Warfare
The article is based on the book “50 Weapons That Changed Warfare” by William Weir.
We cannot talk about war without talking about weapons that changed warfare. Humans wage war against each other with similar weapons. Over the ages, civilization has become more advanced, and weapons have also become more deadly. More dangerous weapons require soldiers and generals to be up-to-date with new tactics. That’s why the American Civil War was the bloodiest in the history of this country when breech-loading rifles were so popular but people still used the tactics of the days of the musket.
All weapons will eventually become obsolete. Breechloaders replace muzzleloaders. The machine gun replaced the one-shot gun. Faster shooting requires soldiers to be more flexible and to know how to disperse and hide. Then the appearance of Hiram Maxim’s machine gun during World War I caused people to completely rethink tactics. But then the machine gun was no longer flourishing when the tanks appeared. The tank and its aerial partner, the bomber, took control of the battlefield during World War II. Some weapons are used for a long time. But some weapons appear only once or twice, but it’s the weapons that changed warfare. Like nuclear weapons.
This article arranges weapons that changed warfare in chronological order of their appearance in history.
1. Polearm — Stab to death
Since prehistoric times, people have been known to use branches to chase wild animals or fight with each other. However, at that time, people still used twigs instinctively to hit the enemy.
Then a certain warrior accidentally noticed that a stick that burned at one end tended to have a sharper. Then he suddenly realized that when the coal layer was removed, it even became sharper. And he’s got a fearsome weapon. Archaeological sites have found such sharp sticks among the bones of some animals.
In the Stone Age, people knew how to use obsidian and sharpen it to make tools. Then someone tried to put one of those sharp objects on a pole to make a spear. Of course, the stone spearheads were replaced with copper and iron in later periods. The javelin with a bronze head appeared in the Near East around 3500 BC. From then until the second half of the 17th century, javelins and spears were always the most important weapons in war — the weapons that changed warfare.
In prehistoric times, prehistoric men often used spears for throwing. People often use them when hunting. And animals run so fast that people rarely get close enough to stab them, so they have learned to throw them.
When people live in cities. Agriculture developed, providing adequate food. And hunting became secondary, so they gradually abandoned the habit of throwing javelins. People began to develop a form of warfare that suited their way of life. On the battlefield, they formed square formations, wielding long spears to stab down more scattered opponents. That is the Phalanx formation.
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The phalanx formation spurred the introduction of armor. A whole block of Phalanx became good prey for javelin throwers, or especially archers. But a phalanx formation wearing armor could effectively head a larger number of archers. King Philip II of Macedonia incorporated the Greek phalanx formation into his military mechanism. And his son Alexander the Great used that mechanism to conquer all regions, from Greece to India.
Then the Romans improved the phalanx formation by having their Legion warriors carry a javelin next to a long spear. The top two rows of the Roman phalanx formation will use these Pilum javelins to throw at the enemy. Such a javelin is about 1.8m long. About half the length is wood; the rest is iron with a pointed tip. If the enemy blocks their javelin with a shield, then when they close, they would step on the hilt of the javelin to make the opponent use the shield to block, and the Roma warriors would slay the opponent down with the sword.
The polearm has evolved into a variety of weapons. Some spears have prongs to deal increased damage. Some are more like attaching short swords to the tip of a pole, used for slashing like the Japanese naginata. Some have both pointed tips and hammer blades. Or there are very long spears. The Swiss phalanx armies of the Renaissance used spears to knock down enemy cavalry, allowing the spearmen to approach and kill them.
The long spear was also equipped for the cavalry. Alexander the Great launched his lance-wielding cavalry to annihilate the enemy after his phalanx formations held the enemy in place. The long spear was the main weapon of cavalry in Europe until the 16th century when guns became widespread. The Poles and Russians still used spears during World War II.
Some countries have javelin-throwing cavalry, such as Greece in the Peloponnesian War, Hannibal’s Carthaginian cavalry, Gaul cavalry, and Spanish cavalry.
In Europe, China, and Africa The spear is one of the very common weapons that changed warfare from ancient times to the time when dynamite was widely used.
