This book explores the adoption and use of firearms and artillery by Sri Lankans, the impact of these weapons on warfare and their incorporation into the military organisation in the island. Using a wide range of sources, it delves into the technological, economic and political conditions and considerations that influenced these processes. The period covered is roughly 1500 to 1820. This corresponds approximately to the period spanning the first contact between Europeans and Sri Lanka in 1505, and the last major armed resistance to European power in the island in 1817-18.