And believe it or not, there is an answer.
A man from the bible named cain.
When cain killed his brother and committed the first recorded act of violence, mankind faced a new challenge. Violence. It was all down hill from there! War, death, fighting, so yes it was Cain that created the martial side of it. Making things look beautiful (artful side) katas etc. came later.
In the olden days, people did not have T.V. or airplanes, and didn't travel all over the world (which they imagined to be much smaller than it actually was). Weapons where copied by different countries that went to war. In some cases, such as the Asian martial arts, the tribes would compete/ go to war, and in many cases they threw spears. Well, they were limited to the number of spears they could carry! Once they lost the spear, they had to rely on hand to hand combat. Now, I am not sure how some styles evolved differently, but there have always two different forms of martial arts: the ones geared more towards fighting (martial) and the softer, more artistic or sport oriented ones (the artful side).
Some styles became both. Taekwondo is one example. In the olden days, there was a sport where different tribes would compete to see who was the best. Later on, wars broke out. Korea is a mountainous country, that is why there are several flying kicks. Olympic Taekwondo took tradition TKD and threw it out the window!
This is just the eastern areas, Europe had wars too. So did Africa. The middle east. The Native American tribes. The whole world did.. except maybe not Australia. Who knows?
Later on martial arts became more popular as the world got more crazy and self defense from criminals became more common. They also became perceived as 'cool'. Ninjitsu was a hardcore assassination art before the media made everyone want to be a ninja. Actors like Bruce Lee and Chuck Norris also made the art famous.
So anyways, that is the history. As for the moves and form, well, that is more complicated. I suppose part of it, the stances for example, where based on a sense of balance. Some strikes are just reactions. When you see, say, someone untrained punch slightly different then your art, that is both your art making the natural strike more effective and more artistic.
However, some Asian martial artists also based strikes off of animals. I have learned alot from watching animals fight on youtube! (I also noticed how similar some of their strikes our to my styles).
When guns where invented, every thing changed. By the way, do you think the stick cain killed his brother with is any more evil than a gun? It is not the weapons that do evil things, but the hearts of man.
So yea, hope that helps!
(edit) right on Eric! I didn't even read your answer till I posted mine!
No one would know because in Antiquity and even Neolithic times, not many people wrote about their martial arts, so we do not know when and where martial arts originated. Some of the oldest records of martial arts come from Greece, China and India. The oldest is from Ancient Greece, Homer's Iliad which is dated to 700 - 750bc, which describes different attacks from the hand and also wrestling. The second oldest is from China, in the Spring and Autumn Annals of Wu and Yue, dated to around 550 - 500bc. It describes many different types of sword movements and stances. It even mentions the Chinese Weijia (external/hard) styles and the Neijia (internal/soft) styles which would later form the basics of Chinese Wushu. The third oldest is from India, in which the text describes a martial art similar to Silambam (not Kalaripayattu). This is dated to around 300 - 200bc. These are only the oldest texts, but it does not necessarily mean martial arts definitely came from one of these three countries, even if nationalists believe so.
The history of each martial art is different, and depends on a number of factors including region, lineage, and goal. Generally, there are three regions that claim to have created martial arts: Greece (Hellenic Boxing, Pankration), India (Kalaripayattu), and China (Kung Fu/Wushu). There are different dates associated with each, but also techniques. It's impossible to determine which came first, but it can be argued in many cases what previous styles influenced those of a later style (e.g. Daito Ryu Aikijujutsu ====> Hapkido, Judo ===> Brazilian Jiu Jitsu).
This is also a difficult question to answer because of the evolution of martial arts. Pankration has one of the oldest claimed dates of inception (648 B.C.), but unlike most Chinese martial arts, almost all of it has been lost over time. Modern Pankration is not even close to its past, with the exception being the open ruleset somewhat similar to that of the sport in ancient Greece. So how can one argue it's first if it now adopts techniques from many modern martial arts? What about the other two? Are the techniques used today like that of the past? There may be more available than that of Pankration, but the training methods are now different, and many of techniques of those martial arts have been lost as well. So it's very much debatable.
