Spread · Invention

Gunpowder

Tang alchemists wrote down the first gunpowder mixtures in the 9th century, and Song, Jin and Yuan armies made them into bombs, fire lances and the first guns. Guns reached Europe, the Islamic world, Korea and Đại Việt in the 14th century, by ways seldom recorded, and Ottoman and Portuguese matchlocks reached India and Japan in the 16th.

808 CE – today
23 places reached
Still in use

See it spread on the atlas All spreads Wikipedia

2026

Every place it reached: 23, faint where it ended

GunpowderIn useSpread

Trade routesSea lane

Trade routes that carried it

Routes on the atlas along which the sources say it travelled.

1543 – 1639 · by sea
Nanban trade
Portuguese traders, the first of whom reached Tanegashima on a Chinese junk in 1543, brought matchlock guns to Japan, where smiths soon made them in large numbers.

In its story

Events on timeastra with pages of their own.

Timeline

23 arrivals in order: when it was first recorded in each place, from where and who carried it, with the sources for the date.

808 CE · Tang China (Chang'an) · Gunpowder and bombs
Daoist alchemists wrote down a mixture of sulphur, saltpetre and birthwort in 808 and, some 50 years later, warned that such mixes burnt hands and houses, the first records of gunpowder.
where it began[1][2]
1044 · Kaifeng · Gunpowder and bombs
The Song capital's arsenal made gunpowder and fire arrows, the Wujing zongyao finished for the emperor in 1044 gives the oldest surviving formulas, and in 1232 Jin defenders used iron bombs against the Mongols.
from Chang'an · by craftsmen[1][3]
1132 · De'an · Gunpowder and bombs
Holding De'an against a rebel army in 1132, the Song prefect Chen Gui's men attacked the crews of the siege towers with bamboo lances spouting gunpowder fire, the first fire lances on record.
[1][4]
1267 · Paris · Gunpowder and bombs
In the Opus maius he sent to Pope Clement IV in 1267, the English friar Roger Bacon, then in Paris, described a saltpetre firecracker known in many lands, the first European record of gunpowder.
[1][5][6]
1274, until 1281 · Hakata · Gunpowder and bombs
Yuan troops landing at Hakata Bay in 1274 threw bombs at the samurai, and ceramic bombs packed with gunpowder and iron were found in a wreck of their 1281 fleet off Takashima.
[7][1][8]
c. 1280 · Syria (Damascus) · Gunpowder and bombs
The Syrian Hasan al-Rammah, writing under the Mamluks by about 1280, gave recipes for gunpowder and rockets, described fire lances and called saltpetre Chinese snow.
[1][2][9]
c. 1288 · Acheng · Guns and cannon
A bronze hand cannon dug up at Banlachengzi, near where the Jurchen general Li Ting's gunners fought the rebel prince Nayan for the Yuan in 1287 and 1288, is the oldest surviving firearm.
[10][1]
1298 · Xanadu · Guns and cannon
A bronze gun found in the ruins of the Yuan summer capital bears a date equal to 1298, the oldest gun with a date of making.
[11][1]
1326 · England (London) · Guns and cannon
A treatise on kingship made in 1326 for the young Edward III shows a soldier firing a great arrow from a vase-shaped gun, the oldest known European picture of a gun.
[1][12]
February 1326 · Florence · Guns and cannon
On 11 February 1326 the Signoria of Florence named two officers to obtain metal cannon and ammunition for the city's defence, one of the first records of guns in Europe.
[1]
1343 · Algeciras · Guns and cannon
Under siege by Castile from 1342 to 1344, the city's Marinid defenders fired iron shot from gunpowder bombards, which they called thunders, said to be the first guns used in Iberia.
[13][1]
August 1346 · Crécy · Guns and cannon
Edward III's army set up early guns at Crécy before the battle of 26 August 1346, one of the first battles in Europe in which cannon were used.
from London · by war[14][1]
1373, took hold by 1377 · Goryeo (Gaegyeong) · Guns and cannon
Goryeo's warships carried guns by 1373, and from 1377 an office set up on Ch'oe Mu-seon's advice made its own gunpowder, by the saltpetre method he learned from a merchant from Jiangnan.
[1][16][15]
March 1376 · Bolghar · Guns and cannon
When a Russian army reached this Golden Horde city on the Volga in March 1376, its defenders let off thunder from the walls, which historians read as the first guns Russians met.
[18]
1380 · Jinpo · Guns and cannon
Goryeo's fleet, with Ch'oe Mu-seon among its commanders, burned the ships of a large Japanese pirate fleet at the mouth of the Geum River with its new guns in 1380.
from Gaegyeong · by war[15][17][1]
August 1382 · Moscow · Guns and cannon
Defending the city against Tokhtamysh's army in August 1382, Muscovites fired tyufyaki and great guns from the walls, the first record of Russians using firearms.
from Bolghar · by war[19][20][18]
1390 · Đại Việt (Thăng Long) · Guns and cannon
On the Hải Triều river south-east of the capital, Trần Khát Chân's men fired guns at the Cham king Chế Bồng Nga's green barge and killed him in 1390, Đại Việt's first recorded use of guns.
[21][22][23]
c. 1407 · Beijing · Guns and cannon
After the Ming conquest of Đại Ngu in 1407, the captured prince Hồ Nguyên Trừng made Vietnamese-style guns for the Ming, whose official history says the Shenji battalion at Beijing drilled with gun methods from Jiaozhi.
from Thăng Long · by war and craftsmen[24][25]
c. 1413 · Majapahit (Trowulan) · Guns and cannon
Ma Huan, an interpreter on Zheng He's fleet, saw guns let off in wedding processions in Majapahit Java about 1413, one of the first sure records of firearms in the islands.
[26][1]
June 1422 · Constantinople · Guns and cannon
Murad II brought cannon to his siege of 1422, the Ottomans' first sure use of them, and in 1453 Mehmed II's great bombards, one cast by the Hungarian Orban, breached the land walls.
[27][1][28]
c. 1472 · Belgaum · Gunpowder and bombs
Besieging Belgaum about 1472, the Bahmani minister Mahmud Gawan breached its fort with mines and explosives, the first known use of gunpowder in the Deccan.
[29][2]
April 1526 · Panipat · Matchlock guns
At Panipat on 21 April 1526 Babur set matchlock men and field guns behind a line of linked carts, under two Ottoman master gunners, and defeated the far larger army of the sultan of Delhi.
from Constantinople · by war and craftsmen[30][31]
1543 · Tanegashima · Matchlock guns
Portuguese on a Chinese junk blown to this island in 1543 sold two matchlocks to its lord Tanegashima Tokitaka, whose swordsmith copied them; the guns spread across Japan as tanegashima.
[32][1]

Sources

Works the dates are read from. Each arrival above names its own.