2. Bows and Arrows — Death from Afar
In the first phase of the Hundred Years’ War (1337–1360), King Edward III of England invaded France with 10,000 troops. A third were armored knights; the rest were archers. His enemy, King Philip VI of France, had 12,000 men, including 8,000 armored cavalrymen and 4,000 Genoese crossbowmen. The French stopped the British near the town of Crecy.
When both sides were within range of each other, the Genoese crossbows fired first. But the British counterattacked with a weapon that stunned the enemy. The British longbow poured a rain of arrows on the Genoese army, who thought they were out of range. As a result, the Genoese army died a lot. The British overwhelmed the Genoese because their archers were outnumbered and shot five times faster. Panicked, the Genoese fled.
Seeing this, the French cavalry rushed into the British army. But instead of hitting the archers, they entered the formation of armored horsemen. Because the French think it was more glorious to defeat a horseman than to defeat the archers. The English archers thus turned their sights on the French cavalry. By the end of that day, a third of the French had been destroyed, with British losses of just over 100 men. The Battle of Crecy turned England into a military power for the first time.
Longbows have a range no longer than that of a crossbow. It’s just that the Genoese have a somewhat limited understanding of other bow types. They did not stand to shoot at the full range of the crossbow but instead entered the closer area to open fire. Bows and crossbows reach their maximum capacity when raised at a 43-degree angle. A medieval crossbow can shoot as far as 411m, while the British longbow can only shoot a maximum of 228.5m. The strength of a bow depends on three things: the force of the bow, the speed of the bowstring’s rebound, and the distance the string has to push the arrow. The British’s ancient arrow is 71cm long. To draw a bow, the bow must also be extended. The British used yew for their 1.7-meter longbow. To shoot a standard arrow without damaging the bow, the force must be between 32 and 36kg.
The longbow requires the archer to take a long time to learn it. A longbow has been accurately recreated based on an unearthed archetype. The bow is 1.84m long, pulls only 23kg, and can shoot an arrow 170m away. Then they cut its length down to 1.8m. It now generates 28kg of pull and shoots at 206m. They once again cut the bow down to 1.7m. And now it has 32 kg of bow tension and shoots arrows from 224m away.
The bow is not a new weapon. In the Neolithic period in Europe, the bow was an important tool or weapon in the hunting life of mankind. In the Bronze Age, the Beakers covered Europe, and their unearthed graves had bow-related objects buried with them. But then the Europeans saw the exceptional effectiveness of the Greek warriors in armor and their shocking traditions of warfare and gradually replaced the bow with axes, spears, and later swords. Perhaps shock warfare was more effective than bows and arrows in the European jungles of the time.
The bow continues to be an important weapon in Scandinavia. Where naval battles often take place. At that time, long-range weapons were always in an important position. The British lacked effective long-range weapons. Until they invaded Wales. Welsh arrows could pierce Norman (Nordic) armor. The success of the Welsh archers led to a revival of the long bow in the English infantry.
The British longbow is the simplest of the bows. A type of single-body bow. But there is a much more complex bow that is widely used throughout Asia. It is a composite bow.
The composite bow was the reason why the Hyksos conquered Egypt, the Romans lost the Parthian wars, the Crusades failed, and Genghis Khan defeated every opponent on the way to conquest.
A composite bow takes 1 year or more to make. The wood core must be bent with the help of steam. The back of the bow is filled with horse (or cow) tendons after being soaked with special glue. The abdomen of the bow is covered with layers of horns. After adding everything, sometime later, the bow is joined up to the wire. A complicated stage caused many bows to be broken. Finally, a short but flexible bow capable of shooting long arrows.
The composite bow was first invented in Central Asia. With it in hand, the Scythes, Huns, and Mongols cut down enemy cavalry and infantry from Central Asia to Gaul. It was the most powerful hand weapon before dynamite. If the British longbow changed warfare in Europe for about a century, composite bows have been doing it in Asia for at least 4,000 years.
We will talk more about this type of bow in the following sections.
Sword — Symbol of War
Japan is a country that worships the sword as well as the art of using it — the katana. They even have a philosophy of living on their swords. They call it swordsmanship. Outside of Japan, swords are also symbolic weapons in different cultures.
