Arquebus (Edited from Wikipedia)
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Arquebus (Edited from Wikipedia) SUMMARY The arquebus is an early muzzle-loaded firearm used in the 15th to 17th centuries. An arquebus was originally a gonne with hook, and later a matchlock firearm. Like its successor the musket, it is a smoothbore firearm, but was initially lighter and easier to carry. It is a forerunner of the rifle and other longarm firearms. An improved version of the arquebus, the caliver, was introduced in the early 16th century. The word is derived from the English corruption of calibre as this gun was of standard bore, increasing combat effectiveness as troops could load bullets that would fit their guns (before, they would have to modify shot to fit, force it in, or cast their own before the battle). HISTORY Hand Cannons (Or Gonne) A hand cannon or gonne (also spelled handgonne to distinguish the device from modern handguns) is one of the early forms of firearm. [This is where the word “gun” comes from.] It is possibly the oldest type of small arms, as well as the simplest type of early firearm, as most examples require direct manual external ignition through a touch hole without any form of firing mechanism. It may also be considered a forerunner of the handgun. The hand cannon was widely used in East Asia and later throughout Europe until at least the 1520s, when it was supplanted by matchlock firearms. The oldest surviving hand cannon is the Heilongjiang hand cannon, which was manufactured no later than 1288. The general consensus is that hand cannons originated in China and were spread from there to the rest of the world. The earliest surviving firearm is the Heilongjiang hand cannon, which was manufactured no later than 1288. The earliest reliable evidence of hand cannons in Europe comes from the 14th century, during which time both Europeans and Arabs appear to have begun using them. In East Asia, the Koreans acquired knowledge of the hand cannon from China in the 14th century. Japan was already aware of gunpowder warfare but did not mass-produce firearms until 1543, when the Portuguese introduced matchlocks. 1 The hand cannon was a simple weapon, effectively consisting of a barrel with some sort of handle, though it came in many different shapes and sizes. Although surviving examples are all completely constructed of metal, evidence suggests that many were attached to some kind of stock, usually wooden. Other examples show a simple metal extension from the barrel acting as the handle. In fact, not all hand cannons used metal at all in their construction, as some Chinese illustrations demonstrate bamboo tubes being used instead. For firing, the hand cannon could be held in two hands, while a helper applied the means of ignition. These could range from smoldering wood or coal, red-hot iron rods, to slow-burning matches. Alternatively, the hand cannon could be placed on a rest and held by one hand, while the gunner applied the means of ignition himself. Projectiles used in these weapons were varied, with many utilizing a variety of different ammunition. Rocks or pebbles found on the ground could be fired from hand cannon, while more sophisticated ammunition such as iron or stone in the shape of balls and arrows could also be used. Later hand cannons were made with a flash pan attached to the barrel and a touch hole drilled through the side wall of the gun instead of the top of the barrel. The flash pan had a leather cover and, later on, a hinged metal lid, fitted to keep the priming powder dry until the moment of firing and to prevent premature firing. These features were carried on over to subsequent firearms. Due to the poor quality of powder that was often used in these weapons and their crude construction, they were not effective missile weapons, as early examples often lacked sufficient power to punch through light armor. All were inaccurate, due to the awkward handling as well as the aforementioned poor quality of the weapons. While the noise and flash may have had some psychological effect on the enemy, many early hand cannons were utilized in a minor capacity and so lacked battlefield presence. The invention of corned powder, the slow match, and the serpentine in mid-15th century Europe led to much more effective firearms and eventually to increased adoption. It also prompted the development of the first matchlock firearms, which could be more effectively aimed and fired than hand cannon. Gradually, the hand cannon became obsolete, although it found use in some locales up until the 20th century. 