1.History of gunpowder. citing Lorge 2008, p. 32 and Needham 1986, p. 111 (Tang texts); Andrade 2016, pp. 16, 32, 45 and Needham 1986, pp. 20, 118–124 (Kaifeng); Needham 1986, p. 222, Chase 2003, p. 31, Lorge 2008, pp. 33–34 and Andrade 2016, p. 38 (De'an); Chase 2003, p. 58, Kelly 2004, p. 25 and Needham 1986, pp. 48–50 (Bacon); Turnbull 2013, pp. 41–42, Sasaki 2015, p. 69 and Needham 1986, pp. 178, 295 (Japan); Khan 1996 and Kelly 2004, p. 22 (al-Rammah); Chase 2003, p. 32 and Needham 1986, pp. 294, 304 (Nayan); Andrade 2016, pp. 52–53 (Xanadu); Kelly 2004, p. 29 and Andrade 2016, p. 76 (Milemete); Crosby 2002, p. 120 (Florence); J. Lavin, uncited (Algeciras); Kelly 2004, pp. 19–37 (Crécy); Needham 1986, p. 309 (Korea, 1373); Turnbull 2003, pp. 20–21 (Korea, 1380); Mayers 1876 and Manguin 1976, p. 245 (Java); Nicolle 1983, p. 18 (Ottomans); Lidin 2002, pp. 1–14 (Japan, 1543); Andrade 2016, p. 75 (Chinese origin)
2.Gunpowder. citing Lorge 2008, p. 32 (Tang texts); Kelly 2004, p. 22 and Khan 1996 (al-Rammah); Khan 2004, p. 10 (Belgaum)
3.Wujing Zongyao. citing Needham 1987, pp. 19, 601; Lorge 2008, p. 33; Wang 1947, p. 162
4.Siege of De'an. citing Andrade 2016, pp. 37–38
5.Opus Majus. citing a note only, no book ("Opus Majus in year 1267 was accompanied by a letter of dedication to the Pope")
6.Roger Bacon. Jeremiah Hackett, 2020, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
7.Mongol invasions of Japan. citing Turnbull 2013, pp. 41–42; Turnbull 2010, p. 49; Sasaki 2015, p. 69; Conlan 2013, pp. 54–73
8.Relics of the Kamikaze. James P. Delgado, 2003, Archaeology 56 (1)
9.Hasan al-Rammah. citing Van Riper 2004, p. 10; Partington 1999, p. xxvi; Pacey 1991, p. 46; Elgood 1995, p. 20
10.Heilongjiang hand cannon. citing Chase 2003, p. 32; Needham 1987, pp. 293, 304
11.Xanadu Gun. citing Andrade 2016, pp. 52–53
12.Walter de Milemete. citing Nederman 2002; James (ed.) 1913, p. 140
13.Siege of Algeciras (1342–1344). citing Torremocha Silva 2004, "Cerco y defensa de Algeciras: el uso de la pólvora"; Torremocha Silva 1987, p. 248
14.Battle of Crécy. citing DeVries 1998, pp. 161, 163–164 and Bennett 1994, p. 8 (guns set up); Livingstone & Witzel 2004, pp. 58–59, Burne 1999, pp. 187–198 and Sumption 1990, p. 528 (their types)
15.최무선 (Ch'oe Mu-seon). Chae Yeon-seok, 1995, Encyclopedia of Korean Culture, Academy of Korean Studies
16.최무선. citing Goryeosa (Gongmin 5 and 22, 1356 and 1373; U 3, 1377); Taejo sillok, 4th year, 4th month, 19th day (1395)
17.진포 해전. citing Goryeosa and Goryeosa jeoryo (U 6, 8th month, 1380); Yun Myeong-cheol 2008
18.Булгарский поход русских князей (1376). citing PSRL vol. 11, p. 25 (Nikon chronicle, 6884–6885); Mavrodin 1946, pp. 98–99 and Vestnik LGU 1946 (3), pp. 66–76; Vernadsky 1997, pp. 19–20; Bariev 2005, p. 168
19.Нашествие Тохтамыша на Москву. citing Kargalov 2008, p. 356; Shefov 2004, pp. 84–85; the Tale of the Invasion of Tokhtamysh
20.Siege of Moscow (1382). citing Shaikhutdinov 2021, p. 106; Crummey 2014, p. 57
21.Champa–Đại Việt War (1367–1390). citing Whitmore 2011, p. 196; Sun 2006, p. 76; Aymonier 1893, p. 20; Kiernan 2019, pp. 189–190
22.Chế Bồng Nga. citing Ngô Sĩ Liên 1993 (Đại Việt sử ký toàn thư, Vietnamese translation), pp. 281–283; Maspero 2002, pp. 107–109; Trần Kỳ Phương (ed.) 2011, p. 196
23.欽定越史通鑑綱目 (Khâm định Việt sử Thông giám cương mục), Chính biên, quyển 11
24.Ming conquest of Đại Ngu. citing Sun 2006, pp. 77–80, 92; Andrade 2019, pp. 78–79
25.明史 (History of Ming), juan 92, Treatise on the Army 4
26.Cetbang. citing Manguin 1976, p. 245
27.Siege of Constantinople (1422). citing Turnbull, The Walls of Constantinople AD 324–1453 (Osprey); Byzantine short chronicle of c. 1425
28.Fall of Constantinople. citing Norwich 1997, p. 374; Runciman 1965, pp. 77–78; Steele; Hammer
29.Mahmud Gawan. citing Eaton 2008, p. 71
30.First Battle of Panipat. citing Babur, Baburnama (date); Chandra 2009, pp. 29–30; Watts 2011, p. 707
31.Babur. citing Dale 2004, p. 316; Farooqi 2008, pp. 13–14; Gilbert 2017, p. 75
32.Tanegashima (gun). citing Lidin 2002, pp. 5–6, 142; Daehnhardt 1994, p. 26

Gunpowder, referred to as black powder to distinguish it from modern smokeless powder, is the earliest known chemical explosive. It consists of a mixture of sulfur, charcoal (which is mostly carbon), and potassium nitrate (saltpeter). The sulfur and charcoal act as fuels, while the saltpeter is an oxidizer. Gunpowder has been widely used as a propellant in firearms, artillery, rocketry, and pyrotechnics, including use as a blasting agent for explosives in quarrying, mining, building pipelines, tunnels, and roads.

