ENV S 3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Gunmetal, Arquebus, Jared Diamond
26 April 2018
Walk-in music: Led Zepplin, Kashmir (1977)
Clash of Cultures
● Gunpowder
○ Transference from east to west
○ First developed in China-800s AD
○ Mixture of three elements-(main) saltpeter-potassium nitrate,
sulfur/charcoal>powdery substance and when it’s ignited with a flame, it
explodes
○ Gunpowder-called black powder
■ Primary use in China-fireworks
○ Passed along the silk route-westward, in western asia in 1100 AD; 1200 AD
made its way to the middle east
○ If you pack the powder tightly in a closed tube, add a projectile to it>guns
■ The first guns were little cannons
■ Europe was in the iron age at the time
■ The first gun metal was made from copper/tin/zinc> gunmetal
○ Autocatalytic Process: means that at least one product from a reaction is one
of the reactants used in the process; Jared Diamond, in Chapter 13 of Guns,
Germs, and Steel, uses this concept to explain how certain technologies
cause civilizations to develop at an exponential rate, making it difficult for
societies that develop technologies later to catch up
○ Different names for gun: gunhild (Germany), ballista (France), blunderbuss-
musket (England), harquebus (spaniards)
○ Use of weaponry was realized
○ The ramifications of guns-revolutionized warfare
○ Harquebus-inaccurate, weren’t influential in the conquest of the Incas;
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Document Summary
Mixture of three elements-(main) saltpeter-potassium nitrate, sulfur/charcoal>powdery substance and when it"s ignited with a flame, it explodes. Passed along the silk route-westward, in western asia in 1100 ad; 1200 ad made its way to the middle east. If you pack the powder tightly in a closed tube, add a projectile to it>(cid:523)guns(cid:523) Europe was in the iron age at the time. The first gun metal was made from copper/tin/zinc> (cid:522)gunmetal(cid:523) Autocatalytic process: means that at least one product from a reaction is one of the reactants used in the process; jared diamond, in chapter 13 of guns, Germs, and steel, uses this concept to explain how certain technologies cause civilizations to develop at an exponential rate, making it difficult for societies that develop technologies later to catch up. Different names for gun: gunhild (germany), ballista (france), blunderbuss- musket (england), harquebus (spaniards) Harquebus-inaccurate, weren"t influential in the conquest of the incas;
