An Overview on the Evolution of Small Arms (Pre-History - Early 20th Century)

Warfare had existed since the dawn of man, the potentials of the human mind are massively diverted into warfare and as a result, technology is an essential element of warfare. It could spell a nation’s victory or defeat. Military development caused warfare to be a bloodier ordeal as more efficient killing machines were constantly invented and tested in combat. Armies must be eager to adopt newer weapons; the failure to do so would bring untold destruction.

There is no doubt that the back bone of the classical army is the melee weapon. Early humans fought with wooden clubs and stone-edged weapons. When metallurgy is introduced, warfare changed radically as sharper and stronger melee weapons appeared on the battlefield. Since the Iron Age, metal edged weapons such as the sword and the pike were a common sight on the battlefield even with the advent of firearms. Generals such as Napoleon Bonaparte and Alexander the Great had revolutionize combat with edged weapons. Today, the melee weapons such as the knife or the truncheon, still seen action in the modern world.

Flint edged tools had been around before the Neolithic Era and had distinguish the Homo Habilis (early human) from other prime apes.

Developed in paralleled to the melee weapon, ranged weapon became the choice for men at arms who does not prefer to get "close and personal". The term ranged weapon indicates that the weapon would hurl projectiles at the opponent from a distance. Early ranged weapons utilizes stored potential energy to launch a projectile. An example of this would be bows, which uses the force of the draw, stored in the strings to propel an arrow. However, the early ranged weapons had several drawbacks, it has a limited range, accuracy and were solely dependent on the operator's skill. Enter the firearm.

A diagram of displaying how a bow works.

The invention of gunpowder in China kindled the development of a new class of ranged weapons, the firearm, which uses the gas and pressure of the gunpowder's ignition to propel rounds out of the barrel. The Renaissance gave rise to early artillery and firearms in Europe, which would soon change the face of warfare forever. Soon, armies realized that capabilities of the firearm and began to adopt it among the ranks of pike men and cavalry. However, early harquebus single shot matchlock muzzleloaders, which utilize the explosion of gunpowder to propel the bullet from the barrel, were cumbersome and were slow to load. This lead to the development of the flintlock muskets which relied of the sparks created by flint striking steel to light up the main charge, which proved to be an efficient system that is immediately adopted by leading European armies such as the British. The British Long-Land and Short-Land Pattern Brown Bess muskets are smooth-bored flintlocks that proved effective in disciplined volleys that have proven in defeating the Mughal Indians and ultimately finished off Napoleon’s cavalry in the Battle of Waterloo. The bayonet, a blade protruding from the gun’s muzzle, superseded the pike, enhancing the infantry’s hand-to-hand combat abilities and repels cavalry charges which was still used today by modern warriors. Less than half a century, the flintlock was replaced by the more efficient percussion system, which utilizes the percussion cap to ignite the powder charges, which proved to be more reliable than the flintlock. In addition, barrels with groves, or rifled barrel, were introduced, which greatly increases the accuracy and range of the firearm. Soon, both sides of the US Civil War adopted rifled barrels in their percussion firearms and artillery, along with the many armies in the world. The percussion systems lead to invention of the cartridge, a bullet in casings that stored the projectile, powder and primer all in one package, which gave birth to breech loading guns, which this system was made famous by the American Sharps rifle and the British Martini Henry. In the late 1800’s repeating firearms, firearms with the ability to fire multiple shots without reloading were predominant on the battlefield. 19th and early 20th century armies were armed with bolt-action rifles and were extensively used in both world wars. The First World War introduced the automatic weapon, which is the dominant system in today’s militaries. 

A splendid set consisting of a P-1871 Martini Henry breech loading rifle, .45/.577 cartridges, bandoleers, bayonets (spike  & sword) and various materials involving the rifle. Note: The lever below the receiver is used to lower the breech block and extracting fired cartridges.

A modern day reproduction of the .75 Brown Bess, hammer would hold a piece of flint if it was intended to be fired.

A British 1853 Pattern percussion rifle, adopted by the British Army and the Confederacy  States of America.  Note: the lock is similar to the Flintlock, however, is less complex thanks to the percussion cap ignition system.

With technology, warfare constantly changes as armies rushed to adopt newer, more effective arms as conflicts grew ever more brutal.

An Introduction to Selective Breeding

Selective Breeding

Selective breeding is a process where organisms are bred to acquire certain traits. The aim of selective breeding is to either delete an undesirable trait of an organism or add traits that could be beneficial to its domesticators. For example, cows are bred to produce more milk, fatten faster or even for its aesthetic appeals. Similarly plants, especially flowers are selectively bred to create astonishing colors.  There are two methods of selective breeding, which includes:

Inbreeding

Inbreeding is a process where organisms with similar genetic lineage are mated, which is a painstaking effort to remove undesired traits among livestock’s. This process, in contrary to natural selection, which created fitter animals, inbreeding is a repeated process of breeding animals with similar traits causing them be totally unfit for nature and is solely dependent on its domesticators. According to Gregory Mendel, there is a probability out of four for all alleles to appear on an offspring, for instance one livestock has a dominant allele of having horns, therefore, it is bred with ones with horns reducing the probability for the offspring’s to have horns, and the process is repeated until having horns in that particular livestock became a recessive allele! This comes with a price; the animals would be easily subjected to genetic defections and is prone to be ill for many of its original traits acquired in years of evolution had been lost.

