Une qui a contribué a causé une mutinerie sur laquel je suis tombé en faisant des recherches sur un de mes mousquet!!!
The Enfield Rifled Musket was a major contributing cause to the Indian rebellion of 1857- Sepoys in the British East India Company's armies in India were issued with the new rifle in 1856, and rumours began to spread that the cartridges (referring here to cardboard wrapped powder and shot, not metallic cartridges) were greased with either pig fat or beef tallow - an abhorrent concept to Muslim and Hindu soldiers, respectively, for religious reasons. British military drills of the time required soldiers to bite open the cartridge, pour the gunpowder contained within down the barrel, then ram the cartridge paper down the barrel to act as a wad, before finally ramming a musketball down the barrel, removing the ram-rod, shouldering the rifle, adding a percussion cap, and firing.
The idea of having anything which might be tainted with pig or beef fat in their mouths was totally unacceptable to the sepoys, and when they objected it was suggested that they were more than welcome to make up their own batches of cartridges, using a religiously acceptable greasing agent such as beeswax or vegetable oil. But this, of course, seemed to be "proof" that the issued cartridges were, in fact, greased with pig and/or beef fat. A further suggestion that the sepoys tear the cartridges open with their hands (instead of biting them open) was rejected as impractical - many of the sepoys had been undertaking musket drill daily for years, and the practice of biting the cartridge open was second nature to them. The indifference of many British commanding officers only added more fuel to the already volatile situation, and helped spark the Mutiny in 1857.
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