Why is Central Europe a hotbed for gun designers?

[upptick]

Sig, Glock, H&K, Walther, Beretta, CZ, IM Metal (sold under the Springfield brand) all are located in Central Europe. I think that's also where the first mechanical clocks were designed and built. What about the culture and traditions there has produced these innovators?

 

[NIGHTLORD40K]

Unending wars drive technological innovation.....

 

[entropy]

Same reason it was the major advancer of civilization once the Church's stranglehold on rational thought was broken; Central Europeans are able to think rationally, logically, and analytically, and when not persecuted and executed for doing so, are capable of wonderful, as well as terrible things.

 

[Riomouse911]

Mauser, Pirazzi...lots of them.

Stay safe.,

 

[Rembrandt]

Not sure it was so much a hot bed of designers as it was a major manufacturing area. FN produced but Browning and others were not central European residents. Very little of Beretta's product line was innovative, more an adaptation of what others created.

 

[entropy]

There was a lot of firearms innovation tucked in between those two..........

 

[Kleanbore]

Sig, Glock, H&K, Walther, Beretta, CZ, IM Metal (sold under the Springfield brand) all are located in Central Europe.

CZ is.

 

[ApacheCoTodd]

CZ is.

Funny.

By my education I went there too.

I thought this was going to be a thread about post-Soviet, Warsaw-Pact commercial arms.

Todd.

 

[rabid wombat]

Unending wars drive technological innovation.....

From feudal times through a variety of regional and world wars...need is the mother of invention. That said, I am pretty happy to John Moses Browning is on our team.

 

[entropy]

As well as John Cantius Garand and Eugene Stoner.

 

[rabid wombat]

Colt, Smith, and Wesson did OK too.....

 

[George P]

It was also where the raw materials were located, along with Spain and Sweden. Most designs are very old while materials or manufacturing have been modernized.

Example: While Ivo Fabbri O/Us utilize the BOSS action design from over a century ago, they utilize some of the leading cutting methods in use today including using a cold laser to weld the barrels together instead of using silver solder like most others.

 

[jhb]

ya got Austria, but forgot Steyr. also Austrian economic theory.

 

[WestKentucky]

Materials, skilled hands, educated minds, and time to tinker. Once you get into a lot of the areas discussed heavily in firearms design there is not a whole lot of stuff to do, especially in winter, so a man tinkers with what’s on his mind. Engineering minds see parts and on occasion they can produce those parts to make them functional.

Another big thing is a balance. War drives manufacturing ability and manufacturing technology. The aftermath of war is when designs are altered, when all hands are not busy making tools to simply survive and fight. So during war technology advances so that more guns can be made quickly and efficiently. After war things are made better, and without extreme pressure to build, men get to tinker and improve the designs themselves. There must be a balance that allows for each chunk to move forward regularly.

 

[herrwalther]

Leonardo DaVinci had drawings of tanks and helicopters in Italy in the 15th Century. A rough 400 years before the first of either was ever built. Europe has been a battle ground for millennia before the first recognizable border was ever drawn on a map for the region. Innovation for warfare comes from when you have wars of a large and dense population fighting over land and resources on a small area like Europe.

 

[BLACKHAWKNJ]

A higher education system where scientific and technical education was emphasized over liberal arts and access was available to those of modest means and backgrounds. Decades of political hostility and rivalry which resulted in armed camps and national military-industrial complexes. And the recognition that technical advances could make up for lack of numbers and hard to defend borders. And a healthy domestic market.

 

[Speedo66]

Historically, many reasons. England had trading ships and a large navy to bring items, and ideas, there from all over the world.

There was food and shelter enough in Europe that people didn't have to worry about those items and could turn their thoughts to other areas.

All the natural resources needed were there.

A religious turn allowed knowledge to trickle down to the common man rather than just being held by higher ups in a church.

 

[mjsdwash]

Unending wars drive technological innovation.....

This... This region has been at some form of war for the majority of known history, often atrocious unimaginable wars. Its also the Old worlds crossroads between the Arab empires, silk road, North Africa, and Western Eruope. The region was a conflict zone of many empires, and along river trade routs from all over. https://www.ancient-origins.net/news-history-archaeology/viking-mercenary-district-0014176

Also, before the WW1, and the Soviet Union destroyed these countries stability, the region had a normal manufacturing, engineering and working climate. Slavery and subjugation -even if the USSR want to call it something else- breaks that down, but that ended a long time ago, and these people know another war is never too far away. Its hard to believe there hasn't been a major conflict in Europe in this long, even with the E.U., NATO, UN and US/USSR policy. War is just the nature of the continent.
Another big driver is that this region, traditionally less wealthy, and less "restrictive" than its western neighbors has a much friendlier gun industry, and with that gun importing industry, so while many countries would be making stuff for the export market, they really can't and so there is no drive to manufacture new anything for only a limited government market.
I think the last and most important part in the modern era, most of these countries east of Germany know not to expect any help in the even of major war. WW2, the Soviet takeover, the raging chaos of the 1980's-1990's, and no one was interested in any real help. A few bombings, and some war crimes trials, but no one was really helping much.

 

[theotherwaldo]

If you are a small country in the midst of obnoxious, war-like neighbors then you had better be able to make your own guns.

 

[entropy]

And if you are one of those obnoxious war-like neighbors, you need to produce the best guns and officers-just don't let a corporal do your strategic planning.

 

[Drail]

It's not just gun designers - it's all types of mechanical engineering. They've been at it for many years and many wars. Look at the equipment Germany built for the WW ll effort. It took us years to catch up.

 

[BreechFace]

It's not just gun designers - it's all types of mechanical engineering. They've been at it for many years and many wars. Look at the equipment Germany built for the WW ll effort. It took us years to catch up.

On the backs of slave labor, never forget. The spoils of war and looting conquered countries wealth added to their abilities.

 

[BreechFace]

Unending wars drive technological innovation.....

This ^

The changing borders demonstrated in the clip below helps depict why warfare technology has always been sought in Europe.

 

[Drail]

On the backs of slave labor, never forget. The spoils of war and looting conquered countries wealth added to their abilities.

Slave labor did not give them tools or technology they had at the beginning of the war. They simply had better equipment and LOTS OF IT.

 

[GEM]

If you want a real analysis of the rise of firearms in Europe, read:


The gunpowder age : China, military innovation, and the rise of the West in world history
Author:
Andrade, Tonio author.

There are no differences in IQ between regions of the world. That is pure BS. Such will be deleted.