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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Steel_Wind" data-source="post: 2304431" data-attributes="member: 20741">Feudal society was marked by relatively expensive weapons of war, expensive weapons of defence and protracted periods of time to learn how to use them.They were a product of and reinforced feudal society.As weaponry changed to ranged weapons, the process of "democratization of the battlefield" followed.  From bow to cross bow to arquebus, cannon, musket and rifle - the weapon kept getting easier to use and more deadly.The situation is pretty easily summed up by taking an Enworlder at random and passing a sword or spear into his hands and getting him to fight the average knight in the backyard.You've got one dead ENworlder.Arm the same enworlder with a musket vs yonder knight - still probably a dead Enwolder (but maybe not).Put 30 enworlders with muskets and a few weeks training against 10 mounted knights? And give us a cannon with grape as well?I'm happier to be on the Enworlders side of the battle. No guarantees, but I'm very happy to be near the side of the cannon when the grapeshot starts flying at the charging knights.Gunpowder was the great equalizer among men. It brought into focus technology and strength of the industrial society who created and fielded the weapons.  It made total war (and popular revolutions) possible in a way that could never happen in the medieval period.The more technological your battlefield, the more broad based it is, from a social perspective.</blockquote>

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