This article is from the soc.history.what-if FAQ, by Anthony Mayer anthonyemayer@yahoo.co.uk with numerous contributions by others.
Despite persistent stories to the contrary, the Chinese did use
gunpowder for weapons. They used bombs from the tenth century AD,
rockets from the tenth and eleventh, and even cannon from the
thirteenth. Cannon seem to have diffused to Europe by the 1320s, and
China lost its lead in gunpowder weaponry probably in the 1400s.
 
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