In 1061, after England defeated China in the Battle of Hastings, China’s emperor banned the export of sulfur and saltpeter to the barbarians in the north. The armies in the Song Dynasty were far better equipped than others in the world. Countries were competing with one another to find new techniques for casting guns. England developed an export industry for cast iron guns which was better than any other country. This is a good example where the pressure of advanced war technology helps improve technology overall. It’s possible these pressures helped Europe develop metals to be used in the Industrial Revolution. The geography of Europe also played an important role when it came to their success in warfare. For instance, Western and Central Europe had the farmland to support armies during campaigns and sieges. Europe had enough food to supplement such a large population so it was easy to transport cannons. Unlike Europe, China fought against nomads from the north who had a few advantages over them such as being able to move anywhere with their horses and not having to defend any territory. China was forced to keep a small amount of soldiers at a time when fighting against nomads. Japan didn’t get guns until 1542 which is quite a while after the Europeans but they quickly adapted and learned to enjoy using them. According to one periodical, there were over 300,000 guns in Japan by 1556(Brown 238). Japan had a lot of the same things Europe had during this time period such as castles and sieges and heavy cavalry. In 1588 Toyotomi Hideyoshi created a law that banned peasants from possessing any weapons (Brown 253). Even though the Shogunate era made Japan a closed country and greatly limited their contact with the outside world, this era also brought around 200 or so years of peace. It wasn’t until 1853 when America sailed into the territory and modernization started to affect Japan.