• JohnnyCanuck@lemmy.ca
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    1 hour ago

    10th century starts at 900 CE, so you’re actually talking about 1100 years from 200 BCE.

    However, you’re also using a very loose definition of fireworks. They (the Han dynasty) were throwing bamboo tubes into fire to make them go BANG in 200 BCE. Those weren’t even related (most likely) to the invention of gunpowder. The best theories suggest alchemist sets looking for the elixir of life when they stumbled on something pretty flammable.

    Gunpowder in a reasonably effective form wasn’t invented until about 800 CE (9th century) by the Tang dynasty. That was refined for the next 100 years to be more effective and around 900CE they got close to what we have today. They (the Song dynasty) used it pretty much immediately to make weapons (fire arrows).