6 Weapons That Changed Human History Forever

Sometimes, humans invent a technology that changes the game. From ancient hand axes to gunpowder, here are 6 weapons that changed the course of human history.

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[YeeSoest]

THE THUMBNAIL IS NOT AI, LOOK IT UP, FOLKS!! Photographer's name is Iñaki Antoñana and i think not doing your due diligence is bad style. This channel deserves an audience willing to do the work.
The fingers DO look weird but it's just a bad glove design where the metal slips off the fabric underneath

[Limit]

Spears!
Best and most important and one of the most under appreciated weapons of history, as are most Polearms.

[starman]

Weapon #5 was so crazy, they had to take it out of the video!

[oldsarj]

You can get 12-year-olds really excited about the principles of physics with an atlatl, a dart and a stack of hay bales.

[pamdrayer]

The spear-thrower is also called an 'atlatl.' There were almost certainly many names from different cultures for them, and that is the Aztec name, but 'atlatl' is a really cool word.

[jamesedwards]

Paraphrasing a documentary I watched 20+ years ago: "The sword is unique because it's the first thing we made that served no other purpose beyond killing other human beings. Knives, axes, and clubs can be used as tools, spears & arrows can be used to hunt. But a sword is only for fighting and killing people."

Swords aren't really battle field gamechangers but they do represent a watershed moment for human psychology in that way.

[BrownP]

SciShow: "Suddenly (with spear throwers) it would've been way easier for humans to find food, leaving them with plenty of energy to go towards anything else."
Me: "Y'know, like warring! Between each other, even!"

[theelitistjerkmetalhead]

The thing about hand-axes is I think we need to not focus so much on their use as throwing weapons. Just the difference in bashing someone with a fist, versus bashing someone with a pointy rock, is a massive difference in damage dealing potential and a huge change to the prehistoric meta.

[bigpurplepops]

Shoutout to the atom bomb.

Completely redefined global politics and basically changed the idea of 'war'.

[JZ]

I love how quickly the video goes from weapons being used to conquer nature to fighting amongst ourselves...

[Corium]

Isn't it wild that on a universal timescale humans went from bows and arrows to the atomic bomb within a blink of an eye. We've gone far and we could just as easily disappear within the same moment.

[seluhir]

This guy is the best educator on youtube. Hands down. His pacing, tone, and delivery are perfect, and his passion for teaching is evident.

[markzambelli]

4 million years ago a primate touched The Monolith, the rest is history.

[TheFinalChapters]

You can't really talk about weapons that changed human history forever and leave out the atom bomb.

[jakemad]

its crazy to think drones, something that I learned about as a kids toy, is a weapon shaping the battlefield today

[ThatFreeWilliam]

I have an Acheulean handaxe. It fits so casually in my hand I can forget I'm holding it. It was somebody's favorite rock.

I doubt somebody risked throwing their favorite rock away.

[artesiningart]

I noticed and love how SciShow recently and now are doing more contents at the boundaries and intersections of the natural, formal and applied sciences into the social sciences and humanities, turning them more into liberal arts contents.

[bealzabubba]

1. Stick
2. Pointed Stick
3. Stick launches other Stick
4. Metal Stick
5. Metal Stick that launches small metal sticks
6. Sticks Crammed together so hard they really explode

[procrastinator]

Grog: “Ha ha, look how skinny they are !”
Thag: “ha! Yes! And look how puny their little spears”
An atl-atl dart pierces Thag’s torso, pinning his now lifeless body to poor Murg:
“Ooooh !! Owww!!”

[rodfranco]

I understand that homo sapiens have shoulders that are built differently from most other hominids. This supposedly gave us the ability to throw hard and accurately, so we threw spears from a distance. Others like neanderthal, had different shoulder anatomy and seem to have gone in at close range.