1. How did weapons develop between 1500 and 1700?

2. Learning objective – to be able to identify changes and continuities in Early Modern weapons.
I can describe the key changes and continuities in Early Modern weapons. Grade 3
I can explain the key changes and continuities in Early Modern weapons Grade 6
I can explain and assess changes and continuities in Early Modern weapons.
Grade 9

4. What were they key changes in weapons during the Early Modern Period?
Guns replaced traditional missile weapons like the longbow.
More infantry were supplied with guns two-thirds by the 1640s. Before this many were pikemen.
Cavalrymen were armed with pistols rather than swords.
Artillery were increasingly used.

5. Why did guns became so increasingly used in the Early Modern period?
Gunpowder had been around for hundred of years but was the developments in science and technology to make guns which became very important in this change.
The matchlock mechanism was critical in the mass use of guns as it allowed a gun to be used by a single person and was less likely to explode in a person’s face.
The matchlock mechanism was used to create the musket gun. Although slower and not as accurate as the longbow, the musket had key advantages of easily penetrating plate armour, wounds were more debilitating, only basic training was needed to operate one and the weapon had much more potential for further development.

6. What factors influenced the rise of the musket?
Science and technology – plate armour development which arrows could not pierce but bullets could.
Economics – Bullets were much cheaper and easier to store than arrows.
Changes in military thinking – Reports in Europe told of muskets easily defeating pike and billmen.
Changes in society – Changes in farming techniques led to less strong men and land available to train men for archery. Also archery took a long time to master unlike using a musket which could take days.

7. Was the musket completely reliable?
Difficult to keep the match lit during damp weather.
Muskets did not always fire when primed.
Reload time was very lengthy.
Short range of fire – around 100 metres.
Problem of accuracy.
Matchlock muskets were very heavy.

8. How was the cavalry able to use guns?
The matchlock musket was far to cumbersome for the cavalry to use.
The turning point for cavalry guns was the development of the wheel-lock mechanism in the 1540s – which was a clockwork mechanism which struck the spark to light the gunpowder.
Using the clock-work mechanism, pistols were developed, which was a short gun that could be fired with one hand.
This changed to use of cavalry, who now rode in waves and ride close to the enemy, fire their guns and withdrew to reload. The days of the cavalry charge would largely be over.

9. What was the impact of the flintlock musket?
The flintlock mechanism developed in the 1610s. This had a piece of flint in the hammer which would strike the pan creating the spark needed to fire the musket.
This was superior to the matchlock because it was safer, quicker to load and more reliable. However, they were more expensive to make as well as delicate and their use until the 1690s was limited.

10. How did the bayonet replace the pike?
The developments in muskets compromised the pikemen. Against gunfire pikemen were vulnerable but in hand-to-hand combat the pikemen were valuable. The solution to this problem was the bayonet.
The bayonet was a short sword or dagger which could be attached to the end of the musket turning it into a short pike.
The first bayonet was the plug bayonet introduced in However this plugged the end of the musket and therefore could not be fired. The socket bayonet was introduced in the mid 1690s which allowed the musket to be fired and the bayonet to be used at the same time. This allowed for musket and infantry troops to be used together rather than be divided and wasted.

11. How did technology impact upon cannons?
Positive
Developments in England’s cast iron industry led to manufacturing techniques which allowed for cannons to be made on a mass scale.
Innovations in making cannons led to the ability to alter range and rate of fire.
Lighter weight cannons, called field guns, were developed which made them easier to transport.
Negative
New engineering methods led to stronger walls and defences being created.
These methods included .....
Building thick, low walls which cannon balls found it difficult to hit and then they did the shorter walls could absorb the blows.
Bastions were built which stuck out of the walls providing a defensive position to return cannon fire.
Bastions and walls were angled at every opportunity so cannon balls would just bounce off them.

12. Complete the table Advantages Disadvantages Matchlock muskets
Flintlock muskets
Pistols
Cannons
Pikes
Bayonets

13. Organise the following statements about changes under the following headings – Science and Technology, Government and Individuals and Social Factors.
The Flintlock mechanism was expensive to make and governments chose not to make many of them.
It was easier and quicker to train men with a musket compared with a longbow.
Changes in farming techniques led to less strong men and land available to train men for archery.
Muskets and bullets were much cheaper to make than arrows and longbows.
The wheel-lock mechanism allowed for one handed guns – pistols – to be made.
Bullets could penetrate plate armour. Arrows could not.
Matchlock mechanism allowed for the use of a gun by a single person.
New engineering methods allowed for walled defences to counter cannon fire.
The socket bayonet allowed the musket to become a more flexible weapon.
Lighter weight cannons could now be made. The field gun became a common sight on the battlefield.
New tactics using pikemen, musketeers and cavalry developed maximising new weapons.
The Flintlock mechanism allowed for guns to be more accurate.

14. Plenary – My Brain Subheading – My Brain
Draw an outline of your brain.
Fill your drawn brain with all the things you have learnt in this lesson. This can be in the form of key words, drawings, bullet points, lists – anything you like so long as it summarises your learning and that others can understand it.