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Old 2012-09-10, 01:12   Link #185
Ridwan
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Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: قلوب المؤمنين
As far as I know, carried firearm was an evolution from cannon. Hand guns are basically portable cannons. IOTL, it looks like that the level of iron casting necessary for cannons had already been reached quite a while in the western hemisphere before gunpowder weaponry started being used, but it was regarded of little use prior. Only through briefly heightened exchange with the east facilitated by Mongol expansion did gunpowder actually spread westward. Evolution of gunpowder warfare that we are now familiar with began with that starting point, developed within the frame of western(as in, Europe and Middle East) political realities.

The role of Ottoman Empire was rather crucial here, being the first state ever to employ mass gunpowder warfare. They pretty much singlehandedly accelerated the process of gunpowder warfare evolution through their efficient autocratic-motored military expansion in their heydays which forced everyone around them to emulate.

Evolution of military technology depends unconditionally to the corresponding geopolitical realities. Change a bit of the later and you'll get a quite different kind of the former. Absence of Mongol factor will make western military evolve differently from OTL, and not necessarily for the better or worse, though in this context of gunpowder warfare it seems tempting to assume for slower pace in general.
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