Gunpowder is classified as a low explosive because of its relatively slow decomposition rate, low ignition temperature and consequently low brisance (breaking/shattering). Low explosives deflagrate—burning at subsonic speeds—whereas high explosives detonate, producing a supersonic shockwave. Ignition of gunpowder packed behind a projectile generates enough pressure to force the shot from the muzzle at high speed, but usually not enough force to rupture the gun barrel. It thus makes a good propellant but is less suitable for shattering rock or fortifications with its low-yield explosive power. Nonetheless, it was widely used to fill fused artillery shells (and used in mining and civil engineering projects) until the second half of the 19th century, when the first high explosives were put into use.

Gunpowder is one of the Four Great Inventions of China. Originally developed by Taoists for medicinal purposes, it was first used for warfare around AD 904. Its use in weapons has declined due to smokeless powder replacing it, whilst its relative inefficiency led to newer alternatives such as dynamite and ammonium nitrate/fuel oil replacing it in industrial applications.

Effect

Gunpowder is a low explosive: it does not detonate, but rather deflagrates (burns quickly). This is an advantage in a propellant device, where one does not desire a shock that would shatter the gun and potentially harm the operator; however, it is a drawback when an explosion is desired. In that case, the propellant (and most importantly, gases produced by its burning) must be confined. Since it contains its own oxidizer and additionally burns faster under pressure, its combustion is capable of bursting containers such as a shell, grenade, or improvised "pipe bomb" or "pressure cooker" casings to form shrapnel.

In quarrying, high explosives are generally preferred for shattering rock. However, because of its low brisance, gunpowder causes fewer fractures and results in more usable stone compared to other explosives, making it useful for blasting slate, which is fragile, or monumental stone such as granite and marble. Gunpowder is well suited for blank rounds, signal flares, burst charges, and rescue-line launches. It is also used in fireworks for lifting shells, in rockets as fuel, and in certain special effects.

Combustion converts less than half the mass of gunpowder to gas; most of it turns into particulate matter. Some of it is ejected, wasting propelling power, fouling the air, and generally being a nuisance (giving away a soldier's position, generating fog that hinders vision, etc.). Some of it ends up as a thick layer of soot inside the barrel, where it also is a nuisance for subsequent shots, and a cause of jamming an automatic weapon. Moreover, this residue contains potassium oxide or sodium oxide, which is hygroscopic and forms potassium hydroxide or sodium hydroxide upon absorbing moisture from the air, causing wrought iron or steel gun barrels to corrode. Gunpowder arms therefore require thorough and regular cleaning to remove the residue.

Gunpowder loads can be used in modern firearms as long as they are not gas-operated. The most compatible modern guns are smoothbore-barreled shotguns that are long-recoil operated with chrome-plated essential parts such as barrels and bores. Such guns have minimal fouling and corrosion, and are easier to clean.

History

China

The first confirmed reference to what can be considered gunpowder in China occurred in the 9th century during the Tang dynasty, first in a formula contained in the Taishang Shengzu Jindan Mijue (Chinese: 太上聖祖金丹秘訣) in 808, and then about 50 years later in a Daoist text known as the Zhenyuan miaodao yaolüe (真元妙道要略). The Taishang Shengzu Jindan Mijue mentions a formula composed of six parts sulfur to six parts saltpeter to one part birthwort herb. According to the Zhenyuan miaodao yaolüe, "Some have heated together sulfur, realgar and saltpeter with honey; smoke and flames result, so that their hands and faces have been burnt, and even the whole house where they were working burned down." Based on these Taoist texts, the invention of gunpowder by Chinese alchemists was likely an accidental byproduct from experiments seeking to create the elixir of life. This experimental medicine origin is reflected in its Chinese name huoyao (Chinese: 火药/火藥; pinyin: huǒ yào/xuo jɑʊ/), which means "fire medicine". Saltpeter was known to the Chinese by the mid-1st century AD and was primarily produced in the provinces of Sichuan, Shanxi, and Shandong. There is strong evidence of the use of saltpeter and sulfur in various medicinal combinations. A Chinese alchemical text dated 492 noted saltpeter burnt with a purple flame, providing a practical and reliable means of distinguishing it from other inorganic salts, thus enabling alchemists to evaluate and compare purification techniques; the earliest Latin accounts of saltpeter purification are dated after 1200.

The earliest chemical formula for gunpowder appeared in the 11th-century Song dynasty text Wujing Zongyao (Complete Essentials from the Military Classics), written by Zeng Gongliang between 1040 and 1044. The Wujing Zongyao provides encyclopedia references to a variety of mixtures that included petrochemicals—as well as garlic and honey. A slow match for flame-throwing mechanisms using the siphon principle and for fireworks and rockets is mentioned. The mixture formulas in this book contain at most 50% saltpeter — not enough to create an explosion, they produce an incendiary instead. The Essentials was written by a Song dynasty court bureaucrat and there is little evidence that it had any immediate impact on warfare; there is no mention of its use in the chronicles of the wars against the Tanguts in the 11th century, and China was otherwise mostly at peace during this century. However, it had already been used for fire arrows since at least the 10th century. Its first recorded military application dates its use to 904 in the form of incendiary projectiles. In the following centuries the Chinese recognised gunpowder for its military applications and gunpowder was weaponised in the form of bombs, fire lances and hand cannons in China. Explosive weapons such as bombs have been discovered in a shipwreck off the shore of Japan dated from 1281, during the Mongol invasions of Japan.

