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The Musket; A New Level Of Accuracy
This illustration of an English Civil War manual gives a step by step explanation of the use of a Musket by a soldier in the "New Model Army" (1645-1660).
The Musket was an improvement in terms of accuracy when contrasted with the earlier Arquebus.
The "Military Drill" phenomenon is a direct product of this promotion of methodology in the use of weaponry. The original source for this illustration is unknown, it is fatured however in "A History of Warfare" by John Keegan; Published in 1993. -
The Canon; A Symbol Of War At Sea
'Dutch Attack on the Medway' June 1667 by Pieter Cornelisz van Soest The Raid on the Medway took place between the 9th and the 14th of June 1667 (Second Anglo-Dutch War). In an age of gunpowder, the significance of war at sea in 17th century Europe is characterized by the crew's ability to employ "The Canon". -
The Bayonet: Bringing Duality To Firearms
The war of the sixth Coalition (1812-1814) is one of the many examples demonstrating how widespread the use of the Bayonet had become in early 19th century Europe. The Battle of Grossbeeren depicted here gives us an idea of the proximity in combat between Prussian and Saxon soldiers as they take advantage of the duality of this piece of weaponry. This illustration is of unknown origin however it is dated 1813 in Jesse Russel and Ronald Cohn's Book "War Of The Sixth Coalition", 2013 edition. -
The Flintlock: A Revolutionary Mechanism
The Flintlock as a mechanism became widely popular throughout the 18th and 19th centuries in Europe.
Aside from its military use it came to be adopted by the British as a mean to restore one's honour by challenging of one's opponent to a pistol duel (replacing the fencing sword). This practice was adopted accross Europe as this depiction (By an unknown painter) of the pistol duel between the Russian poet Alexander Pushkin and French military officer Georges d'Anthès in January 1837 suggests. -
Chemical Warfare: The Dehumanization of Europe
Two German soldiers and their mule wearing gas masks in WWI, 1916 This photograph conveys the powerful idea that beyond the dehumanization of man, the wrath of warfare extends to all living creatures.
While both The Hague Declaration of 1899 and the Hague Convention of 1907 had forbiden the use of “poison or poisonous weapons” in warfare, over 124 000 tons of gas were manufactured by the end of World War I. http://rarehistoricalphotos.com/two-german-soldiers-mule-wearing-gas-masks-wwi-1916/ -
The Atomic Bomb: A Catalyst To The Apocalypse
Although Half way accross the world the events of Hiroshima and Nagazaki set the stage for 20th century Europpean history and beyond. Indeed, the nuclear threat to become at the heart of the cold war had never been so clear in history. "What has kept the world safe from the bomb since 1945 has not been deterrence, in the sense of fear of specific weapons, so much as it's been memory. The memory of what happened at Hiroshima"
John Hersey
