Guns and Gold; Faidi and Food : i6i 



migradon and colonization came along to relieve pressure on Euro- 

 pean resources. 



The fifteenth century saw an increase in the population of Europe. 

 The population that was better fed, better housed, more hopeful and 

 adventurous benefited by what was already taking place on the 

 Atlantic such as the founding of the whale fisheries in the north and 

 the development of the fisheries for cod and other food fishes. The 

 scene was thus set for the next great step in European expansion. 



One technological development had the most far-reaching effects; 

 this was the development of explosive arms. The many and frequent 

 wars of Europe stimulated the invention and development both of 

 defensive armament and of offensive arms. The use of incendiary 

 materials and of explosives was very old indeed and developed in the 

 Orient at least as early as in the Mediterranean and in Europe. Once 

 started, the development of effective cannon and of portable personal 

 arms proceeded more rapidly in Europe than anywhere else. It was 

 this development that made possible the spread of European people 

 and of the ideas embodied in their society. 



Before the close of the thirteenth century Roger Bacon, the Eng- 

 lish scholar and philosopher, had developed a formula for gun- 

 powder, but it took many years before gunpowder was effectively 

 used in cannon either ashore or afloat. 



The first European guns using gunpowder were crude and dan- 

 gerous; that is, they were almost as likely to kill and maim the men 

 that built and fired them as to destroy the enemy. The barrels o£ 

 some early guns were simply long iron bars with angular sides held 

 together by metal bands and hoops. They were breech-loading. Some- 

 times the breech blew backward; sometimes when the breech held, 

 the barrel blew sideways and sometimes the ball left the barrel in the 

 general direction of the enemy. 



Guns were used on ships almost as soon as on land. Mortars were 

 used on galleys in the Mediterranean as early as 131 1. They were 

 mounted in vessels of the Spanish fleet in 1359 and in the battle 

 which took place at La Rochelle in 1372, the guns of the Spanish fleet 

 won a decisive victory over England. A few years later, cannon used 

 on naval vessels played a great part in the Venetian-Genoese War. 



Various sizes and types of guns for various purposes began to 

 appear during the fifteenth century. By 1500 the advantages of brass 

 cannon in the matter of safety and accuracy had been demonstrated. 

 These were solid castings with bored barrels and were, of course, 



