This History Channel documentary is titled as being about “gunpowder,” but in fact it also covers others important developments that happened during the Middle Ages, including the Sahara salt caravans in the 1350’s, the banking families that were established in Venice, Italy in the 1400’s which ultimately financed the Renaissance, and the invention of the printing press in the 1400’s.

Following are points made in the documentary:

— Guns were invented in China in the1300’s and implemented for the first time in wars, resulting in the establishment of the Ming Dynasty.  The Ming Dynasty completed the Great Wall of China.

— The printing press was invented in Germany in 1450, which revolutionized the dissemination of knowledge and created the Information Age.

— Christopher Columbus planned to travel across the ocean to find a passage to China in the late 1400’s.

— Guns became sophisticated and popular in Europe very quickly after they were invented.

— Guns were used by Christians to re-claim Spain from Islam in 1486.