Martial Arts History
Each martial arts style has its own history and goals.
The history of martial arts around the world is complex. Most groups of people have had to defend themselves at some time and have developed fighting techniques for that purpose. However, many of those techniques have been rendered technologically obsolete over the centuries.
Even at an individual, rural level, the threat to the safety of a group of people is now more likely to come from modern weaponry such as automatic rifles than from men with swords.
Furthermore, the preservation of a martial art requires many years of teaching at the hands of a good teacher to pass on the art for a single generation. So it is relatively unlikely that a particular martial art would survive and become popular in today's culture, and each art that has done so has a unique history.
Use the links to the left to explore the martial arts history of these categories:
- Asia
- Europe
- The Americas
- International
- Modern Day Battlefield
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