Gunpowder was first developed in China and spread via trade routes to Europe and other parts of the world. Its introduction revolutionized warfare by enabling the use of firearms and artillery. European powers then used their military advantages to colonize vast areas globally, exploiting resources and populations. While colonialism had some benefits in infrastructure and trade, it largely involved oppression, cultural destruction, and exploitation that outpaced any advantages. The document discusses these topics from a critical perspective on the impacts and ethics of colonialism.

1. WHITE MAN’S GOTTA RULE
THE WORLD!
By Gabriel Jarman
White background, get it!! Cause it’s about white people enslaving the
world and looting resources for their own personal greed.
Also it’s a white background because
I’m a Minimalist.
Also it’s a white background
because I hate powerpoint.

2. Gunpowder Begins
• Gunpowder was first utilized by the Song Dynasty (10th
–
13th
century AD) for rudimentary fireworks and weapons.
• Gunpowder spread to the Muslim world via the Silk Road
and various Islamic nations designed firearms and
muskets.
• Ottoman Janissaries finally conquer Constantinople with
muskets and gunpowder artillery (and a little help from
the Fourth Crusade) in 1453.
• The fall of Constantinople changed defensive
engineering from favouring tall and thin walls to building
very short and very thick walls to deflect cannonballs.
Which is a cooler word: Byzantium or Seljuk?

3. Gunpowder Continues
• Gunpowder travels to Western Europe through Spain via
the Moors. The first recorded use of cannons during a
Western European battle is in the Battle of Crecy in
1346.
• Gunpowder caused a military revolution in Europe
leading the powers such as Great Britain, France, Spain
and Portugal to completely re-organize their armies.
• Armies no longer used knights and archers but massive
quantities of footmen armed with muskets. Medieval
elements such as volley firing and siege warfare were
maintained but altered to suit new conditions.
Metal armour did very little to stop musket balls, it was good for grating
cheese afterwards though!

4. Colonialist Era
15th
– 20th
Century
• This era starts with Christopher Columbus’ voyage to the Americas
and ends with the dismantling of the European empires in the Post-
World War Two period. This 600 year period is littered with
massacres, wars and brutal repression of local cultures. It is also an
era of an expanding global community and trade structure along with
advancements in medicine for exploring new areas… and then taking
them.
• During this period many areas of the world saw Western expansion
and brought with this expansion were settlers and gunpowder.
Advanced firearms were used to conquer new lands and to keep the
local inhabitants in check.
• This is the era that begins the concept of Globalism and the first
strides towards a global market. Goods from across the globe were
being transported back and forth and exchanged for even more exotic
merchandise. Advancing ahead of these goods are waves of disease
like Smallpox, Measles, Malaria and Yellow Fever causing the deaths
of thousand of indigenous peoples across the globe. Those spared
disease or death at the hands of Europeans were then forced to labour
in the production of the goods prized by White settlers and plantation
owners.
You’d think I’d
have more
pictures but no,
only text.

5. Africa, 1914

6. Gunpowder Does America!
• The Western powers used gunpowder to revolutionize land based
warfare but combined with the invention of the compass and
improved ship building techniques the Europeans could export their
new style of warfare across the globe.
• Europeans floated everywhere in their boats and “settled” on lands
rich in resources and indigenous peoples. The main example of this
is Christopher Columbus’ voyage to America, this began a struggle
to stake a claim in the “New World” between Britain, France and
Spain… also Russia.

8. Global Interactions
• With the major European powers expanding their empires by any
means deemed necessary there were more than a few conflicts to
be seen. The most infamous of these being the War of Austrian
Succession which involved almost all of Europe.
• The Colonial system divided the world into two, the Western
colonizers and the “Uncivilized” peoples of the world.
• One of the largest globally extended parts of the Colonial system
was Slavery. Slaves were exported from African colonies of the
European powers to all parts of the world where a cheap labour
force was needed, this has led to Africans being displaced and
assimilating into many different parts of the world like the Caribbean
islands, North America and to Brazil.
• Population growth boomed all over the globe due to a new
exchange of food items such as potatoes (sweet and otherwise) and
corn. But then this leads to global overcrowding and we use too
much resources, WHY CAN’T WE ALL JUST GET ALONG?
The War of Jenkins’ Ear, something worth looking up.

