Fireworks are as American as Fourth of July — but they began somewhere else

What's more American than the Fourth of July? And what's more Fourth of July than fireworks?

The rockets' red glare! The bombs bursting in air! Those marvelous, multicolored skyrockets that we associate with John Philip Sousa, waving flags, and Fluffy cowering under the bed! Surely such a thing could only have come from our beloved U.S.A.

In fact, fireworks come from China.

Who invented fireworks?

The Chinese have been celebrating with fireworks long before there was an England for America to break away from.

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What country were fireworks invented in?

"Certainly fireworks were used for celebratory events, religious and otherwise, during the Qing dynasty and probably earlier," said Susan Naquin, historian and professor emerita at Princeton University who specializes in late imperial and early modern China.

In this period, beginning in the mid-17th century, fireworks were well-established. But many historians trace them back as far as the Han dynasty, in the third century A.D.

What did fireworks used to be made of?

The first fireworks, 1,800 years ago, were apparently bamboo stems.

When thrown into the fire, their hollow air pockets overheated, and they exploded with a loud crack. Hence: firecrackers. When the Chinese invented gunpowder in the ninth century, they graduated from small to big bangs.

"Fireworks were created because of the invention of gunpowder in Song times," said Yingcong Dai, an historian of late Imperial China, who teaches at William Paterson University in Wayne.

Blame a certain alchemist of the Tang dynasty — who, according to legend, was seeking the formula for eternal life. He mixed sulfur, charcoal and potassium nitrate together. And the gunpowder business took off with a bang.

When did fireworks become popular?

But it wasn't until the Song dynasty (960–1279) that the recipe for gunpowder was actually recorded. In this period of innovation, the world's first paper money was issued. The first "pound lock" was used in a canal. And the first real fireworks — paper tubes with gunpowder and a fuse — were set off to the delight of the crowds. Their descendants can be found at roadside stands and supermarket displays across America.

By the 12th century, fireworks could be purchased by the common people from street vendors. Grand displays, meanwhile, were devised to entertain the nobles on great feast days. "Chinese flowers," they were known by middle-easterners who who had started to visit in this period.

Gunpowder, along with paper and printing, were among the commodities brought back to Europe via traders on the "Silk Road." By the 1300s, Europeans had started to make fireworks too.

Why do we celebrate Fourth of July with fireworks?

Our very first Fourth of July celebration, in 1777, featured fireworks. John Adams had laid the groundwork, in a letter to his wife, Abigail, the year before.

The Fourth, he wrote, "ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more."

When were the first American fireworks?

The first American fireworks, in 1777, were one color: orange. It wasn't until well into the 19th century that Western pyrotechnicians began to develop the multicolor effects that we expect from our big waterfront shows and Macy's extravaganzas.

But even then, the Chinese had colors and effects unknown in the West. "It is certain that the variety of colours which the Chinese have the secret of giving to flame is the greatest mystery of their fireworks," said the 19th century French historian Antoine Caillot.

For a long time, Westerners licked their wounds by claiming that while the Chinese invented gunpowder, they hadn't thought to use it for anything practical — like war.

For better or worse, this appears not to be true.

"In the past, the argument that China did not make good use of gunpower to develop military technology used fireworks as evidence to prove it," Dai said.

A 2017 book, "The Gunpowder Age: China, Military Innovation, and the Rise of the West in World History," by Tonio Andrade, makes the case that the Chinese military knew exactly what to do with the explosive mixture, Dai said.

"He argues that gunpowder was immediately used in warfare."