3 ms·

> including total conversion to gunpowder weapons Could you please comment in a few words on that? You gave a very, very interesting overview of the period, t

> including total conversion to gunpowder weapons Could you please comment in a few words on that? You gave a very, very interesting overview of the period, thanks!

jcranmer 6y ago
The key gunpowder weapon I'm talking about here is the arquebus, which simultaneously incorporated three critically important innovations: the long barrel, the matchlock trigger [1], and the shoulder stock. The first weapons having all of these simultaneously starts to crop up around 1480-ish in Iberia. Effectively, these weapons are the earliest weapons that operate rather similarly to the modern military rifle. Prior to gunpowder weapons, the primary infantry weapons are going to be some variant of pike or a warbow or crossbow (if you're an archer). Earlier hand-held gunpowder weapons than the arquebus exist, but they are more unwieldy weapons and as a result don't supplant the dominant infantry weapons. But when arquebuses show up, armies change fast. By about 1520, every European army is using them. I don't have firm stats on the rest of the world, but by the early 1600s, pretty much every conflict--including indigenous peoples attempting to resist European colonizers--involves both sides using gunpowder weapons. Pikes weren't rendered obsolete until the development of the bayonet in the 17th century, but the infantry units needed to mix pikemen and arquebusiers to be competitive, basically modern combined-arms doctrine but happening 500 years ago. [1] In this case, a "match" is a burning piece of rope that is used to ignite the primer. The key innovation here is that a mechanism is used to hold the match so that it can be inserted into the primer by moving a trigger.
- BrandoElFollito 6y ago
  Thank you very much. My vision of medieval armies was similar to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medieval_warfare#/media/File:Battle_of_crecy_froissart.jpg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medieval_warfare#/media/File:B... (this is just an example) - where the battle was done with pikes and swords.

> including total conversion to gunpowder weapons Could you please comment in a few words on that? You gave a very, very interesting overview of the period, thanks!

jcranmer 6y ago

The key gunpowder weapon I'm talking about here is the arquebus, which simultaneously incorporated three critically important innovations: the long barrel, the matchlock trigger [1], and the shoulder stock. The first weapons having all of these simultaneously starts to crop up around 1480-ish in Iberia. Effectively, these weapons are the earliest weapons that operate rather similarly to the modern military rifle. Prior to gunpowder weapons, the primary infantry weapons are going to be some variant of pike or a warbow or crossbow (if you're an archer). Earlier hand-held gunpowder weapons than the arquebus exist, but they are more unwieldy weapons and as a result don't supplant the dominant infantry weapons. But when arquebuses show up, armies change fast. By about 1520, every European army is using them. I don't have firm stats on the rest of the world, but by the early 1600s, pretty much every conflict--including indigenous peoples attempting to resist European colonizers--involves both sides using gunpowder weapons. Pikes weren't rendered obsolete until the development of the bayonet in the 17th century, but the infantry units needed to mix pikemen and arquebusiers to be competitive, basically modern combined-arms doctrine but happening 500 years ago. [1] In this case, a "match" is a burning piece of rope that is used to ignite the primer. The key innovation here is that a mechanism is used to hold the match so that it can be inserted into the primer by moving a trigger.

BrandoElFollito 6y ago
Thank you very much. My vision of medieval armies was similar to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medieval_warfare#/media/File:Battle_of_crecy_froissart.jpg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medieval_warfare#/media/File:B... (this is just an example) - where the battle was done with pikes and swords.