A Edited Verion of How The Stirrup
Changed Our World, by Dan Derby
http://www.strangehorizons.com/2001/20010924/stirrup.shtml
Aside from the wheel, there are
few inventions that have had the impact on history and culture as the
stirrup. Many people believe that it was responsible for the entire feudal
system and no one will argue that the stirrup the single most important
factor in the rise of the mounted knight as the dominant weapon of the medieval
period.
The horse evolved in the Americas
about 20 million years ago and migrated into Eurasia and populated the
steppes. It was used as a source of food long before it was ridden.
In the Americas, it was eaten into extinction by 5000 BC, not to be reintroduced
until the Spaniards brought them over in the 18th century.
However, before the Americans has
chowed down on their last horseburger, the Russians had domesticated horses and
were raising them as a food source, and somewhere around 6000 BC someone may
have actually ridden horses for the first time.
As you can imagine, the first
bareback rider didn't have much control. Eventually, the bridal was added
and the rider now had significant control over the animal. Suddenly, man
could cover distances in a few hours that used to take him days. He had
unknowingly created a new strategic weapon, the high-speed
retreat.
You may wonder how a retreat
becomes a weapon. The most dangerous part of warfare during those days was
getting away. Warfare was usually involved surprise hit and run tactics on
superior forces. The idea was to strike, inflict as much damage as
possible, and get away before the enemy regrouped enough to push back the attack
and inflict damage on the attackers. The people of the steppes became
skilled horsemen and dominated the area for the next few thousand
years.
Around 1000 BC someone added a
simple loop of leather to the saddle that allowed the less athletic rider to
mount the horse easier. From there it was simply a matter of time before
someone added the loop to the other side and a new advantage was found.
The rider was now much more stable. Before this simple invention, only
highly skilled horsemen were able to ride and carry weapons with any
effectiveness. It took great skill and a great deal of practice. Add
this to the cost of raising horses and you found that horse warfare didn't come
cheaply.
Now with the invention of the
stirrup, less skilled riders could become warriors and the horsemen of the
steppes had an even greater advantage. Their numbers rose and by 317 AD
the horsemen of the steppes had overridden China. The countless number of
foot soldiers that China could produce was no match for the mounted warriors of
the steppes.
With each new land conquered, the
stirrup was introduced to a new culture and by 600 AD they had made their way to
Europe. The horse soldiers still depended on the hit and run tactics, but
now did is with much greater numbers. The European foot soldiers had great
difficulty dealing with the mounted attacks.
By 700 AD Europe began to adapt by
taking the best of the ideas of their enemies with their own ideas. They
began to develop a new form of society that produced a new type of
warfare. They built their society around the weapon system, the mounted
knight.
The horse warrior of the steppes
road small swift steppe ponies, was clad in leather armor, and usually
carried a bow and/or spear. Imagine the first time they attacked a walled
castle. Their excitement grew as the charged and watched the workers
fleeing for the protection of the walls, but then quickly fades as they see
coming out of the fortification the biggest horses they have ever seen and
mounted on the horses were knights in metal armor carrying the biggest spear
they had ever seen.
Suddenly, the steppe warriors
practiced the rapid retreat developed by thier ancestors, but now it was before
they attacked instead of after. They had encountered the Sherman tank of
the 8th century. It was expensive was to raise horses and to become
skilled at using weaponry while mounted, but the cost of maintaining mounted
knights was staggering. The entire feudal system evolved as a way of
supporting this new type of warfare.
All of this was made possible by
the invention of the stirrup. Without it, the steppe horse soldiers
wouldn't have been able to dominate. Without it, the knight would never be able
to stay in the saddle. Mounted knights were to dominate Europe for the next 600
years until other forms of defense and weaponry made the role of the knight
unnecessary, but that's another story.