The creator of this weapon is by the king described as an evil genius and enemy to mankind, but Gulliver can only see the great advantages of the use of gunpowder in warfare. Swift is trying to tell us that gunpowder is a threat to human existence, just as we today see nuclear weapons as a threat to our own existence.
England's plantation policies gave English lords free land in Ireland.
Approximately one forth of Ireland's population at the beginning of the eighteenth century were Englishman, and eighty per cent of the land were controlled by the English landlords. Swift satirizes England's tyrannical rule of Ireland. Laputa is a flying island that symbolizes England. The King of this Island has two methods of suppressing insurrections:.
The first and the mildest Course is by keeping the Island hovering over such a town, and the Lands about it, whereby he can deprive them of the Benefit of the Sun and the Rain, and consequently afflict the Inhabitants with Death and Diseases. .
In the second method Swift paints a picture of a war against the Irish population:.
But if they still continue to obstinate, or offer to raise Insurrection, he proceeds to the last Remedy, by letting the Island drop directly upon their Heads, which makes a universal Destruction both of Houses and Men. However this is an Extremity to which the Prince is seldom driven.
It would be a great damage to their own Estates, which lie all below, for the Island is the King's Demesne. .
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The last sentence really makes it clear to the reader that Swift is satirizing England's rule in Ireland. The king of Laputa is concerned with his estates in Balnibarbi, just as the King of England is concerned with his estates in Ireland.
Gulliver admires the Laputians for their strong disposition towards news and politics. He thinks the Laputians have a strong affinity to european mathematicians. These mathematicians are probably meant to resemble Sir Isaac Newton who backed Walpole in the matter of Wood's Halfpenny.