By 1083 the Song court was producing hundreds of thousands of fire arrows for their garrisons. Bombs and the first proto-guns, known as "fire lances", became prominent during the 12th century and were used by the Song during the Jin–Song Wars. Fire lances were first recorded to have been used at the Siege of De'an in 1132 by Song forces against the Jin. In the early 13th century the Jin used iron-casing bombs. Projectiles were added to fire lances, and re-usable fire lance barrels were developed, first out of hardened paper, and then finally, the barrels were made out of metal to better withstand the explosive pressure of gunpowder. By 1257 some fire lances were firing wads of bullets. In the late 13th century metal fire lances became 'eruptors', proto-cannons firing co-viative projectiles (mixed with the propellant, rather than seated over it with a wad), and by 1287 at the latest, had become true guns, the hand cannon, which included a metal barrel, touch hole and gunpowder chamber.

Middle East

According to Iqtidar Alam Khan, the Mongols introduced gunpowder in their invasion of Persia and Mesopotamia. The Muslims acquired knowledge of gunpowder sometime between 1240 and 1280, by which point the Syrian Hasan al-Rammah had written recipes, instructions for the purification of saltpeter, and descriptions of gunpowder incendiaries. It is implied by al-Rammah's usage of "terms that suggested he derived his knowledge from Chinese sources" and his references to saltpeter as "Chinese snow" (Arabic: ثلج الصين thalj al-ṣīn), fireworks as "Chinese flowers", and rockets as "Chinese arrows", that knowledge of gunpowder arrived from China. However, because al-Rammah attributes his material to "his father and forefathers", Ahmad Y. al-Hassan argues that gunpowder became prevalent in Syria and Egypt by "the end of the twelfth century or the beginning of the thirteenth". In Persia saltpeter was known as "Chinese salt" (Persian: نمک چینی}, romanized: namak-i chīnī) or "salt from Chinese salt marshes" (نمک شوره چینی namak-i shūra-yi chīnī).

Hasan al-Rammah included 107 gunpowder recipes in The Book of Military Horsemanship and Ingenious War Devices (Arabic: الـفـروسـيـة و الـمـنـاصـب الـحـربـيـة, romanized: al-Furūsiyya wal-Manāsib al-Ḥarbiyya), 22 of which are for rockets. The median of 17 of these 22 compositions for rockets (75% nitrates, 9.06% sulphur, and 15.94% charcoal) are nearly identical to the modern reported ideal recipe of 75% potassium nitrate, 10% sulphur, and 15% charcoal. The text also mentions fuses, incendiary bombs, naphtha pots, fire lances, and an illustration and description of the earliest torpedo. The torpedo was called the "egg which moves itself and burns". Two iron sheets were fastened together and tightened using felt. The flattened, pear-shaped vessel was filled with gunpowder, metal filings, "good mixtures", two rods, and a large rocket for propulsion. Judging by the illustration, it was supposed to glide across the water. Fire lances were used in battles between the Muslims and Mongols in 1299 and 1303.

Al-Hassan claims that in the Battle of Ain Jalut of 1260, the Mamluk Sultanate used "the first cannon in history" against the Mongols, utilizing a formula with near-identical ideal composition ratios for explosive gunpowder. Other historians urge caution regarding claims of Islamic firearms use in the 1204–1324 period, as late medieval Arabic texts used the same word for gunpowder, naft, that they used for an earlier incendiary, naphtha.

The earliest surviving documentary evidence for cannons in the Islamic world is from an Arabic manuscript dated to the early 14th century. The author's name is uncertain but may have been Shams al-Din Muhammad, who died in 1350. Dating from around 1320–1350, the illustrations show gunpowder weapons such as gunpowder arrows, bombs, fire tubes, and fire lances or proto-guns. The manuscript describes a type of gunpowder weapon called a midfa which uses gunpowder to shoot projectiles out of a tube at the end of a stock. Some consider this a cannon, while others do not. The problem with identifying cannons in early 14th-century Arabic texts is the term midfa, which appears from 1342 to 1352 but cannot be proven to be true hand-guns or bombards. Contemporary accounts of a metal-barrel cannon in the Islamic world do not occur until 1365. Needham believes that in its original form the term midfa refers to the tube or cylinder of a naphtha projector (flamethrower). After the invention of gunpowder, it meant the tube of fire lances, and eventually it applied to the cylinder of hand-guns and cannons.

According to Paul E. J. Hammer, the Mamluk Sultanate certainly used cannons by 1342. According to J. Lavin, cannons were used by Moors at the siege of Algeciras in 1343. Shihab al-Din Abu al-Abbas al-Qalqashandi described a metal cannon firing an iron ball between 1365 and 1376.

The musket appeared in the Ottoman Empire by 1465. In 1598, Chinese writer Zhao Shizhen described Turkish muskets as being superior to European muskets. The Chinese military work Wubei Zhi (1621) later described Turkish muskets that used a rack and pinion mechanism, which was not known to have been used in European or Chinese firearms at the time.

The state-controlled manufacture of gunpowder by the Ottoman Empire through early supply chains to obtain nitre, sulphur and high-quality charcoal from oaks in Anatolia contributed significantly to its expansion between the 15th and 18th centuries. It was not until later in the 19th century that the systemic production of Turkish gunpowder was reduced considerably, coinciding with the decline of its military might.

Europe

The earliest Western accounts of gunpowder appear in texts written by English philosopher Roger Bacon in 1267 called Opus Majus and Opus Tertium. The oldest written recipes in continental Europe were recorded under the name Marcus Graecus or Mark the Greek between 1280 and 1300 in the Liber Ignium, or Book of Fires.

Some sources mention possible gunpowder weapons being deployed by the Mongols against European forces at the Battle of Mohi in 1241. Professor Kenneth Warren Chase credits the Mongols for introducing into Europe gunpowder and its associated weaponry. However, there is no clear route of transmission, and while the Mongols are often pointed to as the likeliest vector, Timothy May points out that "there is no concrete evidence that the Mongols used gunpowder weapons on a regular basis outside of China." May also states, "however [, ...] the Mongols used the gunpowder weapon in their wars against the Jin, the Song and in their invasions of Japan."

