The World Without Gunpowder?

Recently I saw a discussion about whether it was possible to have industrialization without the discovery of gunpowder. This idea got me thinking, and it is impossible not to say that gunpowder changed much of the modern world as we know it. We owe much to its development. Not just in terms of warfare, but in the changes that wrought in government, social mobility, economics, and technology.

The question is though, what might a world without gunpowder look like?

A Beautiful City

Many days I wake up and look out my window and I have to smile, because I live in a very beautiful city. Canada's capital may not be as old as say, London, New York, or even Quebec City, but Ottawa is still a very beautiful place.

Originally known as a lumber town more notable for the scope of the violence between its French and Irish lumbermen, its choice as Canada's capital was a compromise which satisfied no one and displeased many. Almost until the last minute people were hoping minds would be changed and that the capital could be moved somewhere else rather than this little hilly city which it seemed was only fit for habitation by swine and lumber barons, and the two were not necessarily mutual exclusive. However, the city stuck, and just in time in 1867, the Parliament Building was completed

Just in time