Exporting Gunpowder to Eurasia

Abstract

Abstract Gunpowder and gun technology originated in China and their spread throughout Eurasia from the 13th to the 16th century was an example of the spread of Chinese culture. All of the basic forms of that military technology were fully developed in China before being transmitted outside of China, including the knowledge of how to acquire saltpeter, and that gunpowder only required sulfur, saltpeter, and charcoal. The disassociation of gunpowder and gun technology from its Chinese origins and as a material part of Chinese culture is due to the centrality of Western military technological superiority in the Western narrative explaining Western cultural superiority. That narrative is fundamental to the Western justification of imperialism, colonialism and Western global exploitation.