by military and economic means, but rather focused its attention on improving the deteriorating health of the general public caused by disease. Many people died of the Black Death, making it impossible for England, in this state, to conquer surrounding nations or to increase wealth for power. Wars could not be fought because many men were sick and dying with this disease. In poor health, these men were unable to fight in battles, let alone win them. The wealth of the country was also unable to increase because many of the victims of the Black Death were merchants. Those merchants with this disease could not sell their goods and therefore could not make any profit in order to pay taxes for their country.Europeans learned about auxiliary means of performing different actions. The Hundred Years War brought important developments. The use of two new weaponsthe longbow and the cannonweakened feudalism. The English longbow was 5 or 6 feet (1.5 or 1.8 meters) long, with a range up to 400 yards (360 meters). English foot soldiers armed with longbows completely defeated a French feudal cavalry at Agincourt in 1415. Knights on horseback were no match for foot soldiers with longbows. Europeans may have learned the use of gunpowder from the Muslims during the Crusades. To this knowledge they added the use of the gun. At first the gun was only a crude tube of wood and metal out of which exploding gunpowder hurled stones or chunks of metal. Cannons developed from these rather simple weapons. Castles no longer provided strong protection for the feudal lord and his soldiers. One powerful blast from a cannon could break through a castles thick walls. Europeans sought these other methods in order to make wars easier to win. With the longbow and gunpowder, battles were won and enemies defeated with ease. By traveling to other areas of the world to fight during the Hundred Years War, Europeans discovered these better ideas in military pr...