Part of that reason was that, until the industrial era, the price of a sword was very expensive. Only the rich can afford it. It takes a lot of metal to make a sword, while with the same materials, one could make quite a few spears, axes, daggers, or arrows. In addition, the forging of a sword was very elaborate. Forging an iron that was strong enough to have a sharp blade and flexible enough to not break when slashed was an expensive and time-consuming task. The swords were passed down from father to son for the same reason.
However, for those with good economic conditions, people are willing to pay for these weapons. Because it is longer than a dagger, but short enough to be used more flexibly than a spear. The sword can cut, stab, block, and parry.
For the ancient Greeks, the sword was a secondary weapon. They would be used if there were no other weapons around. The Romans considered swords an important part of their equipment. The phalanx formation would hurl javelins at the enemy, but he would use the gladius sword to bring down the enemy. Gladius was worn on the right side so that their overly large shield did not interfere with drawing a sword.
The success of Greece and Rome created a tradition of close combat throughout Europe. From barefoot warriors like the Franks to the Goth horsemen. From the Celts to the Teutonics, swords were considered the most important weapons that changed warfare. Spears were great when cavalry foreplayed with the enemy. But then the sword plays the role of the lord on the battlefield.
Swords are also very important. The Xiongnu would open the battle with bows and arrows, but after the enemy was weakened and demoralized, they would charge in with swords. The Turks attach great importance to the use of swords, but it was difficult when they faced armies of the Crusaders wearing thick armor. In Africa, the sword was also the main weapon of the tribes. In the 1980s, when the British and French invaded here, they still saw the natives using their traditional swords when rushing at the European gunmen.
In the Middle Ages, swords became essential for knights, just as they were for Japanese samurai. The infantry still carried swords until the 18th century, although they used rifles with bayonets. Meanwhile, the cavalry uses pistols and still carries swords. Gustavus Adolphus, the great Swedish leader, advocated limiting the use of pistols on cavalry instead of swords. General Lee in the American Revolution also thought that the fire from the cavalry was too “gentle”. The most powerful weapon of the cavalry was the sword, one of the weapons that changed warfare and tactics.
Today, swords are only an ornament in units that still wear swords. But for thousands of years, from Roman times to the American Civil War, the sword has been one of the very important weapons that changed warfare. The people who ended up using the sword were still the Japanese, who were very devoted to the sword. During World War II, there were many reports that Japanese soldiers fought with swords, and some of them even used swords to slash the sides of tanks.
4. Warship
Like spears and bows, the oared warship dates back to prehistoric times. At first, these may have been dugout canoes; later, lighter boats were made of animal skins or bark securely attached to a wooden frame. Then someone learned that if you made a boat with a sail, it could move when there was enough wind without rowing. From then on, the warship grew larger and sturdier.
An ancient Greek oared warship carried about 18 soldiers on deck, 162 rowers, and more than 20 officers in charge of supervising and speeding up the crew. All were equipped with weapons to be able to join the war at any time. The oared warship was about 32m long, weighed about 70 tons, and was capable of traveling up to 90 m/min.
The oared warship was easy to control, it could easily stand in one place and rotate 180 degrees. A popular tactic was that the oarsmen would pull their oars inside and throw rocks at the enemy’s warships to break the oars. Sailors on deck would throw Greek canisters of fire at enemy ships to burn them, toss vials of viscous liquid to make enemy decks slippery, and sometimes even toss barrels of venomous snakes to panic enemies. In Greek and Roman times, warships developed in great numbers, often equipped with catapults. And in the 7th century, the Byzantine Empire army also put into use a special weapon, the Greek flamethrower. We will mention this weapon later.
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It’s a mistake to talk about weapons that changed warfare without warships. The Mediterranean empires could not transport large numbers of troops to conquer distant lands, just as the Vikings could not dominate the Nordic region, and ancient sea warfare would certainly not be able to develop to that extent.
5. Armor — Block Everything
From time immemorial, the armies of all nations have been equipped with armor. Armor is made of many different materials, not just metal. The Chinese had armor consisting of copper coins sewn on an animal skin coat, and the Siberians had armor made of wood, animal skin, and iron. Armor made of coconut fiber and fish skin from the Gilberts of the South Pacific. In Greece, armor made from linen fibers and leather was very popular.
