http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/Articles/2013/08/15/12-Weapons-That-Changed-Everything
QuoteHistory is shaped by these technological innovations. It is impossible to imagine a Roman empire without its Legionary sword, or a British one without muskets. The German blitzkrieg required fast engines and lots of gasoline. The Atomic bomb, which has shaped every political action since its first use at Hiroshima, required nuclear physics (and, obviously, flight).
Interesting.
Too many typos.
If JH sees this he'll blow a fuse. They call the AK's magazine a "clip".
Think they missed an obvious one. The horse.
So many things came about because of the horse's mobility, and not mentioning it seems a bit silly.
Quote from: besilarius on September 17, 2013, 03:05:39 PM
Think they missed an obvious one. The horse.
So many things came about because of the horse's mobility, and not mentioning it seems a bit silly.
Yeah, we could quibble. Crossbow. Sling. Atlatl. Fire. Siege engines, starting with the ladder and going from there.
Flipping sieges around, we could go through the evolution of defensive measures that have, over time, evolved and eventually disappeared. Today's warfare - at least against the US - demonstrates that defensive emplacements are tombs. If you hole up in a bunker you're toast. Maneuver, training, and CCCI matter most. The equipment, while significant, is almost secondary. Substitute this article's vaunted AK instead of our M-4s and we'd still mop the battlefield.
Drones are less a paradigm changer than they are an evolution of precision ordnance that has been evolving since the 90's. The entire class of stand-off, precision, high-explosive ordnance is a huge game changer, whether it be delivered by mortar, aircraft, or sea-launched.
Still, it does a good job of starting the conversation.
It wasn't the horse it was the stirup.
I'm all for the hubris of man but we didn't invent the . ;)
The Huns did not have stirrups.
If you're going to be picky, then taming horses is up there with the metallurgy necessary to mass produce the gladius.
Quote from: besilarius on September 17, 2013, 07:46:28 PM
The Huns did not have stirrups.
If you're going to be picky, then taming horses is up there with the metallurgy necessary to mass produce the gladius.
Right. It was the Chinese who first used what we would recognize as stirrups back when the Roman Empire was in it's infancy but it was the Avars who introduced the stirrup to Europe in the late 500's or early 600's AD.