Page 78 - All About History - Issue 18-14

Mankind has always excelled at crafting weapons of

death, from ancient mechanised monstrosities through

to the sleekest killing tools of today

WrittenbyRobJones

hroughout history mankind has killed in the townswithabatteryofcannonfireandtomissiles
name of race, religion, colour and for that that can cross entire continents, our ingenious
oldest of ambitions: power. The creativity crueltyhasknownnobounds.Warhasshapedour
that has been used to write amazing books, civilisations, defined and redefined our man-made
Tpaint masterpieces, compose symphonies borders and even dictated our recorded history,
and produce inventions that have transformed the with the truth of events almost always warped
worldforeverhasalsobeenturnedtothesphereof andcorruptedbythevictors,damagingourability
warfare. The mastery of physics, mathematics and tolearnfrompastmistakes.
engineering has been used to build increasingly Here we explore some of man’s most ground-
refined machines of war. breaking and notorious machines of war. Weapons
Nomatterwheretheperceivedthreathasbeen that, despite their size and complexity, have gone
located, be it on land, sea or in the air, humans down in history due to their infamy, arms that
have managed to build some sort of weapon to have been recorded due to their refined ability to
eradicate it. From colossal monolithic catapults kill with an unsurpassed efficiency. So, strap on
capable of hurling bone-shattering boulders, yourhelmetandbepreparedtohitthedeck,for
throughvastwarshipscapableoflevellingentire thingsareabouttogetashotashell.

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