Armor is a weapon that changes depending on the weapon it wants to fight. Gilbert’s coconut fiber and fish skin armor could not withstand a single stab from an iron sword but negated the damage inflicted by the slingshot. Because the slingshot was the main weapon of the Aborigines here. The Celts invented woven armor made of thousands of woven threads. This type of armor protects the wearer from sword slashes; it is not effective against stab thrusts. However, the Celts did not have pointed swords, and they trusted the blade more than the tip. A Roman legionary with Gladius was taught that “two inches in the right place is fatal”. That’s why the Romans conquered Gaul. Then, in the Middle Ages, net armor became the main armor of European horsemen. One of Saladin’s generals recounted that “I once saw a soldier with 21 arrows pinned to his body and still walking without loss of ease”.
Slashing with a sword was a more instinctive action than stabbing, so mesh armor was hugely popular. From Arabia, Persia, and India to West African kingdoms like Bornu, Mali, and Songhai, all wore mesh armor. Africans or Arabs in hot areas also cover their armor with a cloth garment to avoid direct sunlight and metal, to avoid turning the armor into a kind of crematorium. The European Crusaders also learned this from their enemies.
The ancient Greeks were very fond of bronze armor because it could be melted and cast into large slabs. At that time, there was no furnace hot enough to melt iron. Thus, for centuries, armor consisted of small pieces of iron. Mesh armor was one example, and scale armor (like fish scales) was another. And one more type was slab armor. The Japanese use a lot of this type of armor. The Romans, too, used armor with a solid plate for the chest and a bronze plate for the back. Towards the end of the Middle Ages, when crossbows began to become fatal to soldiers in mesh armor, European horsemen began to cover their armor with a sort of “cloak”. This type was made from very strong fabric lined with small square iron pieces.
By the 14th century, European blacksmiths were able to make large and light steel plates. Enough to create armor against 3 new weapons: longbows, crossbows with iron bows with a pulling force of up to 453 kg, and pistols.
Weapons were getting stronger and stronger, so the armor was getting thicker and thicker. At some point, the armor was so thick that it was too heavy for people to put on. Gradually, people replaced the leg armor with cowhide boots that reached the thighs. By the 17th century, cowhide had gradually replaced the body of armor.
All of the parts of armor mentioned above were not as effective as the one held in the hand, the shield. A crossbow arrow at close range could penetrate the metal armor covering the chest. Although the arrow was not able to penetrate all but only half deep, half of a 7-inch-long arrow could kill an armored person. But if that arrow were to hit the shield with the same piercing power, it wouldn’t be able to reach the body either. If it did penetrate the shield, it was no longer strong enough to penetrate any armor.
Shields were very important to the Greek army. Hoplite warriors call the shield Hoplon. For a hoplite, losing a shield was an absolute humiliation. Archers or crossbowmen couldn’t hold shields. But they have come up with a way to wear large shields on the back so that when reloading, it will turn its back on the enemy. But this way, the shield was too close to the body. Another way that they placed the large shields on the ground was to cover themselves when firing. The shield was one of the weapons that changed warfare in such an effective way that, in many armies, it became the only armor part. Spanish infantry swordsmen of the 16th century also used shields that could withstand even pistol shots.
The introduction of dynamite does not make the armor disappear. World War I saw the return of armor on a large and official level. The most popular item was the helmet, which protects the soldiers in the trenches from shrapnel.
During World War II, aircraft crews wore bulletproof vests to protect against shrapnel from anti-aircraft guns. Towards the end of the Korean War, infantrymen wore bulletproof nylon vests. These types of armor can only resist cannon or pistol shrapnel, not rifle bullets.
Currently, Kevlar “foam armor” has plates of metal, porcelain, or plastic that can withstand most rifle bullets. Riot units often wear this Kevlar armor.
Modern-day soldiers are equipped with armor as thoroughly as the spearmen of the 17th century.
6. The Chariot That Changed the Battlefield
Around 1750 BC, the Hyksos from Mesopotamia invaded all of Egypt quickly without encountering any significant resistance. This was thanks to the Hyksos tradition of mobile war on chariots, which enabled them to overwhelm the ancient Egyptian peoples. The Hyksos used chariots with 2 horses, 1 driver, and 1 man using a composite bow to shoot at the enemy. But the Hyksos made the mistake of not taking Upper Egypt. The place has narrow hills and mountains, which were not suitable for warriors who specialized in using chariots like them.
