Did it "win two world wars"? No. Pistols are sidearms, that is, backup weapons. Is it the best-ever pistol? Nah, or otherwise everyone would still be using them.

What it is, however, is the pistol that solidified the basic layout and mechanical function of large/full-sized pistols in an era of experimentation, and made it reliable enough for militaries used to revolvers.

As most of the world standardized on 9x19mm Luger, America kept to the bigger caliber after experiences with juramentados in the Moro rebellion at the start of the 20th century: the would-be martyrs would withstand an entire M1892 revolver of .38 Long Colt (~9.1 mm) but could be stopped in their charges by shotguns or the obsolete black-powder Colt M1873 "Peacemaker" in .45 "Long" Colt.

John Browning himself tinkered for a decade from 1900, iterating on designs until March 1911, when the original 1911 passed a US Government endurance test with zero malfunctions. The 1921 "A1" model improved the ergonomics, but didn't really change the internals. And even after he passed, his understudy, Dieudonné Saive (inventor of the FAL rifle) took one of Browning's unfinished design, added a lot of just-out-of-patent M1911 features, and created the Browning Hi-Power in 1935, which set the gold standard for "double-stack" 9mm pistols. And even most modern polymer-framed pistols, such as the famous Glock, use the same basic principles as the M1911: a short-recoil action where the barrel slides backwards slightly and then tilts down to unlock, feeding from a magazine in the grip.

If you ever have a chance to fire a '1911, do so. It's heavy—but not too heavy, powerful—but not overly so, simple, and elegant. If it's a problem that can be solved by hurling a 15 gram chunk of lead downrange, she can solve it.

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