From a layman’s point-of-view it seems like the Bow & Arrow would be better for war since they, shoot much more efficiently, are cheaper to make and in even some cases significantly stronger.
I know that learning to shoot a bow is no easy task so would that be the main reason muskets became so popular?
In my simple man’s brain I’m wondering why you don’t see or hear anything about bows being used during something like the American Revolutionary war. Could it be that by then muskets had reached a certain level of design that made it more useful than a bow?
In: Engineering
Muskets were used in warfare before they were bigger and had more powerful shots than the arquebus and other primitive firearms that preceded them, and was better at penetrating heavy armor that might be “proof” to an arquebus’s ball.
But I’m guessing that’s not really the answer to the question you wanted to ask, and that what you’re really asking is why did those primitive firearms replace bows and arrows and crossbows.
And the answer is, despite all the testing people do and all the theories about ease of training and cost effectiveness, and such, the people who were writing around in times and places where they were considering adopting the arquebus almost all of them seemed to have recognized that the arquebus was a superior weapon, and that was that. Arquebuses just killed people better than bows do. Common factors you see brought up on reddit like the training requirements for bows and arrows or costs are complete myths. This is what the historical records show and this is what historical people said in their writings.
I think the best proof of the material superiority of arquebus as a weapon compared to the bow is if you look at its introduction in Japan.
The Japanese who were first introduced to Portuguese arquebus did not have any shortage of expert bowmen. The bow and the spear were the strongest battlefield weapons in Japan at the time, and it was a time when skilled bowmen were in very high demand and there were very many of them. Nevertheless, when daimyo saw the arquebus, they seemed to have instantly realized their military value and tried to buy or make as many as possible. And not only did they equip common soldiers with the weapon, they also equipped their samurai with it – those same samurai who had already been practiced in the bow and who were already hardened bowmen. This was a society at the height of bow culture, and any argument based on ease of training would have been laughed at here. There were many people you could find who had skill with the bow, and there were not many guns that you could get your hands on because they were an import, or something which you had to build up manufacturing for from the ground up. Yet daimyo still sought guns in quantities of “I will buy as many as you can sell, please and thank you.”
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