Continue reading on Wikipedia

Text from the Wikipedia article “Gunpowder”, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Trade routes that carried it

Routes on the atlas along which the sources say it travelled.

1543 – 1639 · by sea
Nanban trade
Portuguese traders, the first of whom reached Tanegashima on a Chinese junk in 1543, brought matchlock guns to Japan, where smiths soon made them in large numbers.

In its story

Events on timeastra with pages of their own.

Timeline

23 arrivals in order: when it was first recorded in each place, from where and who carried it, with the sources for the date.

808 CE · Tang China (Chang'an) · Gunpowder and bombs
Daoist alchemists wrote down a mixture of sulphur, saltpetre and birthwort in 808 and, some 50 years later, warned that such mixes burnt hands and houses, the first records of gunpowder.
where it began[1][2]
1044 · Kaifeng · Gunpowder and bombs
The Song capital's arsenal made gunpowder and fire arrows, the Wujing zongyao finished for the emperor in 1044 gives the oldest surviving formulas, and in 1232 Jin defenders used iron bombs against the Mongols.
from Chang'an · by craftsmen[1][3]
1132 · De'an · Gunpowder and bombs
Holding De'an against a rebel army in 1132, the Song prefect Chen Gui's men attacked the crews of the siege towers with bamboo lances spouting gunpowder fire, the first fire lances on record.
[1][4]
1267 · Paris · Gunpowder and bombs
In the Opus maius he sent to Pope Clement IV in 1267, the English friar Roger Bacon, then in Paris, described a saltpetre firecracker known in many lands, the first European record of gunpowder.
[1][5][6]
1274, until 1281 · Hakata · Gunpowder and bombs
Yuan troops landing at Hakata Bay in 1274 threw bombs at the samurai, and ceramic bombs packed with gunpowder and iron were found in a wreck of their 1281 fleet off Takashima.
[7][1][8]
c. 1280 · Syria (Damascus) · Gunpowder and bombs
The Syrian Hasan al-Rammah, writing under the Mamluks by about 1280, gave recipes for gunpowder and rockets, described fire lances and called saltpetre Chinese snow.
[1][2][9]
c. 1288 · Acheng · Guns and cannon
A bronze hand cannon dug up at Banlachengzi, near where the Jurchen general Li Ting's gunners fought the rebel prince Nayan for the Yuan in 1287 and 1288, is the oldest surviving firearm.
[10][1]
1298 · Xanadu · Guns and cannon
A bronze gun found in the ruins of the Yuan summer capital bears a date equal to 1298, the oldest gun with a date of making.
[11][1]
1326 · England (London) · Guns and cannon
A treatise on kingship made in 1326 for the young Edward III shows a soldier firing a great arrow from a vase-shaped gun, the oldest known European picture of a gun.
[1][12]
February 1326 · Florence · Guns and cannon
On 11 February 1326 the Signoria of Florence named two officers to obtain metal cannon and ammunition for the city's defence, one of the first records of guns in Europe.
[1]
1343 · Algeciras · Guns and cannon
Under siege by Castile from 1342 to 1344, the city's Marinid defenders fired iron shot from gunpowder bombards, which they called thunders, said to be the first guns used in Iberia.
[13][1]
August 1346 · Crécy · Guns and cannon
Edward III's army set up early guns at Crécy before the battle of 26 August 1346, one of the first battles in Europe in which cannon were used.
from London · by war[14][1]
1373, took hold by 1377 · Goryeo (Gaegyeong) · Guns and cannon
Goryeo's warships carried guns by 1373, and from 1377 an office set up on Ch'oe Mu-seon's advice made its own gunpowder, by the saltpetre method he learned from a merchant from Jiangnan.
[1][16][15]
March 1376 · Bolghar · Guns and cannon
When a Russian army reached this Golden Horde city on the Volga in March 1376, its defenders let off thunder from the walls, which historians read as the first guns Russians met.
[18]
1380 · Jinpo · Guns and cannon
Goryeo's fleet, with Ch'oe Mu-seon among its commanders, burned the ships of a large Japanese pirate fleet at the mouth of the Geum River with its new guns in 1380.
from Gaegyeong · by war[15][17][1]
August 1382 · Moscow · Guns and cannon
Defending the city against Tokhtamysh's army in August 1382, Muscovites fired tyufyaki and great guns from the walls, the first record of Russians using firearms.
from Bolghar · by war[19][20][18]
1390 · Đại Việt (Thăng Long) · Guns and cannon
On the Hải Triều river south-east of the capital, Trần Khát Chân's men fired guns at the Cham king Chế Bồng Nga's green barge and killed him in 1390, Đại Việt's first recorded use of guns.
[21][22][23]
c. 1407 · Beijing · Guns and cannon
After the Ming conquest of Đại Ngu in 1407, the captured prince Hồ Nguyên Trừng made Vietnamese-style guns for the Ming, whose official history says the Shenji battalion at Beijing drilled with gun methods from Jiaozhi.
from Thăng Long · by war and craftsmen[24][25]
c. 1413 · Majapahit (Trowulan) · Guns and cannon
Ma Huan, an interpreter on Zheng He's fleet, saw guns let off in wedding processions in Majapahit Java about 1413, one of the first sure records of firearms in the islands.
[26][1]
June 1422 · Constantinople · Guns and cannon
Murad II brought cannon to his siege of 1422, the Ottomans' first sure use of them, and in 1453 Mehmed II's great bombards, one cast by the Hungarian Orban, breached the land walls.
[27][1][28]
c. 1472 · Belgaum · Gunpowder and bombs
Besieging Belgaum about 1472, the Bahmani minister Mahmud Gawan breached its fort with mines and explosives, the first known use of gunpowder in the Deccan.
[29][2]
April 1526 · Panipat · Matchlock guns
At Panipat on 21 April 1526 Babur set matchlock men and field guns behind a line of linked carts, under two Ottoman master gunners, and defeated the far larger army of the sultan of Delhi.
from Constantinople · by war and craftsmen[30][31]
1543 · Tanegashima · Matchlock guns
Portuguese on a Chinese junk blown to this island in 1543 sold two matchlocks to its lord Tanegashima Tokitaka, whose swordsmith copied them; the guns spread across Japan as tanegashima.
[32][1]

Sources

Works the dates are read from. Each arrival above names its own.

