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
It’s simple really, a musket ball has much more energy than an arrow does. A musket ball will go clean through plate armor that an arrow would bounce off of. There’s always evolving strategies. Archers with longbows would stand way off and pelt the enemy, so they started using heavy cavalry to run down enemy archers. A few big dudes in heavy plate armor with armored horses. Kind of like medieval tanks. They could ride right up on the archers with that armor. The musket made the heavy cavalry obsolete. You’d get a few dozen musketeers firing in volly, with reloads happening behind the firing line. Even a charger at full gallop would be exposed to one or more volleys while within range. If you put your musketeers in some armor good enough to stop arrows, they’re all but unbeatable, except by other musketeers, so now everyone needs muskets.
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