Wars were fought the world over between the 12th and 17th centuries as navies, armies, and chartered merchant companies battled one another (and locals) on every inhabited land and every navigable body of water. Continental rivalries turned into global rivalries for power, territory, markets, and souls. "Gunpowder Empires," emerging in the fourteenth century, drastically altered global politics with brutal simplicity. Those who adopted gunpowder weapons effectively--France, Ottoman Turks, Iran--inevitably crushed those who did not--Mongols, Aztecs, Japanese Samurai. This unparalleled work offers close to 2,000 incredibly wide-ranging entries on cultural, military, and political history, as well as geography, biography, and philosophy.
Description:
Wars were fought the world over between the 12th and 17th centuries as navies, armies, and chartered merchant companies battled one another (and locals) on every inhabited land and every navigable body of water. Continental rivalries turned into global rivalries for power, territory, markets, and souls. "Gunpowder Empires," emerging in the fourteenth century, drastically altered global politics with brutal simplicity. Those who adopted gunpowder weapons effectively--France, Ottoman Turks, Iran--inevitably crushed those who did not--Mongols, Aztecs, Japanese Samurai. This unparalleled work offers close to 2,000 incredibly wide-ranging entries on cultural, military, and political history, as well as geography, biography, and philosophy.