1.History of gunpowder. citing Lorge 2008, p. 32 and Needham 1986, p. 111 (Tang texts); Andrade 2016, pp. 16, 32, 45 and Needham 1986, pp. 20, 118–124 (Kaifeng); Needham 1986, p. 222, Chase 2003, p. 31, Lorge 2008, pp. 33–34 and Andrade 2016, p. 38 (De'an); Chase 2003, p. 58, Kelly 2004, p. 25 and Needham 1986, pp. 48–50 (Bacon); Turnbull 2013, pp. 41–42, Sasaki 2015, p. 69 and Needham 1986, pp. 178, 295 (Japan); Khan 1996 and Kelly 2004, p. 22 (al-Rammah); Chase 2003, p. 32 and Needham 1986, pp. 294, 304 (Nayan); Andrade 2016, pp. 52–53 (Xanadu); Kelly 2004, p. 29 and Andrade 2016, p. 76 (Milemete); Crosby 2002, p. 120 (Florence); J. Lavin, uncited (Algeciras); Kelly 2004, pp. 19–37 (Crécy); Needham 1986, p. 309 (Korea, 1373); Turnbull 2003, pp. 20–21 (Korea, 1380); Mayers 1876 and Manguin 1976, p. 245 (Java); Nicolle 1983, p. 18 (Ottomans); Lidin 2002, pp. 1–14 (Japan, 1543); Andrade 2016, p. 75 (Chinese origin)
2.Gunpowder. citing Lorge 2008, p. 32 (Tang texts); Kelly 2004, p. 22 and Khan 1996 (al-Rammah); Khan 2004, p. 10 (Belgaum)
3.Wujing Zongyao. citing Needham 1987, pp. 19, 601; Lorge 2008, p. 33; Wang 1947, p. 162
4.Siege of De'an. citing Andrade 2016, pp. 37–38
5.Opus Majus. citing a note only, no book ("Opus Majus in year 1267 was accompanied by a letter of dedication to the Pope")
6.Roger Bacon. Jeremiah Hackett, 2020, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
7.Mongol invasions of Japan. citing Turnbull 2013, pp. 41–42; Turnbull 2010, p. 49; Sasaki 2015, p. 69; Conlan 2013, pp. 54–73
8.Relics of the Kamikaze. James P. Delgado, 2003, Archaeology 56 (1)
9.Hasan al-Rammah. citing Van Riper 2004, p. 10; Partington 1999, p. xxvi; Pacey 1991, p. 46; Elgood 1995, p. 20
10.Heilongjiang hand cannon. citing Chase 2003, p. 32; Needham 1987, pp. 293, 304
11.Xanadu Gun. citing Andrade 2016, pp. 52–53
12.Walter de Milemete. citing Nederman 2002; James (ed.) 1913, p. 140
13.Siege of Algeciras (1342–1344). citing Torremocha Silva 2004, "Cerco y defensa de Algeciras: el uso de la pólvora"; Torremocha Silva 1987, p. 248
14.Battle of Crécy. citing DeVries 1998, pp. 161, 163–164 and Bennett 1994, p. 8 (guns set up); Livingstone & Witzel 2004, pp. 58–59, Burne 1999, pp. 187–198 and Sumption 1990, p. 528 (their types)
15.최무선 (Ch'oe Mu-seon). Chae Yeon-seok, 1995, Encyclopedia of Korean Culture, Academy of Korean Studies
16.최무선. citing Goryeosa (Gongmin 5 and 22, 1356 and 1373; U 3, 1377); Taejo sillok, 4th year, 4th month, 19th day (1395)
17.진포 해전. citing Goryeosa and Goryeosa jeoryo (U 6, 8th month, 1380); Yun Myeong-cheol 2008
18.Булгарский поход русских князей (1376). citing PSRL vol. 11, p. 25 (Nikon chronicle, 6884–6885); Mavrodin 1946, pp. 98–99 and Vestnik LGU 1946 (3), pp. 66–76; Vernadsky 1997, pp. 19–20; Bariev 2005, p. 168
19.Нашествие Тохтамыша на Москву. citing Kargalov 2008, p. 356; Shefov 2004, pp. 84–85; the Tale of the Invasion of Tokhtamysh
20.Siege of Moscow (1382). citing Shaikhutdinov 2021, p. 106; Crummey 2014, p. 57
21.Champa–Đại Việt War (1367–1390). citing Whitmore 2011, p. 196; Sun 2006, p. 76; Aymonier 1893, p. 20; Kiernan 2019, pp. 189–190
22.Chế Bồng Nga. citing Ngô Sĩ Liên 1993 (Đại Việt sử ký toàn thư, Vietnamese translation), pp. 281–283; Maspero 2002, pp. 107–109; Trần Kỳ Phương (ed.) 2011, p. 196
23.欽定越史通鑑綱目 (Khâm định Việt sử Thông giám cương mục), Chính biên, quyển 11
24.Ming conquest of Đại Ngu. citing Sun 2006, pp. 77–80, 92; Andrade 2019, pp. 78–79
25.明史 (History of Ming), juan 92, Treatise on the Army 4
26.Cetbang. citing Manguin 1976, p. 245
27.Siege of Constantinople (1422). citing Turnbull, The Walls of Constantinople AD 324–1453 (Osprey); Byzantine short chronicle of c. 1425
28.Fall of Constantinople. citing Norwich 1997, p. 374; Runciman 1965, pp. 77–78; Steele; Hammer
29.Mahmud Gawan. citing Eaton 2008, p. 71
30.First Battle of Panipat. citing Babur, Baburnama (date); Chandra 2009, pp. 29–30; Watts 2011, p. 707
31.Babur. citing Dale 2004, p. 316; Farooqi 2008, pp. 13–14; Gilbert 2017, p. 75
32.Tanegashima (gun). citing Lidin 2002, pp. 5–6, 142; Daehnhardt 1994, p. 26

Trade routes that carried it

Routes on the atlas along which the sources say it travelled.