That delay gave the southern Egyptians time to learn how to make composite bows, how to tame horses, and especially how to build and use chariots like the Hyksos. Then the Egyptians came back and drove the Hyksos out of the territory, even attacking their homeland.
The homeland of the chariot was Sumerian Mesopotamia. First, it was a four-wheeled bronze chariot pulled by two donkeys, with high sides. Inside were a driver and a javelin thrower. It was quite cumbersome and difficult to turn. Later, the Sumerians improved it to a two-wheeler, still pulled by a donkey. It has become more versatile, though still bulky, and was very valuable in battle when dealing with slow opponents like phalanx formations.
Then the people of the Caucasus improved their chariots. It was horse-drawn and lighter; 2 wheels used spokes; 2 sides were made of wicker; and the floors were made of animal skin. The nomadic peoples also made a very powerful composite bow. And then they realized that this new weapon system was not only useful in hunting but also very effective against enemies.
The combined system of chariots and composite bows quickly spread throughout the Iranian-speaking peoples. The nomadic peoples here began to use this system to invade everywhere, as far as Central Asia and into China. The Aryans swept across the Iranian deserts into the Ganges River region and wiped out one of the three written civilizations in the world. The Mitanni invaded Anatolia and established a kingdom there. Some Mitannis joined the Hittites and entered Syria. The success of the Iranian-speaking peoples was so impressive that all the peoples of the eastern Mediterranean adopted and applied chariot warfare. Only the Egyptians, who were isolated due to the large deserts, then applied chariots as weapons that changed the warfare after the Hyksos invasion.
The Egyptians, led by the Pharaoh, drove the Hyksos back to their homeland. The Egyptian archers adopted a new tactic of mass shooting on command. The impact of a series of arrows falling at the same time causes an instant loss of composure for the enemy. And the advance of the Egyptians brought them into conflict with another emerging power, the Hittite Empire. The fighting between the Egyptians and the Hittites at Meggido has become legendary. As a result, tactically, the Hittites won, but strategically, the two were even, and neither empire progressed any further.
Later, the chariot was gradually eliminated. Because people have tamed stronger, more resilient horses capable of carrying people on their backs. When the archers know how to shoot on horseback, the firepower has been doubled compared to a chariot with 2 horses with only 1 archer and 1 person having to drive.
And centuries later, the invention of the stirrup made the cavalry even more powerful. The chariots were only memories.
7. Stirrups — Cavalry Began to Gain Popularity
It begins with the Battle of Adrianople when the Romans confront the Goths and the Alans. These two people were originally refugees in Rome but rebelled. The Goths spurred their spear cavalry and charged the Roman Legion. Until then, the Romans still looked down on cavalry, because a soldier on the horse could not form a solid block. From there, he had to use a lot of strength to balance, and his spear could hardly defeat a Legion soldier standing firmly on the ground. It might even cause him to fall off his horse.
But it was completely different from what the Romans thought. The legs of the Goth horsemen rested firmly on metal rings hanging from the saddle. Now that the man and the horse were in a solid bond, the strength and momentum of the 453kg horse were all concentrated on the tip of the spear.
As a result, the Romans were defeated by deadly spear thrusts, which shattered their wooden shields and pierced their bronze armor. This was Rome’s worst defeat since two of its armies were defeated by Hannibal in 216 BC.
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The Romans’ failure led to the widespread use of stirrups throughout Central and Western Europe. The stirrup made it possible to build a spearhead cavalry unit with thick armor, an extremely effective army for the next 1000 years.
In the work “The Archaeology of Weapons” by R. Edward Oakeshott, there is evidence that the stirrup was used in the East as far back as the 4th century BC. Scythia’s jars also describe the use of stirrups, but most Scythes were still unfamiliar with using them. Sculptures in Indian temples dating from the 2nd century BC also show horsemen using stirrups attached to saddles. The Sarmatians of Europe wore thick armor, wielded spears and bows, and all used stirrups attached to saddles. The Goths learned to use the stirrup from them. The Vandals, Gepids, Heruls, and other “East German” tribes, as well as the Scandinavian tribes that swept into Eastern Europe, all also use stirrups attached to saddles. Of course, the Huns, who drove other tribes into Rome, also used stirrups. The Huns continued to stay in Hungary after the end of the Attila empire. They later became the most skilled horsemen of the Byzantine Empire.
