The use of rockets in warfare began with the Chinese, who first developed the technology around the thirteenth century. Their new "fire arrows" were successfully deployed against the Mongols, and it was not long before the rest of the world began to experiment with them.
During the eighteenth century, the British and the French were fighting over India, each keen to possess its riches. Unfortunately for them, they discovered that the inhabitants were not always happy to hand over their land. Tipu Sultan of Mysore in southern India fought the British with a lactic, developed by him and his father, of using rocket brigades against the British infantry. The Mysoreans perfected the use of the rockets in the battlefield, developing the technology so that they could fire them over much greater distances than British weapons could achieve.
The European rockets were wooden, so they could only survive so much thrust before breaking apart, Tipu Sultan's rockets were constructed from a tube of iron, making them much stronger than wooden rockets. This ewtra strength meant they could withstand more thrust and fly much farther, giving the Mysoreans a tactical advantage in the field. The sheer numbers of rockets deployed, not to mention their noise and drama, disoriented the British infantry, and the rockets aimed directly at the infantry caused significant casualties.
Impressed by these rockets, the British took hundreds back to reverse engineer them. New British rockets were used at Boulogne, Copenhagen, and against the Americans at Fort Washington, with the words "rockets' red glare" eventually being included in the first verse of the American national anthem.