1543 – 1639 · by sea
Nanban trade
Portuguese traders, the first of whom reached Tanegashima on a Chinese junk in 1543, brought matchlock guns to Japan, where smiths soon made them in large numbers.

In its story

Events on timeastra with pages of their own.

Timeline

23 arrivals in order: when it was first recorded in each place, from where and who carried it, with the sources for the date.

808 CE · Tang China (Chang'an) · Gunpowder and bombs
Daoist alchemists wrote down a mixture of sulphur, saltpetre and birthwort in 808 and, some 50 years later, warned that such mixes burnt hands and houses, the first records of gunpowder.
where it began[1][2]
1044 · Kaifeng · Gunpowder and bombs
The Song capital's arsenal made gunpowder and fire arrows, the Wujing zongyao finished for the emperor in 1044 gives the oldest surviving formulas, and in 1232 Jin defenders used iron bombs against the Mongols.
from Chang'an · by craftsmen[1][3]
1132 · De'an · Gunpowder and bombs
Holding De'an against a rebel army in 1132, the Song prefect Chen Gui's men attacked the crews of the siege towers with bamboo lances spouting gunpowder fire, the first fire lances on record.
[1][4]
1267 · Paris · Gunpowder and bombs
In the Opus maius he sent to Pope Clement IV in 1267, the English friar Roger Bacon, then in Paris, described a saltpetre firecracker known in many lands, the first European record of gunpowder.
[1][5][6]
1274, until 1281 · Hakata · Gunpowder and bombs
Yuan troops landing at Hakata Bay in 1274 threw bombs at the samurai, and ceramic bombs packed with gunpowder and iron were found in a wreck of their 1281 fleet off Takashima.
[7][1][8]
c. 1280 · Syria (Damascus) · Gunpowder and bombs
The Syrian Hasan al-Rammah, writing under the Mamluks by about 1280, gave recipes for gunpowder and rockets, described fire lances and called saltpetre Chinese snow.
[1][2][9]
c. 1288 · Acheng · Guns and cannon
A bronze hand cannon dug up at Banlachengzi, near where the Jurchen general Li Ting's gunners fought the rebel prince Nayan for the Yuan in 1287 and 1288, is the oldest surviving firearm.
[10][1]
1298 · Xanadu · Guns and cannon
A bronze gun found in the ruins of the Yuan summer capital bears a date equal to 1298, the oldest gun with a date of making.
[11][1]
1326 · England (London) · Guns and cannon
A treatise on kingship made in 1326 for the young Edward III shows a soldier firing a great arrow from a vase-shaped gun, the oldest known European picture of a gun.
[1][12]
February 1326 · Florence · Guns and cannon
On 11 February 1326 the Signoria of Florence named two officers to obtain metal cannon and ammunition for the city's defence, one of the first records of guns in Europe.
[1]
1343 · Algeciras · Guns and cannon
Under siege by Castile from 1342 to 1344, the city's Marinid defenders fired iron shot from gunpowder bombards, which they called thunders, said to be the first guns used in Iberia.
[13][1]
August 1346 · Crécy · Guns and cannon
Edward III's army set up early guns at Crécy before the battle of 26 August 1346, one of the first battles in Europe in which cannon were used.
from London · by war[14][1]
1373, took hold by 1377 · Goryeo (Gaegyeong) · Guns and cannon
Goryeo's warships carried guns by 1373, and from 1377 an office set up on Ch'oe Mu-seon's advice made its own gunpowder, by the saltpetre method he learned from a merchant from Jiangnan.
[1][16][15]
March 1376 · Bolghar · Guns and cannon
When a Russian army reached this Golden Horde city on the Volga in March 1376, its defenders let off thunder from the walls, which historians read as the first guns Russians met.
[18]
1380 · Jinpo · Guns and cannon
Goryeo's fleet, with Ch'oe Mu-seon among its commanders, burned the ships of a large Japanese pirate fleet at the mouth of the Geum River with its new guns in 1380.
from Gaegyeong · by war[15][17][1]
August 1382 · Moscow · Guns and cannon
Defending the city against Tokhtamysh's army in August 1382, Muscovites fired tyufyaki and great guns from the walls, the first record of Russians using firearms.
from Bolghar · by war[19][20][18]
1390 · Đại Việt (Thăng Long) · Guns and cannon
On the Hải Triều river south-east of the capital, Trần Khát Chân's men fired guns at the Cham king Chế Bồng Nga's green barge and killed him in 1390, Đại Việt's first recorded use of guns.
[21][22][23]
c. 1407 · Beijing · Guns and cannon
After the Ming conquest of Đại Ngu in 1407, the captured prince Hồ Nguyên Trừng made Vietnamese-style guns for the Ming, whose official history says the Shenji battalion at Beijing drilled with gun methods from Jiaozhi.
from Thăng Long · by war and craftsmen[24][25]
c. 1413 · Majapahit (Trowulan) · Guns and cannon
Ma Huan, an interpreter on Zheng He's fleet, saw guns let off in wedding processions in Majapahit Java about 1413, one of the first sure records of firearms in the islands.
[26][1]
June 1422 · Constantinople · Guns and cannon
Murad II brought cannon to his siege of 1422, the Ottomans' first sure use of them, and in 1453 Mehmed II's great bombards, one cast by the Hungarian Orban, breached the land walls.
[27][1][28]
c. 1472 · Belgaum · Gunpowder and bombs
Besieging Belgaum about 1472, the Bahmani minister Mahmud Gawan breached its fort with mines and explosives, the first known use of gunpowder in the Deccan.
[29][2]
April 1526 · Panipat · Matchlock guns
At Panipat on 21 April 1526 Babur set matchlock men and field guns behind a line of linked carts, under two Ottoman master gunners, and defeated the far larger army of the sultan of Delhi.
from Constantinople · by war and craftsmen[30][31]
1543 · Tanegashima · Matchlock guns
Portuguese on a Chinese junk blown to this island in 1543 sold two matchlocks to its lord Tanegashima Tokitaka, whose swordsmith copied them; the guns spread across Japan as tanegashima.
[32][1]

Sources

Works the dates are read from. Each arrival above names its own.

