(July 1, 2016 at 2:15 pm)abaris Wrote:(July 1, 2016 at 2:09 pm)CapnAwesome Wrote: I don't get how Iron age or Bronze age makes a difference? Could you explain their case a little more?
It pretty much boils down to weaponry. As is often the case with humanity. Iron gave you a literal edge over bronze. So Iron had an advantage. Not only in war, but also in terms of agriculture.
Yeah but it is a bit more complicated than that. The Greek hoplites, who were sine qua non as a military force wore bronze armor and had bronze spear points until fairly late in the hoplite period when they switched to a, believe it or not, laminate armor! Even the earliest hoplite swords, the xiphos were made of bronze. I suppose much of it depended on what was available. You needed copper and tin for bronze. For sea-faring trading states like Athens, Phoenicia or Carthage obtaining the raw materials was fairly easy. For states like Sparta it was probably a little more difficult. Nonetheless, they managed.
I suspect the one thing that led to iron's eventual preference was that it was much more common and thus cheaper to produce. I don't know that it produced "better" weapons but it sure as shit could produce more weapons.
