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 important to consider the soldiers you actually have, not the ideal soldiers.
Prior to the musket, there were two sorts of bow-like weapons: Longbows (what you probably mean by bow and arrow) and crossbows. Longbows were demanding things requiring substantial amounts of physical training and skill; you generally had to be a dedicated longbowman. Crossbows were far more simpler affairs which could be reloaded by simple mechanical action and really just had to be aimed towards the enemy; you could give a few dozen to some peasants and get good results.
The musket was used similarly to the crossbow – take some relatively untrained soldiers who weren’t dedicated to the weapon, train and drill them in how to reload, and you can get pretty good results. Sure, the weapon itself is more expensive but the users aren’t. Any shortfalls in rate of fire could be made up for by quantity of soldiers. The crossbow was unable to completely replace the longbow, but the *musket* was – because it was close enough in range and power.
One substantial development in the use of muskets was the idea of volley fire, which was developed in Asia in the 16th century and spread through Europe around the 16th and 17th century. The concept is simple: Get your soldiers to stand in a grid, all facing the same way. The soldiers at the front all shoot, then get out of the way by crouching or heading to the back and reload. Each row fires in turn, discharging their muskets all at once. This makes an efficient way to fire many, many shots in quick succession, filling an enemy formation of massed infantry with a hail of lead. Doesn’t matter how accurate you are, plenty will hit.
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