1.History of gunpowder. citing Lorge 2008, p. 32 and Needham 1986, p. 111 (Tang texts); Andrade 2016, pp. 16, 32, 45 and Needham 1986, pp. 20, 118–124 (Kaifeng); Needham 1986, p. 222, Chase 2003, p. 31, Lorge 2008, pp. 33–34 and Andrade 2016, p. 38 (De'an); Chase 2003, p. 58, Kelly 2004, p. 25 and Needham 1986, pp. 48–50 (Bacon); Turnbull 2013, pp. 41–42, Sasaki 2015, p. 69 and Needham 1986, pp. 178, 295 (Japan); Khan 1996 and Kelly 2004, p. 22 (al-Rammah); Chase 2003, p. 32 and Needham 1986, pp. 294, 304 (Nayan); Andrade 2016, pp. 52–53 (Xanadu); Kelly 2004, p. 29 and Andrade 2016, p. 76 (Milemete); Crosby 2002, p. 120 (Florence); J. Lavin, uncited (Algeciras); Kelly 2004, pp. 19–37 (Crécy); Needham 1986, p. 309 (Korea, 1373); Turnbull 2003, pp. 20–21 (Korea, 1380); Mayers 1876 and Manguin 1976, p. 245 (Java); Nicolle 1983, p. 18 (Ottomans); Lidin 2002, pp. 1–14 (Japan, 1543); Andrade 2016, p. 75 (Chinese origin)
2.Gunpowder. citing Lorge 2008, p. 32 (Tang texts); Kelly 2004, p. 22 and Khan 1996 (al-Rammah); Khan 2004, p. 10 (Belgaum)
3.Wujing Zongyao. citing Needham 1987, pp. 19, 601; Lorge 2008, p. 33; Wang 1947, p. 162
4.Siege of De'an. citing Andrade 2016, pp. 37–38
5.Opus Majus. citing a note only, no book ("Opus Majus in year 1267 was accompanied by a letter of dedication to the Pope")
6.Roger Bacon. Jeremiah Hackett, 2020, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
7.Mongol invasions of Japan. citing Turnbull 2013, pp. 41–42; Turnbull 2010, p. 49; Sasaki 2015, p. 69; Conlan 2013, pp. 54–73
8.Relics of the Kamikaze. James P. Delgado, 2003, Archaeology 56 (1)
9.Hasan al-Rammah. citing Van Riper 2004, p. 10; Partington 1999, p. xxvi; Pacey 1991, p. 46; Elgood 1995, p. 20
10.Heilongjiang hand cannon. citing Chase 2003, p. 32; Needham 1987, pp. 293, 304
11.Xanadu Gun. citing Andrade 2016, pp. 52–53
12.Walter de Milemete. citing Nederman 2002; James (ed.) 1913, p. 140
13.Siege of Algeciras (1342–1344). citing Torremocha Silva 2004, "Cerco y defensa de Algeciras: el uso de la pólvora"; Torremocha Silva 1987, p. 248
14.Battle of Crécy. citing DeVries 1998, pp. 161, 163–164 and Bennett 1994, p. 8 (guns set up); Livingstone & Witzel 2004, pp. 58–59, Burne 1999, pp. 187–198 and Sumption 1990, p. 528 (their types)
15.최무선 (Ch'oe Mu-seon). Chae Yeon-seok, 1995, Encyclopedia of Korean Culture, Academy of Korean Studies
16.최무선. citing Goryeosa (Gongmin 5 and 22, 1356 and 1373; U 3, 1377); Taejo sillok, 4th year, 4th month, 19th day (1395)
17.진포 해전. citing Goryeosa and Goryeosa jeoryo (U 6, 8th month, 1380); Yun Myeong-cheol 2008
18.Булгарский поход русских князей (1376). citing PSRL vol. 11, p. 25 (Nikon chronicle, 6884–6885); Mavrodin 1946, pp. 98–99 and Vestnik LGU 1946 (3), pp. 66–76; Vernadsky 1997, pp. 19–20; Bariev 2005, p. 168
19.Нашествие Тохтамыша на Москву. citing Kargalov 2008, p. 356; Shefov 2004, pp. 84–85; the Tale of the Invasion of Tokhtamysh
20.Siege of Moscow (1382). citing Shaikhutdinov 2021, p. 106; Crummey 2014, p. 57
21.Champa–Đại Việt War (1367–1390). citing Whitmore 2011, p. 196; Sun 2006, p. 76; Aymonier 1893, p. 20; Kiernan 2019, pp. 189–190
22.Chế Bồng Nga. citing Ngô Sĩ Liên 1993 (Đại Việt sử ký toàn thư, Vietnamese translation), pp. 281–283; Maspero 2002, pp. 107–109; Trần Kỳ Phương (ed.) 2011, p. 196
23.欽定越史通鑑綱目 (Khâm định Việt sử Thông giám cương mục), Chính biên, quyển 11
24.Ming conquest of Đại Ngu. citing Sun 2006, pp. 77–80, 92; Andrade 2019, pp. 78–79
25.明史 (History of Ming), juan 92, Treatise on the Army 4
26.Cetbang. citing Manguin 1976, p. 245
27.Siege of Constantinople (1422). citing Turnbull, The Walls of Constantinople AD 324–1453 (Osprey); Byzantine short chronicle of c. 1425
28.Fall of Constantinople. citing Norwich 1997, p. 374; Runciman 1965, pp. 77–78; Steele; Hammer
29.Mahmud Gawan. citing Eaton 2008, p. 71
30.First Battle of Panipat. citing Babur, Baburnama (date); Chandra 2009, pp. 29–30; Watts 2011, p. 707
31.Babur. citing Dale 2004, p. 316; Farooqi 2008, pp. 13–14; Gilbert 2017, p. 75
32.Tanegashima (gun). citing Lidin 2002, pp. 5–6, 142; Daehnhardt 1994, p. 26