With the explosion of gunpowder, the disintegration of the Middle Ages and the birth of the new century began. After China invented gunpowder weapons in Song Dynasty, the war spread to the border areas of Jin, Liao, Xia and Mongolia. On the long journey to the west, Mongols spread to Islamic countries through expansion and finally fell to Western Europe. Since then, gunpowder, with its vigorous appearance, has shown a picture of civilization changes intertwined with light and heat.
Europeans began to study firearms in the middle of15th century. Ottoman Turkey destroyed the walls of the Byzantine Empire with artillery, and also destroyed the barrier for Europeans to stop the powerful offensive from Asia.
The invention of science and technology always begins in the military field. The technological innovation of equipment triggered the military revolution. After learning cannon from China, Europeans began to make guns. At that time, the weapons used by the infantry were powder guns and sliding boring guns, and the rotating machine guns and flintlock guns were invented in the16th century. Due to the innovation of Europeans, the firepower and maneuverability of artillery have been greatly improved.
The improvement of firearms has brought the war into a technical stage. Personal heroism is no match for mechanical technology, and superior weapons become the key to victory. As Fuller, a western military scientist, said: The use of gunpowder makes all people equal in height and equal in war.
The outbreak of military reform quickly triggered the corresponding changes in political and economic organizations and became the forerunner of later European social revolution. All this happened after the end of the Middle Ages, but it still has some characteristics of the Middle Ages.