8. Greek Fire — Legendary Mysterious Weapon
In the 7th century AD, the Arabs, under the dominance of the prophet Medina, united the Saracen tribes. Then it flared up strongly, flooding all over Palestine and Syria. In 636, the Arabs defeated a Roman army at Yarmuk Gorge. In 640, the Persian Empire was completely destroyed.
While one Arab army conquered Persia, others conquered Babylon and Egypt, sweeping across North Africa as far as Carthage. The Arabs have captured Syrian cities whose inhabitants were very good at seafaring. Thereby, the Arabs built a powerful naval fleet. In 653, they captured the island of Cyprus. In 655, they defeated a Byzantine fleet commanded by Emperor Constantine himself.
In 672, the Arabs sent a powerful fleet into Marmara, the gateway to Constantinople. Meanwhile, even though the long and costly war with Persia had ended 44 years ago, the Eastern Roman Empire had not yet recovered. And that was also a reason why the Arabs easily conquered Persia.
The Arab warriors armed with bows and arrows, as well as their fleet of warships, were ready to destroy any Byzantine ships that wanted to move out of the port. On the other side, the ships of the Byzantine army looked extremely fancy. At the bow of each battleship was a statue of a gilded beast.
As the Arabs raised their bows and prepared to shoot their arrows, the beast statues on Byzantine ships all opened their mouths and spewed a torrent of liquid onto the Arab ships. That liquid almost immediately burned; the Arabs quickly used water to put out the fire but could not. The fire grew bigger and bigger, causing the Arab fleet to flee.
Prophet Muhammad’s children did not give up easily. Over and over again, they took fleets to attack. And over and over, they were burned by what was now called the Greek Fire.
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The Eastern Romans saw this as a God-given weapon against the Muslims, so its recipe was kept secret for centuries. But when dynamite was born, this weapon was gradually forgotten.
There have been many different descriptions of Greek fire in ancient texts, leading to various speculations. So not everything called Greek fire was the substance that destroyed the Arab fleet. In ancient texts, it was also written that Greek fire could burn in water.
About four centuries later, there was a text written that said the ships of the Byzantine army were fitted with the heads of beasts in front of them. All were made of bronze and plated with gold so that their appearance would frighten the enemy. Then the flames were designed to spew out of the mouths of those beasts’ heads as if the animals themselves were spewing fire.
Elsewhere, there was a description of a type of copper pipe that causes fire. The highly flammable cellophane resin was extracted from pine trees, and mixed with sulfur. Then it was put into the tube of the reed and given a long, strong blow. The other end of the tube was the igniter, and it ignited into a flame that fell onto the enemy.
Later, the Crusaders said that the Muslims attacked them with “Greek fire”, firing with catapults. It was a barrel containing flammable liquids with an external igniter attached. When it falls, it explodes, creating a fireball that covers everything around it. It was clearly not the weapon used to protect Constantinople.
Most researchers today believe that the flamethrower at the Battle of Constantinople released a mixture of lime, petroleum, or turpentine. Lime will become very hot if it encounters water. The liquid was probably sprayed out of the animal’s mouth by means of a pump. And as soon as it came out of the beast’s head, it immediately burst into flames. Because the kerosene mixture should be lighter than water, watering has no effect, only causing it to spread more widely. That leads to the enemy’s mentality that once a Greek fire flares up, it cannot be extinguished. Thus, this weapon becomes one of the weapons that changed warfare.
Greek fire changed warfare in the eastern Mediterranean for centuries. Without the Greek fire, the Byzantines might have lost at the Battle of Constantinople, and Arabs would have pervaded Europe.