Purpose is a big reason why martial arts are the way they are:
Jujutsu is derived from the combat of Samurai. Basically, the unarmed component of their fighting in order to disarm someone attacking them.
The rumor about many Korean Martial arts is that the flying kicks were used to attack people on horseback.
Many of the stances in Chinese Martial arts also help with conditioning, because Kung Fu was likely influenced originally by an exercise form.
No one can truly claim what was the original, but there is some historical text to indicate the way modern martial arts are mixed. But it depends on the way you think about it. Karate has Chinese influences, but also indigenous Okinawan principles of combat. So is it Chinese?Japanese?A combination? What about modern knockdown Karate styles (Kyokushin, Enshin, Ashihara)? Your mileage may vary.
No correct answer until now in this one...:)
Every place in the world at all times had and is having some forms of unarmed or no guns-armed combat...Many individuals as well....Martial arts didn't came from one place...
Historically the most influential martial art is the Ancient Greek Pankration...Boxing and Wrestling are much older...Wrestling has being practiced in several places all over the world in several forms...
Pankration is the mother of martial arts in the sense that is the most influential...That is because a lot of the advanced scientific knowledge and ways of training most probably came from that...
It is at list 3 thousand years old, and at the times of Alexander the Great was passed to one degree or the other by some Greeks to some Indians, then at one point or the other was passed down from some Indians to some Chinese, then to another point was passed down to the rest of the Orients...The forms and degrees which was passed down, are quite different however you can find many of its techniques even as far as Japanese Jujutsu among others....
Boxing is much much older...The above are pictures of boxers with gloves in Ancient Minoan Crete more than 4 thousand years ago...
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/co...
It was not created at once. It was created by people who would help eachother to get the best way to perform martial arts. Like me showing you how to get a strong stance, (like putting your legs in the right position). Martial arts is created by showing, and coaching. This has taken a lot of years, and martial arts are still growing. It never stopped to grow.
There are many books on the subject and they can give more detail than what we can give you here. I'd suggest you go to a library or book store and read some of them.
With that said though, people have observed animals, body mechanics and fighting for most of documented time. Those who have studied it have worked with others to find what works and what doesn't work. From there fighting techniques were developed.
For Eastern arts the path was from India to China, then Okinawa, then Japan and Korea (for the most part). Trade, people going back and forth, invasion, etc all played factors in the transfer of this knowledge.
In the case of Karate, martial law in Okinawa by the Japanese prohibited the use of weapons. Worse, the conscription of Okinawans into the Japanese military had some young men flee to China. There people like Kanbun Uechi studied Chinese medicine and fighting styles such as Paganoon before brining it back to their homeland where it was studied for most of the 20th century.
For the US. after WWII the large military presence afforded service men who had a lot of free time to go study under the Okinawans. People like George Mattson and James Thompson trained while on the island then brought it back and taught it in the US.
Other styles have a similar history.
It was created by the first cave man who thought "Sh*t, I better block this punch or else I'm gonna get a broken nose" when his best friend decided to hit him for stealing his pet Mammoth...
It's evolved throughout time, adapting itself to face the different challenges of the that time period... It's only been the styles most useful that have survived and are still being taught today...
wrestling is the worlds oldest martial art and sport nobody knows who invented it
as a martial arts historian I can help you with this question. martial arts all started a long time ago in india. some indian guy who was really strong liked to throw people around and they called it some weird indian name. then everyone learned it and some Indian dudes moved to china and Greece. in Greece they changed it up a little and it became wrestling. in china they changed it up a little and it became kung fu. that's how martial arts was invented.
Some guy who probably wants control.
I mean how does each martial get its move from that can help defend a person? Do they study each part of the body and makeup various of moves? How do they get their moves and where do they get it from is basically my question.
Bruce Lee, about 1971. Prior to that, people just hit each other in the head with rocks.
