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The Story Of... Steel
Humans’ ability to transform mineral ores into useful
materials has shaped the course of human history. Those civilizations
that have been armed with a greater range of metal technologies have
always defeated their rivals.
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Early metal work fuels the development of steel
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In particular, steel has governed the destiny of ambitious Europeans.
The conquistadors who swept through the New World were armed with
steel swords forged in the Spanish city of Toledo. Settler communities
in North America and the Cape of Good Hope were able to capitalize
on European-invented steel rails, steel locomotives and steel ships
to transform their model European economies. From its creation in
the forges of medieval Europe, through its key role in the Industrial
Revolution, to the triumph of modern technologies, steel has always
been one of the greatest agents of conquest of human history.
Steel is an almost uniquely European technology. It would not have been possible without the earliest experiments with fire and minerals, conducted by Neolithic hunters and farmers over ten thousand years ago. Thanks to the dry environment of the Fertile Crescent, fire pits could be kept ablaze for several days, raising a temperature sufficient to transform limestone into plaster. Before long, this technology was applied to other mineral ores — copper technology brought forth the Bronze Age and iron technology the Iron Age. Once iron ore had been smelted, steel was only a matter of time.
Those parts of the world that were too wet to keep an open furnace
ablaze for several days could never make the leap to even the simplest
pyrotechnology. The tropical jungles of Papua New Guinea, for example,
could never sustain an open fire for more than a few hours. Lacking
sufficient conditions to allow them to even begin to experiment, the
hunters of the New Guinean lowlands were trapped by their geography
in a perpetual Stone Age — until the arrival of metal-bearing
Europeans.
The right conditions alone were not enough — budding ironmongers
and steel-smiths also needed the right raw materials. Europe struck
lucky. Steel's complex manufacture requires large quantities of iron
ore and plentiful, carbon-rich forests, plus access to fast-flowing
water for power and transport. All of which were readily available
in Europe.
From the earliest days of European civilization, the forests of Germany
and northern Italy became the home to iron technology. The products
they created were unique throughout the world — single plates
of armor hammered from one sheet of metal; lightweight longswords
with heavy counterweight pommels; and, delicate rapiers designed for
popular duel.
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The development of steel forever changed the art of warfare
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These swords, from the Spanish espada robera, or sword of
the robe, were invented in the late fifteenth century as an ultra-modern,
ultra-chic dress-sword for the upwardly mobile. It was the pride of
Toledo, a Spanish city that by the late Middle Ages rivalled any Italian
or German city for sword manufacture. Toledo steel was famous throughout
the Old World — and soon became infamous throughout the New
World.
Geography gave European metallurgy another precious advantage. Thanks
to what has become known as the 'optimal fragmentation principal,'
the physical environment of Europe allowed a significant interplay
of political independence, economic competition and technological
collaboration. In other words, the geography of the European continent
destined it to host thousands of communities, all jostling for power
and prestige.
By the mid-fifteenth century, the latest forging techniques were used
to create the strongest, sturdiest, lightest and most flexible armor
and swords. Geography had made it inevitable that this precious technology
would be used by Europeans to perfect the art of war.
Iron and bronze technologies were also common in the Far East; but without the competitive incentive of Europe, the applications of these materials remained fairly limited. Armor never developed the unique and versatile qualities of European plate armour. Swords remained relatively uniform in style, and thanks to the ease with which technologies could spread from east to west, innovative Asian inventions, such as gunpowder were rapidly snapped up by the voracious European war machine.
It has long been known that agricultural civilizations in Africa were
producing iron long before the arrival of Europeans — the deadly,
lightweight, Zulu Assegai was testament to the skill of native African
ironmongers. But recent studies have also confirmed the independent
production of steel in Africa as well — a technology previously
believed to be uniquely European. Nevertheless, indigenous Africans
were about 1,000 years behind their European rivals — and we
will never know what they might have gone on to achieve, had the trajectory
of African culture not been interrupted by colonialization.
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The Conquistadors won an easy Victory against inferior Inca weapons technology
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Civilizations in the Americas lacked equivalent iron resources — but were rich beyond imagination in copper, tin, and precious metals like silver and gold. This, after all, had been the incentive for European exploration — the search for Eldorado, the quest to seize a paradise made of gold. The invaders were not disappointed. Gold was so common in the land of the Incas, it was used purely for decoration and bore no inherent monetary value. Protected solely by bronze weapons and knives carved from stone, the Inca Empire fell easily to deadly Spanish steel.
The Industrial Revolution catapulted Europe into a position of unprecedented
global domination over the course of the nineteenth century. Building
on colonial conquest accrued over the previous 200 years, industrialization
transformed the lands of the Americas, Africa and Asia into economic
satellites of Europe — producing and consuming raw materials
and manufactured goods to fuel imperial economies,spawning 'European'
cities thousands of miles away from home. The British, French, Belgian,
Dutch and German Empires of the late 19th and early 20th centuries
would have been unthinkable without the awesome power of steel.
Where to next?
Find out more about technology go to the Story of... Writing.
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