Teachers lounge fight!

One guy says the English longbow

Another says the airplane (could he be a bit more vague? I'm thinking about going with "pointy things")

I say the Mongolian horseman

GO!

11/15/2005 6:29:03 PM

the gun

11/15/2005 6:31:46 PM

gunpowder.

ask the aztecs and incas.

who knows where we would be if those civilizations weren't wiped out.

[Edited on November 15, 2005 at 6:32 PM. Reason : well, technology...]

11/15/2005 6:32:05 PM

Spear and its derivations (halberd, pike, etc). They are highly effective in a phalanx formation and were used as anti-cavalry all the way through the English civil war.

11/15/2005 6:32:09 PM

hmmm...cant say just one, but important ones that come to mind are.

-sputnik (ICBMs for that matter)
-the musket/gun (duh)
-and it may sound silly, but the pike was very influential when it came on the scene in the middle ages

11/15/2005 6:33:05 PM

WOMEN! Ask the Trojans how badly they were fucked over by a woman.

[Edited on November 15, 2005 at 6:35 PM. Reason : .]

11/15/2005 6:34:27 PM

^ [/thread]

[Edited on November 15, 2005 at 6:35 PM. Reason : eheh]

11/15/2005 6:34:59 PM

sputnik? wtf

11/15/2005 6:35:48 PM

it proved that anyone can reach anyone with missles, distance used to be a huge factor in delivering bombs. when sputnik hit, the cold war just lost the "distance factor".



[Edited on November 15, 2005 at 6:38 PM. Reason : .]

11/15/2005 6:37:06 PM

In general, probably the spear. Probably the first effective projectile, predecessor of several important weapons (pikes), the concept it established exists today in every temporary defensive device (barbed wire) and projectile weapon.

All the great powers of Europe were born largely through use of the spear, so all of their subsequent conquests can also be attributed in no small part to that weapon.

If "spear" is too generic and you want something particular, I'd have to go with either the atomic bomb or the AK-47.

11/15/2005 6:37:08 PM

Back the 1200s, the crossbow was considered "against the natural laws of war" much of the same way biological agents and chemical agents are frowned upon by the world as either "unfair" or "too destructive." There was a stigma attached to the crossbow that people who used them were barbarians and couldn't fight a fair fight.

Just throwing that in for debate. I don't think it's the most influential, but certainly one of them. Women, though, is the winner.

11/15/2005 6:39:42 PM

At the very least, there's no way "English longbow" qualifies.

11/15/2005 6:41:51 PM

If we want to be horribly technical about it, I suppose the winner would have to be the stone. Out of that came arrowheads... then knives and spears and bayonets... on and on and on.

The pointy hard object revolutionized fighting to the point that a billion years later, we still use them.

11/15/2005 6:43:30 PM

So this is what goes in the teachers' lounge?

What a shame...I always figured there was something interesting behind those doors.

11/15/2005 6:44:16 PM

atomic bomb, hands down ... name another weapon that ended a world war by itself, and created one right after

11/15/2005 6:44:21 PM

fire

11/15/2005 6:45:39 PM

^one of the most influential inventions obviously ... not as a weapon

11/15/2005 7:01:19 PM

Propaganda.

[Edited on November 15, 2005 at 7:04 PM. Reason : sp.]

11/15/2005 7:03:50 PM

What about Gunpowder? Nobody mentioned that one. The nature of war totally changed due to this. Before battles were mainly a one-on-one affair, though archers could soften up an enemy before a cavalry or infantry charge. But the battle was won and lost for the most part in the hands of infantry or cavalry slashing and killing each other with axes, pikes, swords, and other implements.

Once gunpowder was weaponized, the whole scale of warfare shifted. Now armies could duel at a distance. Cannon could decimate walled cities from a distance far enough back that if the defenders did not have gunpowder, they were powerless to stop them. The current armor was useless against musketball. Ships could now fight at a distance instead of having to board each other. Even greek fire required ships to be at point blank range to be useful.

As for its total power, obviously the A-Bomb is the best. But I really think nothing has totally affected warfare like gunpowder. Without gunpowder, planes could do little more than drop bricks on the enemy and scout positions, ships would still be boarding each other for combat, etc.

11/15/2005 7:19:10 PM

i had a professor that argued the most important invention in warfare was the stirrup

11/15/2005 7:24:17 PM

Quote :

"atomic bomb, hands down ... name another weapon that ended a world war by itself, and created one right after"

The atomic bomb ended WWII. There wasn't another WW after that, unless you are referring to the Korean War.

11/15/2005 7:26:09 PM

Quote :

"Most influential weapon in history"

the physicist

11/15/2005 7:28:20 PM

Quote :

"What about Gunpowder? Nobody mentioned that one. "

"hey, look at me! i've obviously not read this thread!!"

