Glossary · Term · weapon
Hand cannon
The hand cannon was an early firearm consisting of a simple metal tube fired by igniting gunpowder by hand. It developed in China and spread widely in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. The Ming Empire equipped its armies with hand cannons as part of its large-scale use of gunpowder weapons.
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- APA
- The Epoch Institute. (2026). Hand cannon. In The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/hand-cannon
- MLA
- “Hand cannon.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/hand-cannon. Accessed .
- Chicago
- The Epoch Institute. “Hand cannon.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/hand-cannon.
- Harvard
- The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Hand cannon’, The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/hand-cannon (Accessed: ).
Last reviewed October 2026Random entry ↻