An excerpt from the American Heritage Blog:
Some inventions are just, well, sexy, and some aren’t, no matter how important. It didn’t take a genius to see that once the Wright brothers proved it practicable, the airplane would have an immense impact on the twentieth century. But consider the stirrup. It seems about as boring as inventions come. Indeed it is so obvious in retrospect, it’s a wonder it took so long to be invented in the first place. But it appeared in India and, within a few generations, made its way to Europe only about the time of Charlemagne.
The stirrup made riding a horse much more secure and safe, to be sure, but it did a lot more than that. It made it possible for the rider to use a lance against an opponent while still holding his seat. Thus the stirrup made mounted knights—the tanks of medieval warfare—possible. The high costs of armor, war horses, etc., powered the development of the feudal system, in which land was granted in return for military obligations. The stirrup was thus one of the prime creators of the Middle Ages.
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