2 Arquebus The first usage of the arquebus in large numbers was in Hungary under king Matthias Corvinus (r. 1458–1490). Every fourth soldier in the Black Army had an arquebus in the infantry, and every fifth regarding the whole army, which was an unusual ratio at the time. Although they were generally present in the battlefield King Mathias preferred enlisting shielded men instead, as the arquebus had a low rate of fire. Even a decade after the disbandment of the Black Army, by the turn of the 16th century, only around 10% of the soldiers of Western European armies used firearms. Arquebusiers [soldiers who were armed with an arquebus longarm] were effective against cavalry and even other infantry, particularly when placed with pikemen in the pike and shot formation, which revolutionized the Spanish military. An example of where this formation was used and succeeded is the decisive Battle of Cerignola (1503), which was one of the first battles to utilize this formation, and was the first battle to be won through the use of gunpowder-based small arms. A form of arquebus called pishchal also evolved in Russia in the early 1500s as a smaller version of a larger, hand-held artillery weapon. The arquebusiers were seen as integral parts of the army. Their use of mounted troops was also unique to the time period. The Russians developed their arquebusiers as a skilled tradesman and gave them extra incentives through farming and made their trade something passed on from father to son and not something for which one was conscripted. Arquebuses were used in the Italian Wars of the first half of the 16th century. One of the first to perform volley fire with them was in the Battle of Bicocca (1522). Portuguese and Spanish conquerors also made use of the weapon overseas. Arquebuses were carried by some of the soldiers of Hernando Cortés in his conquest of Mexico in the 1520s, and arquebuses played an important role in the victories of Cristóvão da Gama's small and outnumbered army in his 1541–42 campaign in Ethiopia. Arquebuses were also used in the Moroccan victory over the Songhai Empire at the Battle of Tondibi in 1590. Arquebuses were introduced to Japan in 1543 by Portuguese traders, who landed by accident on Tanegashima, an island south of Kyūshū in the region controlled by the Shimazu clan. By 1550, copies of the Portuguese arquebus referred to as "tanegashima, teppō or hinawaju" were being produced in large numbers. The tanegashima eventually became one of the most important weapons in Japan. Oda Nobunaga revolutionized musket tactics in Japan by splitting loaders and shooters and assigning three guns to a shooter at the Battle of Nagashino in 1575. Tanegashima were widely used during Hideyoshi's unification of Japan and later the Japanese invasions of Korea in 1592. 3 Maurice of Nassau increased the effectiveness of the arquebus in military formations when he adapted standardized weaponry and utilized volley fire techniques [see below for more about volley fire]. After outfitting his entire army with new, standardized arms in 1599, Maurice of Nassau made an attempt to recapture Spanish forts built on former Dutch lands. In the Battle of Nieuwpoort in 1600, he administered the new techniques and technologies for the first time. The Dutch marched onto the beach where the fort was located and fully utilized the countermarching tactic. By orienting all of his arquebusiers into a block, he was able to maintain a steady stream of fire out of a disciplined formation using volley fire tactics. The result was a lopsided victory with 4000 Spanish casualties to only 1000 dead and 700 wounded on the Dutch side. Although the battle was principally won by the decisive counterattack by the Dutch cavalry and despite the failure of the newfangled Dutch infantry tactic in stopping the veteran Spanish soldiers, the battle was a decisive step forward in the development of warfare, with infantry armed with firearms taking on an increasingly larger role in the centuries following. GOVERNMENTS BENEFIT FROM CHEAP GUNS Firearms, of which the hand cannon was an early example, gradually came to dominate European warfare. The hand cannon was inexpensive and easy to mass-produce. At the same time, the forging methods required meant that centralized governments had a measure of control over their manufacture (and especially the manufacture of ammunition—an important consideration in a medieval Europe wracked by rebellion). They had superior armor-penetration capability; the longbow was effective against mail armor and plate, thanks to the bodkin point, and the crossbow very effective against heavy armor. The hand cannon could act as a terror weapon to troops and horses that had never seen the weapon before. Much like the crossbow, the weapon could be effectively used by new recruits and non professional soldiers. The other hand-operated ranged weapons of the time had their own drawbacks. Crossbows had superior accuracy and similar power as compared to early hand cannons. However, they were expensive to make, slow to reload and their performance was almost as severely affected by wet weather as that of hand cannons.