A conventional weapon is a weapon that does not incorporate chemical, biological or nuclear payloads. The phrase is a retronym, used to describe the arsenal that existed before the other categories of weapons were heavily researched and developed in the 20th century. Although the term 'conventional weapons' is primarily used to refer to explosive weapons the UN Convention on Conventional Weapons also includes controls on blinding laser and incendiary weapons. The bayonet is used as both knife and spear. ... Dressing the wounded during a gas attack by Austin O. Spare, 1918. ... Biological warfare, also known as germ warfare, is the use of any organism (bacteria, virus or other disease_causing organism) or toxin found in nature, as a weapon of war. ... The mushroom cloud of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, Japan, 1945, rose some 18 kilometers (11 mi) above the hypocenter. ... A retronym is a type of neologism coined for an old object or concept whose original name has come to be used for something else or is no longer unique. ... (19th century - 20th century - 21st century - more centuries) Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s As a means of recording the passage of time, the 20th century was that century which lasted from 1901–2000 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar (1900–1999...

There are several international treaties that deal with restrictions on conventional weapons.

• Hague Convention of 1899 - which restricts the use of Dum-dum bullets (declaration III).
• Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) - which controls weapons that create non-detectable fragments/shrapnel, landmines and booby traps, blinding lasers, incendiary bombs and explosive remnants of war.
• Ottawa Treaty on anti-personnel landmines.

The Hague Conventions were international treaties negotiated at the First and Second Peace Conferences at The Hague, Netherlands in 1899 and 1907, respectively, and were, along with the Geneva Conventions, among the first formal statements of the laws of war and war crimes in the nascent body of international law. ... Dumdum (Bengali দমদম) is a city and a municipality in North 24 Parganas district in the state of West Bengal, India. ... The United Nations Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW), concluded at Geneva on October 10, 1980, seeks to prohibit or restrict the use of certain conventional weapons which are considered excessively injurious or that have indiscriminate effects. ... A sectioned Shrapnel shell displayed at the Canadian War Museum, Ottawa Shrapnel is the term used to describe the spherical shot or musket balls dispersed when a shrapnel shell bursts. ... A land mine is a type of self-contained explosive device which is placed onto or into the ground, exploding when triggered by a vehicle, a person, or an animal. ... A LASER (from the acronym of Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation) is an optical source that emits photons in a coherent beam. ... Incendiary bombs are bombs designed to start fires or destroy sensitive equipment using materials such as napalm, thermite, or white phosphorus. ...  State Parties to the Ottawa Treaty The Ottawa Treaty or the Mine Ban Treaty (formally the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on their Destruction bans completely all anti-personnel landmines (AP-mines). ... A land mine is a type of self-contained explosive device which is placed onto or into the ground, exploding when triggered by a vehicle, a person, or an animal. ...

See also

• The inverse of conventional weapons: ABC Weapons, NBC Weapons, CBRN and Weapons of mass destruction
• Explosive material

The term ABC weapons (atomic, biological, chemical) has in English largely been superseded by weapons of mass destruction, and before that by NBC weapons where the N stands for nuclear. ... Nuclear, Biological, Chemical, or NBC is the term used in the armed forces of many nations to describe the measures taken to guard and decontaminate against nuclear, biological and chemical weapons. ... CBRN is an acronym used extensively by the UK security services and the UK emergency services. ... Weapon of mass destruction (WMD) is a term used to describe a munition with the capacity to indiscriminately kill large numbers of living beings. ... Preparing C-4 explosive This article is concerned solely with chemical explosives. ...

External links

• The convention on conventional weapons at FAS
• http://www.nawcwpns.navy.mil/~treaty/CCWC.html