10. Trade!
• With the advent of the compass and better ship building techniques
the Europeans could reach out and expand their influence on foreign
shores.
• Most expansion of the European powers was for resources such as
diamonds in South Africa, Textiles in India and the vast mineral and
agricultural opportunities of the Americas.
• This land was occupied by the Europeans and then the harvested
materials were shipped back to the home country of the colony for
selling in markets. These trade routes between colony and homeland
allowed for new and exotic goods to be purchased in Europe and the
profits funded further development in the colonies.
• Most of the resources were mined by the indigenous people and yet all
the profit went to the white plantation owners or the colonial
companies set up to run the extraction and harvesting of goods.
Much of these goods were cash crops (cotton, coffee, groundnuts)
that would only ever be sold on European markets and not in the local
area.
Not so much trade, but more extended robbery… cough nike cough,
cough walmart cough.

12. Putting the WHY!?!?!?! in Colony.
• Colonialism is the practice of a large power taking over areas of land
already occupied by a less advanced civilization. Colonization can
occur because there are valuable resources present or because the
larger power simply wants more land and they would take it with force
or with “Treaties” enforced with guns and artillery far beyond the
power of any local tribe or people.
• Usually the indigenous populations are massacred or pushed aside
and put on reservations or confined to ghettos. In the case of Africa,
it’s inhabitants were enslaved and used as labourers across the world
for the European empires.
• Colonialism can be a very negative force, such as the Belgian brutality
in the Congo, but it can also be a positive force such as the British
ending the Sati practice in India. The Sati practice being the forceful
immolation of Hindu widows on their husbands funeral pyres.
• Wherever European powers went they brought education, health care
and infrastructure. Europe also brought slavery, theft of ancestral
lands and complete culture erasing of indigenous peoples.
Lets all celebrate Columbus Day by breaking into someone’s house and then staying
there for 300 years! Also give everyone in the house Syphilis and Smallpox.
Did you like my pun? COLONIALISM IS NO LAUGHING MATTER!

13. One point of view.

14. Gunpowder… It’s Helpful?
• Gunpowder did have positive benefits, however most of
them came from negative situations caused by
gunpowder…
• The practice of medicine improved greatly after the
advent of gunpowder because of the need to care for
large numbers of troops moving through hostile
environments (Jungle, Desert, Steppe, Russian Winter).
• Improvements such as using bandaging over cauterizing
wounds, vaccinations for malaria and other diseases and
the discovery of blood flow and vitamins are just a few of
the innovations of the fields hospitals and medical
societies that sprang up in Renaissance and Colonial era
Europe.
Everybody likes their doctors to be professional but I still say Shamans get the job done.

15. Gunpowder In Summary
• Gunpowder is discovered in Ancient China during the Song
Dynasty, it then travels to the Muslim world via the Silk Road and
then up to Western Europe through the Iberian Peninsula (Spain).
• Changes warfare from that of specialized knights and archers to
massive numbers of peasants with muskets.
• Gunpowder allows European powers to conquer territory across the
globe from North America, to Africa, to Asia and even Australia!
• This expansion of the European powers created huge trade
networks that brought goods from across the world to Europe and
European goods and technologies were transferred to the most
backwards parts of the globe. Indian textiles could be found in
London, Haitian sugar cane could be found in Paris, Congolese
rubber in Brussels and Brazilian rubber in Lisbon, Philippine fruit
could be found in Madrid.

16. Discussion
• 1) Why do you think gunpowder was used so
heavily in Western Europe and not in China or
the Muslim world?
• 2) Do the benefits of gunpowder outweigh its
drawbacks?
• 3) Do the most “civilized” nations on Earth have
the right to spread their brand of culture to less
advanced countries or should other nations be
allowed to progress at a natural pace?
One final thing, why does everyone call the white inhabitants of Australia,
Australians… they really aren’t.

17. Bibliography
• http://mikeely.files.wordpress.com/2009/07/cecil-rhodes-africa-colonialism.jpg
• http://publisher.webfactional.com/media/covers/Colonialism.jpg
• http://static.newworldencyclopedia.org/2/2a/ColonialAfrica.png
• http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/jah/88.4/images/kramer_f5.jpg
• http://img15.imageshack.us/i/colonialism.jpg/
• http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_wrcpDDOLrds/TH9bd5o9vNI/AAAAAAAAOrs/qlOJFHpQWIg/s1600/reb10-1.jpg
• http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/0f/English_gun_used_at_Crecy.jpg
• http://rlv.zcache.com/colonialism_kills_tshirt-d23506761137813212226v7p_500.jpg