WI europe rejects gun powder?

What I meant was that never discovering gunpowder is equally implausible. Just because the Chinese don't invent it ITTL doesn't mean that nobody else will.
However, we all know that Greek Fire hadn't been reinvented (it isn't like humankind failed to produce something less cumbersome and more deadly, but still). So, I can see TLs where invention of explosives (gunpowder was the only known explosive for how long, 5 centuries at least) is delayed for centuries.
 
I think the basic problem is that gunpowder would be a by product of alchemical experimentation with fairly basic compounds.

"By weight measure, black powder is made of seventy-five parts saltpeter finely ground, fifteen parts charcoal, and ten parts sulfur. All ingredients must be fine ground separately. This can be accomplished with either a mortar and pestle, or with a hand-cranked flour mill."
 
However, we all know that Greek Fire hadn't been reinvented (it isn't like humankind failed to produce something less cumbersome and more deadly, but still).

Actually, we don't. The problem is we don't knowe what 'Greek Fire' or Seafire was exactly. What we do know is that incendiary weapons were commonplace throughout the Middle Ages, and from the 13th century onwards we have recipes for self-igniting and externally ignited compounds, liquids and pastes, and all kinds of interesting sideline applications. It is quite possibly any of these was the fabled Seafire - or not.
 
Europe rejecting gunpowder is like asking what if Antiquity rejected bronze in favour of keeping the wooden spear. Or if Industrialization rejected the steam engine in favour of manual labour. The benfits provided by the new technology are just too great to be overcome by any sort of traditionalists. Anyone not choosing it would quickly be overcome by someone else that had adopted the new power.

Go tell Mamluk Egypt...
 
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