Medieval Tech

In medieval Europe several useful inventions came about or were improved. One of the biggest and most revolutionary substances that came to Europe from China in the mid-12th century was gunpowder. Gunpowder became super popular because it was easy to use, light in weight, and cheap. Before gunpowder came about, men had to train their entire life to be able to fight in a war; but when the men were introduced to gunpowder, a completely unskilled soldier could kill a trained warrior with one simple shot. But given its unmastered design, it was mostly used to scare enemy soldiers because it was highly inaccurate.
With gunpowder came the bombard. This was the first cannon that came about in the 13th century. It was very basic, consisting of a simple tube, but it was effective when attacking an enemy castle. Eventually cannons got smaller and more powerful with furthering of science and technology.
A revolutionary agricultural invention was the heavy plow. This could plow more dense and heavy soil. Given is weight 8 ox were needed to pull it but it gave several advantages to plowing. It plowed the soil deep enough so that cross plowing was not needed, unlike with the roman scratch plow. Because of this the farmers’ time was more efficiently allocated and they could get more of their field plowed faster. The plow also created grooves in the soil which helped plants maintain the right amount of water, even threw a small flood or a drought.
In 1185 the windmill was invented. The windmill was invented to replace animal powered mills, used to grid grain. The windmill was just as efficient as the windmill, and could grind at least 1,000 bushels of grain per week give or take the strength of the wind.
Gunpowder, the cannon, the heavy plow, and the windmill are only a few of the revolutionary objects that were either improved or invented during the medieval times.