Over the centuries man has become deadlier and deadlier. Hunting was the primary reason for developing ways to kill faster. Evidence would seem to indicate that early man joined together to try and stampede animals off of high cliffs so that they would fall to the bottom and die. Man was no match to go against animals one on one. Many people would get hurt doing this and man needed something where he could get a little further away from the animals while trying to make a kill. He developed a sharpened stick that he would sometimes burn the tip of in a fire to harden it. This stick might have been a little better but hunting this way was still a very dangerous activity. He also created the club, which in the beginning, was nothing more than a heavy stick or tree limb, but he went on to attach a rock at the end for crushing skulls. He also found out that if you attached a stone that was sharpened, you could make a stone ax. He improved the sharp stick this way by chipping and sharpening a rock tip which he would glue and tie to the end of a wooden shaft. The glue used was most likely some type of animal byproduct. With his new weapons he would hunt animals, and yes, he could declare war on other men.

It is not clear why the first wars started. It could have been over hunting rights in a particular territory or to raid other men for their food and women, but one thing was clear, man had become a killer of other men. Then man invented a device that would allow him to throw a spear much further, it was called a spear thrower and is still used in some parts of the world today. He also invented the boomerang. Somehow man figured out that he was safer fighting with other men and it wasn't long before he organized himself into armies. I guess armies were nothing more than members of the same tribe fighting together in the beginning. But even this changed as some men decided that they would fight for things like food and objects. These were the forerunners of what is known today as mercenaries. Next someone figured out the if you he took a springy stick and tie a cord to it, he could shoot projectiles called arrows from it. This was a huge leap in technology as evidenced by how long the bow and arrow was considered the weapon of choice by armies all over the world.

He must have gotten tired of being wounded and somewhere along the line decided to protect himselve with some sort of armour. At first leather was used. Then man made an amazing discovery, he discovered iron. The Museum of Natural History in New York City contains an iron sword that is a one piece object that is said to be thousands of years old. Once man discovered iron there was no stopping him. He created protection for himself in the form of chain mail, iron shields, and armour. As time went by the armour became more and more elaborate until it was so outpaced by weapons that there was no longer any need for it. Of course, as we all know, armour has made a comeback, in the form of bullet proof vests. What comes around goes around as they say.

Huge swords were created for chopping through armour Spiked maces and battle axes were also used for this purpose. The Mongols had now developed a bow that would penetrate armour. Then came the crossbow. The crossbow was considered so deadly that it was banned by the Pope has an inhumane weapon. What is a humane weapon? Suddenly the age of chopping and sticking was coming to an end. The Chinese had invented gunpowder but were using it only to entertain themselves. They did develop something called the hand cannon which was a tiny cannon like object that you held and lit after loading it. This must have taken a lot of courage knowing the state of metal at the time and the chance for it being blown out of your hand. But did the Chinese really invent gun powder, it seems it could have been invented in the middle east and is mentioned by Marcus Graecus around 1250. The Europeans decided that gun powder would make a great weapon and sometime around 1312 decided to try it out using cannons. The early cannons were not that accurate and might blow up. The powder was perfected over the years as was the cannon, until it became a terribly deadly weapon. Along the way it was realized that you might be able to make a small portable cannon for killing one person and the Wheel lock was born. The Wheel Lock was a rifle that had a fuse on top. You would light the fuse and pull the trigger and the fuse would rotate and touch off the powder.

No one was really satisfied, we had to kill faster and the flint lock rifle and pistol were born. They were much more dependable and accurate. A piece of flint was held by a hammer. When you pulled the trigger it hit a plate, causing a spark that ignited the powder, sending a lead ball to its target. We still had to do better and along came breach loading cannons up to sixteen inches in diameter as evidenced by the Battleship Yamato and semi and automatic guns. We now had machine guns that could spit out over 600 rounds per minute creating a killing field of vast proportions. But even this vast amount of killing had to be improved upon. Flame throwers were invented to burn people to death. Someone decided to develop deadly gases, some of which like mustard gas, would kill by burning out your lungs. Then came biological weapons. They became so popular that all the big countries had to have them. Luckily mass use of these agents hasn't taken place yet, but terrorists groups would like nothing more than to release them on a western country.

We split the atom and immediately our killing potential became awesome. Ah but that was only an ABomb, not good enough, so we decided to go for the H Bomb. Several countries have the capability to now kill tens of millions of people. Man has developed suitcase size nuclear weapons that can be carried anywhere.

What is next for man, a doomsday machine? There has been talk over the years of a machine that would launch a countries entire stockpile of missiles if it was convinced that the country was being attacked by nuclear weapons. Could man be this stupid? All I have to say on this point is look back and see what he has done so far.