Basic Weapons

I am doing a reaserch report on basic weapons by the Romans, Byzantines, Chinese, and Persians. What age would we be living in if one of these civilizations never existed? Please reply soon.

Pepper13
 
I am doing a reaserch report on basic weapons by the Romans, Byzantines, Chinese, and Persians. What age would we be living in if one of these civilizations never existed? Please reply soon.

Pepper13

I don't think that weaponry would really be so much different without those. Swords, spears, etc are pretty much a universal constant amongst civilizations and cultures of a certain level.
 
I don't think that weaponry would really be so much different without those. Swords, spears, etc are pretty much a universal constant amongst civilizations and cultures of a certain level.


They all had unique forms of firepower and artillery, though. Byzantines and Greek Fire, China and its repeating crossbows, Rome and it's scorpions, plus much more for all of them.

While some of the weaponry used had common design elements, a lot of it was actually pretty unique.
 
They all had unique forms of firepower and artillery, though. Byzantines and Greek Fire, China and its repeating crossbows, Rome and it's scorpions, plus much more for all of them.

While some of the weaponry used had common design elements, a lot of it was actually pretty unique.

Not really. The Roman fighting gear was very similar to the Celtiberian, probably mirrored by many Celtic peoples, too (that's where they got a lot of it, after all) and not too dissimilar to the Hellenistic thyrophoros equipment. Scorpiones were no different from Hellenistioc bolt-shooting catapults. The Chinese crossbow differed from the Roman design mainly in its release mechanism while Greek Fire represents little more than a furtzher development in incendiary weaponry very likely duplicated in China without the big publicity. The Chinese preferred tension to torsion power for their medium artillery and adopted the counterweight principle for heavy rockchuckers earlier, but at the end of the day, good ideas diffuse quickly.

The main question is, what do we get *instead* of the great civilisations? That will have a huge impact on weapons development.
 
basically all civilizations stood on the one before it
if you remove one you get the one before and so on, you can practicaly peal of cultures layer by layer

technology is different do, its more like languge, it tends to spread to anione who can coperhend it at a certain level, and develop fast, depending on the circumstances and needs
 
Physics only work in one way. There's always this 'best possible build with the given material and technology' of a weapon, and all civilizations with the same amount of technology and materials will eventually build weapons that look more or less the same, with some space for traditional and artistic influences.

Take for example, native Southern America. As they didn't had the ability (technology or materials, don't know that much about their metallurgy skills) to use metals in their weapons, they resorted to pieces of obsidian stuck between two pieces of wood bound together. It was functually very similar to a sword (or a sharp club, depending on the quality), as that is a design that works.

It's not hard to develop spears, nor is it that hard to develop axes; and it only takes hald a brain to combine them and make a halberd.
 
If any of these civilizations did not exist, the world would be unrecognizable today, and it is very hard to speculate on a change of that magnitude.
 
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thans this will help with my report so much. Just to let everyone know that i am good at everything after 1900 so message me at pepperstephens@yahoo.com and the url of ur page and i will answer it to my full ability.

Pepper13
 
thans this will help with my report so much. Just to let everyone know that i am good at everything after 1900 so message me at pepperstephens@yahoo.com and the url of ur page and i will answer it to my full ability.

Pepper13

Everything after 1900? I doubt that. To prove it, tell me who Andre Gardes is, what his profession was, what his job was, what he tried to do, and what was he wearing when he did it. Without Wiki or Google. :p
 
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