Guns That Changed The Game

The golden age of small arms production began in the early 1800s with the invention of the modern cartridge, which combined the percussion cap, the propellant and the projectile into one small, but lethal package. Accuracy, power and loading speed all took a quantum leap forward.

While the single shot rifle remained the mainstay of the infantry up until the early days of WWI, machine guns had been in development since the final days of the American Civil War. In the later years of WWI, machine guns were used on both sides with devastating impact and by WWII, along with assault rifles, they had become the mainstay of the infantry. But these weapons also found their way into the hands of criminals, insurgent groups and failed states because they required little military training to be effective.

Cannons were first used in the 14th century, but early artillery was primarily used to breach an enemy’s defences and break sieges. The first cannons were neither mobile nor accurate, but after the Industrial Revolution everything changed.