![]() For instance, swords became practical for the first time, though some peoples had previously tried to make them by edging a flattened wooden club with sharpened stones or sharks teeth.Ī typical bronze-age battle compromised a few well-armed nobles on each side, each protected by a helmet and a big leather shield, poking at one another with bronze-pointed spears, while behind them howling mobs of the common people hurled stones and insults. The discovery of metals about 6,000 years ago brought about a revolution in weapons, since they could be made of copper or bronze more quickly than of stone, and since the material allowed a greater variety of forms. The natives of Borneo not only make a blow-gun for shooting poisoned darts, but also equip it with a sight and a bayonet. A few peoples developed more specialized missile weapons, such as the boomerang, the sling, the pellet-bow, and the blowgun. The bow, having much greater range and accuracy, spread over most of the world and drove out the spear-thrower except among a few isolated tribes. Then they threw with an overhand motion, letting go the javelin so that the thrower acted as an extension of the arm. ![]() They held the spear-thrower in the same hand that held the javelin or throwing-spear, with the hook of the thrower engaging a hollow in the butt of the javelin. The bow, invented at the beginning of the Neolithic Age, fulfilled both these functions, Before that time men used a device called a spear-thrower, a stick with a hook or spur at the end. Strikes, to damage the victim more severely than is possible by biting and kicking. ![]() These weapons both enable the warrior to attack his opponent at a greater distance than if he had to depend on hands and teeth alone, and, by storing energy which is released all at once when the weapon All his many weapons developed since have had the same purpose to kill, wound, or otherwise subdue his enemies in order to compel them to do what the man wanted them to, whether to let themselves be eaten, or to give up their property to the victor, or to lower their taxes. A million years ago, when he began his climb towards civilization, he probably knew how to throw stones and to hit with a stick. He lacks not only horns and claws, but even the big canine tusks owned by his cousins the apes. This process still goes on in the dizzy pace of technological change that confuses so many people today.Īlthough man, compared to most animals, is a fairly large and powerful creature, he is weakly armed in proportion to his size. Moreover, these inventions allowed men more spare time, which in turn encouraged them to make still more inventions. By these inventions they so increased their food supply that great groups of people became possible, and they could save enough to tempt the plunderers. Real warfare became practical when, between 7,000 and 10,000 years ago, men learned to tame food-animals and raise crops. Hence two of the main courses for war, economic competition and the prospect of robbery, were absent. Furthermore, at that stage of culture nobody ever had enough wealth to be worth stealing. They had then reached the Neolithic or polished stone stage of culture, like that of the most primitive peoples of today.Īs far as we can judge, these hunters and food gatherers did not practice formal warfare, not because they were more virtuous than we are, but because the world’s human population was so small and thinly spread that no occasions arose for large-scale fighting, though no doubt there was a lot of individual assault and murder. Then men learned to finish their stone tools and weapons by grinding and polishing, and to tame the dog to help them hunt. By 10,000 years ago these simple implements had developed into an extensive kit of stone-headed spears, axes, bone harpoons, and the like. Both as members of the armed forces and as citizens, it is our business to be able to weigh the sweeping predictions we hear from time to time about the nature of future warfare and to come out with some sensible result.Ībout 500,000 years ago our ancestors learned to hunt and fight with pointed sticks and flat pieces of flint sharpened on one edge and held in the fist. We are to study the history of naval weapons, first, in order to make the study pf the weapons themselves more interesting, and second, to obtain an idea of how the whole process of the evolution of weapons take place so that we can learn what sort of changes to expect in weapons in the future.
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