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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Shades of Green" data-source="post: 2305888" data-attributes="member: 3297">I don't think that changes in society could be directly linked ANY single cause; they always have several ones. Saying that "it was all due to gownpowder" is the same as saying "it was all due to the Black Death". Both were important, though gunpowder had a greater impact on society than the Black Death. To pick an example relevant to this thread, you can't fire a gun just by having only the gunpowder, the bullet, the trigger, the firing tubes or the gun-man. You need all of them: the gun-man to point the gun at a target, stabilize it, load it and pull the trigger; you need the gunpowder to propel the bullet, which, in turn, is needed in order to impact a target; you need a tube to contain the powder's explosive force and to direct it to propel the bullet in the right direction; and you need the trigger to ignite the gunpowder.The development of cities, trade, trade and production slowly eroded the socio-economical basis of feudalism and gradually concentrated power in the hands of townsmen (mostly merchants and the artisan precursors of industrialists); it also made the monrach less and less dependant on nobility and more and more dependant on moneylenders, merchants and mercenaries. It did not destroy feudalism overnight; in fact, the last remanants of feudalism lived up to the early 20th century (such as in Tsarist Russia, which was semi-feudal up to the 1917 Revolution, even though serfdom was officially abolished in the 1850's IIRC). Guns made (after some time) the noble knight, with his castle, steed, expensive armor and extensive training, quite useless in the battlefield. It made the monarch far less dependant on the aristocracy in military matters and far more dependant on the moneylenders and the merchants. This made absolute monarchy possible and, in turn, strengthened and enriched the townsmen.There were, ofcourse, other inventions which had great effect on the late medieval and the early post-medieval society, and most of them had something to do with shipbuilding and navigation. In addition to the boost they gave to trade between the European kingdoms, they also made the exploration and exploitation of other continents possible and profitable. Not only were these new ships armed with cannons (giving more profits to the cannon-makers and giving a push to the metal industry in general), but gunpowder gave the European conquerors a distinct advantage over native armies. This made the merchants even wealthier as they had new markets, new workforces and lots of resources and riches to plunder and sell. The Black Death accelerated this process by concentrating the same amount of wealth (land, instruments, money etc) in the hands of two thirds of the population (those who stayed alive), and thus giving a push to trade and to the standard of living. Eventually, all these changes brought the total collapse of feudalism and the rise of absolute (or constitutional, in other countries) monarchy, massive changes to religion (and the general weakening of the church), scientific progress and, eventually, the industrial and democratic revolutions.</blockquote>

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