Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
around the world. The Chinese of the Warring States period of the
Eastern Zhou were also the first in the world to use chemical and espe-
cially poison gas weapons on the battlefield. Mo-ist writings record the
use of poison gas as a defensive measure against enemy troops who
were digging tunnels into besieged cities. This was over two thousand
years before mustard gas was used against entrenched positions in
Europe during WorldWar I. For centuries after this, Chinese militarists
perfected ways of making and delivering tear gas and chemical bombs
into the ranks of their enemies, especially after the Chinese invention
of gunpowder in the ninth century A.D.
