The use of gunpowder and firearms has been a key concern for military history and for the history of warfare, science and technology. It has also been crucial to the debate on the expansion of empires across the world. It has often been suggested that the exclusivity of the use of firearms in fact created 'gunpowder empires', a centralization of power in the hands of those who could afford this technology. Using material from a range of contemporary sources and ...
