TechnologyEast Asia

The stirrup

300

A small loop that turned the rider into a weapon

In depth

The stirrup spread from China westwards across the steppe and reached Europe in the eighth century. The historian Lynn White argued it made the heavy armoured knight possible and thereby the whole feudal system — a thesis much disputed, but still a textbook case of the question whether technology shapes society or the reverse.

For children

Without stirrups a rider had to grip with the thighs and could easily be unseated by a hard blow. With stirrups he could stand, strike and thrust with full force. It changed warfare everywhere it arrived.

Connects to

The chariot2,001 BCE
The horse tamed on the steppe3,701 BCE
Feudal societyJan 900 – Jan 1400
The Mongol EmpireJan 1206

Part of Terra Saga — the story of Earth on a timeline. terrasaga.org