11/15/2005 7:29:36 PM

^oops he caught it.

[Edited on November 15, 2005 at 7:30 PM. Reason : cookiepuss beat me]

11/15/2005 7:30:30 PM

Quote :

"So this is what goes in the teachers' lounge?"

Wet bar, humidor, and no less than 15 plasma screens.


And yes, we were discussing more specific weapons, which is why "the airplane" sucks as a choice. We were trying to narrow him down to like B-17 or B-52, but no.

But the Mongolian horseman still wins. Without Mongol expansion Europe would probably have not been exposed to the Bubonic Plague; we all know how different the world would have been without that.

Funny you should mention gunpowder, because it was the Mongolian horseman who first introduced gunpowder into Europe. China fended off the Mongols with gunpowder, but through this contact the Mongols eventually learned to use it themselves. The Mongols then proceeded to fight the Russians using gunpowder in the 13th Century. From there it spread westward.

Quote :

"i had a professor that argued the most important invention in warfare was the stirrup"

Guess who's famous for their use of stirrups? That'd be the Mongolian horsemen.



[Edited on November 15, 2005 at 7:40 PM. Reason : .]

11/15/2005 7:36:00 PM

the penis mightier

11/15/2005 7:44:12 PM

Easy.

The printing press.

11/15/2005 7:55:28 PM

i dont count "mongolian horsemen" as a weapon
they use weapons, but are not weapons themselves

11/15/2005 7:57:09 PM

goddam mongorians

11/15/2005 7:59:39 PM

The mounted archer is just as much a weapons platform as an M1A2.

11/15/2005 8:01:08 PM

An idea.

11/15/2005 8:02:45 PM

Ok, and cutesy answers are automatically wrong.

11/15/2005 8:06:35 PM

Submachine gun by far... it changed the way everyone fought... just look at the differences in WWI and WWII

11/15/2005 8:08:24 PM

sticks and stones

11/15/2005 8:13:24 PM

i hope i never encounter sputnik...it's death from above.

11/15/2005 8:23:15 PM

teh intarweb beats the printing press. I don't know if it counts as a weapon, but the printing press has been and teh intarweb will be among the most influential things of all time.

11/15/2005 8:23:58 PM

disease

11/15/2005 8:24:05 PM

That'd win if it counted

which it may. hmm.

11/15/2005 8:26:01 PM

Quote :

"gunpowder. disease. ask the aztecs and incas. who knows where we would be if those civilizations weren't wiped out."

11/15/2005 8:26:23 PM

Quote :

"Submachine gun by far... it changed the way everyone fought... just look at the differences in WWI and WWII"

Foolishness. Those differences came from tanks and the concept of combined arms, not some pussy-ass SMG that played a role no more significant than that of the Garand.

And gunpowder had very little to do with killing the Aztecs and the Incans. The forces that wiped out those civilizations were small and did not have a large supply of the stuff with them. Far more important for the conquistadors was the horse and metal armor.

11/15/2005 8:32:17 PM

M14

11/15/2005 8:36:24 PM

whoops

11/15/2005 8:38:00 PM

History rock paper scissors


germs beat guns

guns beat steel

steel beats germs

11/15/2005 8:39:47 PM

love?

11/15/2005 8:49:04 PM

im thrown between whip, brass knuckles, and photon torpedo.

11/15/2005 9:04:59 PM

Psychological Warfare.

Some more recent examples would be the rather shortlived Gulf War II, afghanistan, and in rather recent history, Vietnam.

If you make them think that they're losing, or that they're going to lose, you stand a much better chance at winning.

11/15/2005 9:06:51 PM

probably the submarine

11/15/2005 9:08:38 PM

My votes for most effective early weaponry:

Offense: Spears, Calvary, and Deception.

Defense: Walls, Armour and Time

11/15/2005 9:15:33 PM

Quote :

"One guy says the English longbow"

Oh please. That's about the worse response I can think.

Quote :

"gunpowder. ask the aztecs and incas."

Why? Neither of them were defeated by the Spanish because of gunpowder.

I think naming any older weapon is probably barking up the wrong tree. None of them impacted the way wars were fought as much as more modern and technologically advanced weapons have.

If you want to name old weapons, though, I'd start with the spear, shield and bow (especially the composite bow).

Quote :

"Far more important for the conquistadors was the horse and metal armor."

The horse more than the metal armor (many of the conquistadors - probably most - fought in cotten armor). Guns were very useful, but the crossbow was just as effective against the Amerindians. The canon was the biggest contribution gunpowder made to beating the aztecs and incas. Important but not key.

11/15/2005 9:23:59 PM

I'm going to go with propaganda


most influential weapon in the English speaking world:

longbow


most influential weapon in the modern world:

atomic bomb or AK-47

11/15/2005 9:56:10 PM