Why were fireworks invented by the Chinese?

I didn't bother because I seriously thought you knew already.

Okay.  I'll look it up.

The history of making fireworks began with the ancient Chinese Daoists in the Han dynasty in 202 BC. During the Han dynasty, there was a religion called, Daoism (Dow-is-em). Daoists studied a form of science called alchemy and they were called alchemists.

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The ancient Chinese emperors of the Han dynasty went to the Daoists and said, “We want to live forever.” The alchemists began looking for all kinds of things that the ancient Chinese emperors could take to make them live forever. Two of the things they found were potassium nitrate (saltpeter) and sulfur. Now, although these two things cannot make you live forever and by themselves, they do not make fireworks, without the work of the Daoists and their alchemy, we may not have fireworks today.

The history of Chinese fireworks as we know them today

The Han dynasty lasted until 220 AD without anyone understanding what else was needed to create fireworks. It wasn’t until the Song dynasty in the eleventh century, that the last thing was found to turn potassium nitrate and sulfur into fireworks – charcoal.

You see, potassium nitrate is a chemical that makes something burn. It gives fireworks the energy to blast out or explode from a container. When you hear the pops and booms from fireworks going off, that’s the potassium nitrate working.

This post was edited by WM BARR . =ABSOLUTE TRASH at July 5, 2017 10:28 PM MDT

@Shar, actually, I didn't know the answer. I was listening to the radio on July 4, and the announcer was asking people questions about the holiday. I hardly knew any of the answers. Sad. This was one of the questions. No one knew it on the radio either! Ha! Thanks for looking it up! 

Black powder was invented in the ninth century, they were using fire lances as weapons as early as the tenth.

Like penicillin you mean? Yes that sounds right.