Out crossing

Out crossing is where people mated unlike species in order to create a new lineage of animals to serve their needs.  Out crossing is definitely more difficult than inbreeding because in many causes, sex cells of the candidates do not accept each other. However, it is possible to mate animals that are not in the same specie but within a family with similar homologous structure. When successfully bred, the offspring will not be able to reproduce because by out crossing, the domesticator had created new species with varied sex cells, therefore, its sex cells will not accept any other specie’s. A mule is a prime example of successful out crossing between a horse and a donkey. The mule combined favorable characteristics of horses and donkeys creating a versatile farm workhorse. The mule, like other out crossed organisms cannot reproduce, therefore, it would immediately become extinct if people no longer breed them.

A typical mule, an outcome of out crossing, note its iconic donkey like pointed ears and its horse like physique.

Jewish Diaspora

In the long history of man, many groups had been known for their notoriety against the people; however, it is essential to explore the opposite, the most exploited. The Jews are those who would fit perfectly in this category. From the rise of the Roman Empire to the 21st century, the Jews are under constant threat from their oppressors. The movement and the dispersion of the Jews are phenomenal, they are arguably the most iconic symbol of a diaspora. Here's their story...

2000 years ago... It all began in Jerusalem, or Judea, as the Jews would call it. Around the sixth century BC, the Roman Imperium expanded beyond its European borders, stretching its influence into Northern Africa and the Middle East. Lands connected to the Mediterranean were quickly swallowed into Roman rule as their ruthless region seared fear into the hearts of its opponents. The Roman legion soon marched into the Kingdom of Judah, or what is to be Jerusalem, and entirely sacked the city. Once elaborate Jewish temples were reduced to a heap of rubble as Judaism was banned by the pagan Roman Empire. The Jews were made slaves and was distributed throughout the Roman Empire, which marks the existence of Jewish communities in Europe and others to many parts of the Mediterranean. However, some were left in Judea started a revolt in the first century against the Romans, which ended in failure, this event was coined the Great Revolt. After the Great Revolt, the Romans tightened their grip on the Jews, enforcing laws against Jewish religious practices with crucification and routed the Jews into Europe as slaves. The by the aftermath of the Great Revolt, the Jewish population were totally dispersed, infusing with societies under the Roman Imperium.

                                   An image carved in stone of the Roman's sack of Judea.

                                                  Jewish diaspora during the Roman Empire


800-500 years ago... The decline of the Roman Empire led to feudalism in Europe and left the Middle East at the mercy of Muslim Caliphates. In many parts of Europe, the Jews roughly coexisted with the natives while many attempted to return to the Middle East. It was the golden age for the Abbassid Caliphate where the cities such as Baghdad are booming. With the Abbassid's tolerance policies, the Jews settled under the Abbassid and brought with them philosophies and innovations. The Abbassid's expansion in the Iberian Peninsula, the location of modern day Spain and Portugal, caused many Jews to settle in another Abbassid boom town of Cordoba. Mathematics and science flourished with Jewish influence, however, the Jew's brief period of peace is coming to an end as the Spanish Kingdom of Leon and their allies reclaimed the Iberian Peninsula from the Arabs. The Spanish were devout Catholics and had no patience for the Jews and Muslims, as a result, in 1480's the Spanish Inquisition began. Muslims and Jews were considered heretics along with others dealing with witchcraft, were massacred by the Spanish. This event drove the Jews from the Iberian Peninsula, forcing them to settle elsewhere, dispersing again in by the end of the Middle Ages.

                  An image of a torture chamber during the Spanish Inquisition by Bernard Picard

                                            A map of Jewish migration in the Middle Ages

The Modern Era... The Ottoman Turks occupied most of the Middle East until the end of the First World War. Similar to the Abbassids, the Ottomans welcomed the Jews under their rule so Jews in the Middle East settled happily under the Turks while the others remained in Europe as either settlers or as nomads travelling in caravans. After the defeat of the Central Powers in the Great War, the Jews were again at the mercy of Europeans who oversee the formation of new nations in the Middle East. The European victors appointed the majority to rule over the country, thus, Muslim rulers in Palestine and Egypt, denounced Judaism, forcing the Jews to migrate once more. During the outbreak of WWII, Jews in the Soviet Union were purged as well as Jews in Germany under the Nazis. The iconic Holocaust were conducted by Nazi Germany to exterminate Jews and Slavs from both Germany and occupied Europe from all walks of life. Massive population of Jews fled Europe into nations such as the US, including Albert Einstein, who later led the Manhattan Project. Jews who failed to do so was forced into shabby districts called Ghettos and were slaughtered by the Nazis. In 1945, the war ended and the allies prevailed victorious, the British and the allies fulfilled their promise to grant the Jews the land they could call "home". In 1948, the sovereign state of Israel was born with the help of the US and Britain. There, the Jews from Europe returned to Jerusalem, the lands they lost two milleniums ago. The existence of the Jewish state of Israel enraged the Palestinian who once owned the land and their Arab neighbors. Wars such as the Six Day War and the Gaza Strip insurgency was fought and won by Israel to preserve its sovereignty from the discontented Arabs. Today, the term "diaspora" could be used to describe Jews outside Israel.

An actual footage of the Allied liberation of a Nazi concentration camp used in the Holocaust (viewer discretion is advised)

                                          A map of modern Jewish settlements around the globe