Gunpowder

From A+ Club Lesson Planner & Study Guide

Introduction of gunpowder to military conflict dramatically changed the courses of history.

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Hussite wars (Czechslovakia)[edit | edit source]

The "Hussite" revolutionaries, followers of Jan Huss, a proto-protestant, anti-Catholic reformer, were led by a military genius and modern national hero, Jan Žižka.

Here on his use of gunpowder from Wikipedia:

The Hussite wars also marked the earliest successful use of pistols on the battlefield and Žižka was an innovator in the use of gunpowder. He was the first European commander to maneuver on the field with cannon of medium caliber mounted on carts in between the wagons. The Czechs called the handgun a píšťala, and anti-infantry field guns houfnice, from which the English words "pistol" and "howitzer" have been derived. The Germans had just started corning gunpowder, making it suitable for use in smaller, tactical weapons. A handgunner on an open field armed with only a single-shot weapon and without a bayonette was no match for a charging knight on a horse; however, from behind a castle wall, or from within the enclosure of the wagenburg, massed and disciplined gunmen could use the handgun to its greatest potential. From his experiences at the Battle of Grunwald, Žižka knew exactly how his enemies would attack, and he found new ways to defeat forces numerically superior to his own.