Poll.

This is the picture that goes with the poll.

In Action

A video that shows the Coehorn in action

Introduction

The cannon as we think about it in modern terms really came into being in the 17th century. It is very unclear where the invention of cannons and gunpowder came from. It is hard to know about the accuracy and the time frame of some of the sources. The different sources also contradict themselves a lot and it is hard to determine the accuracy of one source with  the other source. This exhibit will focus on artillery in the 18th century with a special lens being placed on Dutch artillery. The Dutch played a major role in military design without being a military power. They military design gave them influence that was disproportional to their dize

The beginning

VOC

The Dutch East India company (Verenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie) was a instrument that the Dutch government created in order to be able to administrate its growing colonies. The VOC acted as a private company and issued shares to its owners. This also allowed Amsterdam for a while to become the center of world trade. 

Voc Shipyard in Amsterdam

Coehorn

The Coehorn was developed by the Dutch military commander Baron van Manno Coehoorn in 1692. The U.S. government made modification to the original design and this particular design was still being used during the 19th century. This new design created a revolution because the mortar was able to be more accurate from farther away. This particular gun pictured was an American model that was produced by the Ames manufacturing company in Pennsylvania. The fact that other countries are still using variants of this design even today is a testament to how well designed it was. Can you imagine that they were still using the same designs of the 18th century in the American Civil War

Baron van Manno Coehoorn

Baron van Manno Coehoorn was born in the Dutch Republic in 1641. He introduced the Coehorn mortar at the Seige of Grave. He also wrote several books about fortification and how he believed that a citadel could effectively be defended as well as other fortifications. Do you think Dutch weapons would have lasted as long without his influence.

Uses of the Coehorn

The Coehorrn was also used by the Union Army and other forces around the world into the eigteenth century. Do you think that this wars would have been fought without it?
Boer War

Union Army

Napolean

The golden age of Dutch military designed ended once the country was conquered by the French. The French required that the Dutch government dissolved the VOC and thus The Netherlands lost access to many of its colonial possessions. Do you think the VOC would still be around if the Netherlands had not been conquered

Napoleon Bonaparte 

Louis Bonaparte

Star Fort

Von Coehoorn was also one of the brilliant fortification designers of the 17th century. Many examples of his work can still be seen today. They built several bastions that designed to rain down a crossfire of fire across a field. The bastions were usually built from a central location and that was the nerve center of the entire fort.

Guns

The Dutch were able to important their vast knowledge of gun and cannon making to other countries. One of the key countries that would import the knowledge were the Spanish. Do you think that it is ironic that the country that was at odds with the Dutch would import its knowledge

Work in Progress

Forgive the mess this is still a work in progress

Saltpeter

Potassium nitrate as it was called was the main ingredient in gunpowder. The Dutch by gaining access to the saltpeter trade in India was also gaining the ability to manufacture there own gun powder. The dutch provinces in India the Commoderl Coast in the early part of the 17th century by the late 17th century however gunpowder production had become more localized.

Images:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/20/Hendrick_Cornelis_Vroom_Het_uitzeilen_van_een_aantal_Oost-Indi%C3%ABvaarders_(1600).jpg
http://www.preselicoffee.com/_/rsrc/1291211754603/home-2/beans-in-history/Image-flag%20dutch%20east%20india%20co.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b3/Potassium_nitrate.jpg
http://www.cannonsuperstore.com/Shipwreck/dutch%20cannon%20003.JPG
https://www.collegehillarsenal.com/shop/images/P/FLA-2016-Product.jpg
http://home.comcast.net/~tractiongrips/pwpimages/smallcoehorn.jpg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8zQkj9c7ps
http://www.cannonsuperstore.com/Sold%20%20VOC%20and%20Dutch%20Cannons.html
http://41.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_me2g7pZZql1r7dd67o1_1280.jpg
http://www.brhoward.com/coehorn_mortar.html
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4b/Menno_Baron_van_Coehoorn_after_Caspar_Netscher.jpg
http://www.ddoughty.com/uploads/1/4/0/9/14095491/1064639.jpg?1416348487
http://myauctionfinds.com/2014/09/03/24-pounder-mortar-shell-that-quickly-drew-suitors/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napoleon
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Bonaparte
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a2/Palmanova1600.jpg
https://www.pinterest.com/nchoban/tattoo/

Information:
Buchanan, Brenda J. Gunpowder, Explosives and the State: A Technological History. Aldershot, England: Ashgate, 2006.
Chatterjee, Kumkum. Merchants, Politics, and Society in Early Modern India: Bihar, 1733-1820. Leiden, Netherlands: E.J. Brill, 1996.
http://www.iias.nl/iiasn/26/regions/26SA5.html
https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/explore-the-collection/timeline-dutch-history/1602-trade-with-the-east-voc
Lieberman, Victor. Strange Parallels Europe, Japan, China, South Asia, and the Islands. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2009
Nolan, Cathal J. The Age of Wars of Religion, 1000-1650: An Encyclopedia of Global Warfare and Civilization. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2006.
Black, Jeremy. European Warfare, 1660-1815. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1994.
Gutmann, Myron P. War and Rural Life in the Early Modern Low Countries. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1980.
Parker, Geoffrey. The Military Revolution: Military Innovation and the Rise of the West, 1500-1800. 2nd ed. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1996.
United States. National Park Service. "Castillo De San Marcos." National Parks Service. Accessed April 26, 2015. http://www.nps.gov/casa/learn/historyculture/cannon.htm.

About Us

This website was created by Jacob Lambert, a Honors undergraduate student at Western Carolina University, as
a research project under the direction of Dr. Laura Cruz.