Quote Originally Posted by Bovarius
Man has always put a lot of effort in better, deadlier weapons. So is would have been gunpowder or something else. 3 things in life never change, Death, taxes and man's need to destroy!

To answer your question you could check civilisations who started using gunpowder rather late, for example, Japanese (until they eventually did). They perfectionated their weapons to a degree hardly seen in western europe.
The katana is quite possibly the most overrated weapon of all time. Firstly, it is made using a differential tempering process, by which the spine is softer than the blade. All well and good, but -how- much softer becomes an issue. It is not unknown for a katana that was hit on the blade to be cut in two, simply because the steel is -hard- but not -tough-.

The weapon itself was made entirely for dueling. The tachi, its longer, more deeply curved cousin, is a fine cavalry blade, but not quite as good as the saber that Japan's contemporaries were using.

The katana cannot (as a slashing sword) defeat armor properly... More to come (I hate katanas, yar).