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officer, Captain Maitland, whose unwearied attention and military taste soon brought 350 sailors into a state of discipline, very little, if at all, inferior to the best light-troopers in our service..." "The Chinese felt no such need, and the reason is probably related to the tactics employed. The European style of fighting had developed continuously over hundreds of years, and had evolved along with the weapons. The Chinese, on the other hand, had not been exposed to the same demands, as they had not had to fight an efficient army since the start of the Qing dynasty in 1644. They had fought wars to consolidate their control over the full extent of China, and there had been a number of uprisings that had to be put down. However, in all these cases they had fought troops which were less well organised and had weapons which were similar to their own and hence, there had been no pressing need to modernise their army. They still fought with weapons which had not materially changed since the early 17th century. With such weapons, there was less need to be disciplined as the normal outcome was a melee of hand to hand fighting with spear and sword.
What then was the weapon technology of the period? There were then, as today, two main classes of weapon in use. These were artillery and hand held arms, both projectile and cut and thrust weapons.
Artillery
Artillery includes rockets as well as cannons, as they required more than one person to transport and operate them. The purpose of the artillery was to destroy fortifications, including ships, and to kill troops. All cannon, or guns as they were commonly called, were, at the time, muzzle loaders and smooth bored. Cannon could be mounted in fixed batteries on shore, on ships or on carriages that allowed them to be transported with the ground troops. In the latter case they are referred to as field pieces or field guns. In the campaigns of the first two China wars, the main use of artillery was in battles between the ships of the European navies and the shore batteries of the Chinese forts. The European forces also employed field guns whilst the Chinese did not appear to, even though they did possess a type of mobile gun (see below).
Taking the European side first, let us consider what artillery was available. First, and most important, were the guns mounted on the
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officer, Captain Maitland, whose unwearied attention and military taste soon brought 350 sailors into a state of discipline, very little, if at all, inferior to the best light-troopers in our service..." "The Chinese felt no such need, and the reason is probably related to the tactics employed. The European style of fighting had developed continuously over hun- dreds of years, and had evolved along with the weapons. The Chinese, on the other hand, had not been exposed to the same demands, as they had not had to fight an efficient army since the start of the Qing dy- nasty in 1644. They had fought wars to consolidate their control over the full extent of China, and there had been a number of uprisings that had to be put down. However, in all these cases they had fought troops which were less well organised and had weapons which were similar to their own and hence, there had been no pressing need to modernise their army. They still fought with weapons which had not materially changed since the early 17th century. With such weapons, there was less need to be disciplined as the normal outcome was a melee of hand to hand fighting with spear and sword.
What then was the weapon technology of the period? There were then, as today, two main classes of weapon in use. These were artillery and hand held arms, both projectile and cut and thrust weapons.
Artillery
Artillery includes rockets as well as cannons, as they required more than one person to transport and operate them. The purpose of the artil- lery was to destroy fortifications, including ships, and to kill troops. All cannon, or guns as they were commonly called, were, at the time, muzzle loaders and smooth bored. Cannon could be mounted in fixed batteries on shore, on ships or on carriages that allowed them to be transported with the ground troops. In the latter case they are referred to as field pieces or field guns. In the campaigns of the first two China wars, the main use of artillery was in battles between the ships of the European navies and the shore batteries of the Chinese forts. The Eu- ropean forces also employed field guns whilst the Chinese did not ap- pear to even though they did possess a type of mobile gun (see below).
Taking the European side first, let us consider what artillery was available. First, and most important, were the guns mounted on the
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