Arquebus
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The Arquebus (sometimes spelled harquebus or hackbut- possibly related to German 'Hackebuechse') was a primitive firearm used in the 15th to 17th centuries. Like its successor, the musket, it was a smoothbore firearm although somewhat smaller than its predecessors, which made it easier to carry. It was a forerunner of the rifle and other longarm firearms.
Heavy arquebuses mounted on wagons were called arquebus à croc. These carried a ball of about three half ounces.[1]
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[edit] Effectiveness
As low-velocity firearms, they were used against enemies that were often partially or fully protected by steel-plate armour. Plate armour was the high standard in European combat from about 1400 until the middle of the 17th century. This was essentially the era of the arquebus. Good suits of plate would usually stop an arquebus ball. It was a common practice to "proof" (test) armour by firing a pistol or arquebus at a new breastplate. The small dent would be circled by engraving, to call attention to it.
[edit] Mechanism
The arquebus was fired by a matchlock mechanism and had a larger bore than its predecessors. From the middle of 16th century, newer wheellock mechanisms were used instead of older matchlocks. The flared muzzle made it easier to load the weapon, and the arquebusier braced the gun's barrel into a pole with a forked end when firing. The name 'hook gun' is often claimed to be based on the bent shape of the arquebus's butt. It might also be that some of the original arquebuses had a metal hook near the muzzle that may have been used for bracing against a solid object to absorb recoil. Since all the arquebuses were hand-made by various gunsmiths, there is no typical specimen.
[edit] History
The arquebus came into prominence during the Battle of Pavia in 1525 in which 3000 arquebusiers defeated 8000 French knights, thus ending the knights domination in Europe. The defeat of these knights by the heavy fire of Spanish arquebusiers inspired other people to adopt the weapon. Arquebusiers also played an important role in Cristóvão da Gama's battles against the superior numbers of his Muslim opponents in Ethiopia during the 1540s, and later in the Moroccan victory over the Songhai Empire at the Battle of Tondibi in 1590.
By the later 16th century, muskets began to slowly replace the arquebus across Europe.
The first arquebuses were introduced in Japan in 1543 by Portuguese traders (Fernão Mendes Pinto), 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 were being produced in large quanties, and they were often seen on the battlefields all over Japan (although the first battle known involving the use of firearms was in the siege of Xiangyang(襄陽), China, from 1268 - 1273). The use of arquebuses and other firearms was halted in Japan during and until the end of the Tokugawa shogunate by decree of the shogun. In the Battle of Nagashino in 1575, Lord Oda Nobunaga placed three lines of ashigaru armed with these weapons behind wooden palisades and prepared for the Cavalry charge of his opponent. The three-line method allowed two lines to reload while the other would fire. Such tactics allowed a balance of mass firepower to compensate for poor accuracy with a reasonable rate of fire.
In terms of accuracy, the arquebus was extremely inferior to archery. However, the arquebus had a faster rate of fire than the most powerful of crossbows, had a shorter learning curve than a longbow, and was more powerful than both. It also had the added advantage of scaring enemies with the noise it (and most other firearms) makes.
[edit] References
- ^ This article incorporates content from the 1728 Cyclopaedia, a publication in the public domain. [1]
