How and why were muskets implemented in warfare?

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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?

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Anonymous 0 Comments

Bowmen required years of training to be effective on the battlefield. It was too expensive to field large armies of bowmen; medieval armies were mostly made up of spearmen.

Muskets were much easier to train. You could take a raw recruit and make an effective musketman within a month. This allowed European monarchs to field larger and larger armies as muskets became more prevalent.

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