This was a special on Discovery a while back. I tuned in eagerly, only to learn that "to make it easier to choose, we limited it to weapons from the second half of the twentieth century," or some such. Laaaame! I turned off the TV before they could show a parade of fancy fighter jets and handheld missile launchers. If I wanted to jerk off over how far away we can kill people from today, I could visit the U.S. Army website. I was looking for something more long-term historical, such as (going from my limited knowledge of history, in no particular order):
-The atlatl spear-thrower, which made mammoth-hunting fun and easy rather than insanely dangerous
-The chariot, which not only broke Civ1 but also conquered just about all of the ancient world under one invading horde or another
-The atomic bomb, for obvious reasons
-Gunpowder, which put an end to castles and helped put an end to heavy cavalry
-Probably others but that's all I can think of.
I guess it depends how you define a "weapon." If you could consider stirrups a weapon, indirectly, they certainly played a major part. What do you say, O history wonks of Poly? I'm thinking of revolutionary arms that changed the whole way wars were fought, and politics as well, not just improved versions of the same old thing.
-The atlatl spear-thrower, which made mammoth-hunting fun and easy rather than insanely dangerous
-The chariot, which not only broke Civ1 but also conquered just about all of the ancient world under one invading horde or another
-The atomic bomb, for obvious reasons
-Gunpowder, which put an end to castles and helped put an end to heavy cavalry
-Probably others but that's all I can think of.
I guess it depends how you define a "weapon." If you could consider stirrups a weapon, indirectly, they certainly played a major part. What do you say, O history wonks of Poly? I'm thinking of revolutionary arms that changed the whole way wars were fought, and politics as well, not just improved versions of the same old thing.
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