9. Mechanical Cannon — Silent Cannons
A Syracuse general from Sicily presented King Archidamus of Sparta with an invention that the Syracuses had used with great success against the Carthaginians. It was a machine with a giant bow mounted horizontally on a block of wood. The bowstring is attached to a slider, and then the slider and the bowstring are pulled back by a winch (crank). The bow was so hard that without this system, human strength cannot be pulled. The slider was pulled as far as possible and then held in place by a latch. A Syracuse soldier pulled on a rope that blew the latch, shooting the long, heavy arrow farther than any archer could do. Then they reloaded other arrows, having their weapons fire another shot at the wall of shields or armor. That arrow pierced everything.
The general smiled proudly and was waiting to be rewarded. However, the king panicked:
“In the name of Heracles,” he said. “This is the end of human courage!”
For most of the Greeks of the time (370 BC), war was slow going between masses of soldiers in thick armor and large shields. Courage was the most precious virtue of a soldier, especially for the Spartans. Their soldiers always strive to become the bravest and most talented warriors. Now, using a machine to take down enemy warriors was pitiful cowardice.
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Most Greeks were like Sparta. Except for Syracuse. Syracuse was a fledgling nation. They did not organize an army of armored infantry and heavy shields like the other Greek interior states. King Dionysius was a man whose ambition was to lead all the Greek cities on the island of Sicily against the Carthaginian empire. He tried to recruit scientists, engineers, and craftsmen to Syracuse to create new weapons that would change the war. And treat them very respectfully. Top engineers flocked to Syracuse in great numbers.
The first catapults fired arrows — arrows as long and heavy as a spear — but were built to shoot rocks. These types usually have double wires with a leather pouch attached between the two wires as a place to place the bullets as stones.
It took a long time for the ancient Greek city-states to truly embrace this mechanical cannon. But those machines had already been put to large-scale use by King Philip II of Macedonia. Philip II was like King Dionysius. Catapults in antiquity were primarily siege engines, but Philip II and his son Alexander the Great used them as field cannons.
On one occasion, Alexander’s army wanted to cross the Jaxartes River. But on the other side of the river was an army of Scythes, who were very good at riding and arching. Alexander immediately lined up his catapults and then simultaneously launched arrows. Although it only destroyed about a dozen enemies, each arrow pierced through the shield and chest armor. There was even an arrow that finished off both a cavalryman and his horse. Terrified by the range and power of the catapults, the Scythes had to retreat far from the riverbank. And Alexander’s army was able to cross the river.
This ancient field cannon clearly had a psychological effect rather than an effect on destroying the enemy’s life force. The history of war is filled with such weapons that change war.
These mechanical cannons were always very useful in sieges. The arrows easily took out the defenders on the wall at a range beyond the range of the bow. Catapults could destroy walls or structures inside.
Engineers continue to improve the accuracy and durability of these machines. The Romans used small catapults, called carroballistae, placed on wheels. They also invented a new type of stone thrower called an onager, which had only one arm. There was a bucket at the top of the arm to store the shot stone. Like the Macedonian army, Roman artillery was also used to besiege the city or provide support on the battlefield. Every military unit has one onager.
In the Middle Ages in Western Europe, a new type of siege machine called a trebuchet trigger appeared. It’s a beam with a pivot, putting all the force on the short end. The long end was tied with a lanyard to put the bullet in. The long end was pulled very low and loaded. When releasing the bullet, the short end of the counterweight is strongly pulled down by gravity, and the long end quickly jumps into the sky and shoots bullets at the enemy stronghold. In the Middle Ages, people even threw corpses into the city to cause epidemics. The drawback of trebuchets is that they are too large to move quickly.
Modern experimenters have created trebuchets capable of throwing a car several hundred meters away. In other experiments, a catapult could throw a 3.6 kg stone block 457m away, an onager shot a 2.7 kg arrow 450m away, and the same catapult shot a 0.45kg stone away. almost 320m.
Emperor Napoleon III of France had a “decorative” trebuchet with a beam 10m long and a counterweight of 45.4kg. That trebuchet shot a 22.7kg stone block 182.8m away.
In ancient Greece, during the heyday of mechanical cannons, their modest presence was an important factor in international relations. You don’t just have to have catapults to use them. You also need to let potential enemies know that you have weapons that change warfare, so they don’t attack you first.
The sequel: dynamite, mines, siege guns.
