How Much, And Why, Did Weapons Change

Question 1

What are the four key changes ?

Answer 1

Guns replace rational weapons missile weapons( bows+ cross bows)
By the 1640’s two thirds of the infantry were armed with guns
Cavalrymen increasing armed with pistols
Artillery used in larger numbers in battle

Question 2

How did science and technology contribute to changes in weapons?

Answer 2

Gunpowder was centuries old and cannons/ basic hand guns had been used but not a lot.
What was the change
Developments in science and tech enabled production of guns to be more powerful and reliable

Question 3

What was the main technological innovation ?

Answer 3

Matchlock mechanism used to fire guns

Question 4

What where the advantages of the matchlock system over previous ones?

Answer 4

Fired by a single man and was less likely to explode in his face

Question 5

What are four advantages of the musket ?

Answer 5

Only require basic training to operate unlike the longbow
Greater potential to be improved technologically than cross bows and longbows
Even when not fatal shots from a musket were more debilitating than arrow wounds
Muskets could easily penetrate plate armour (arrows could not) within a range of 100 metres

Question 6

How did early muskets work?

Answer 6

Muskets were muzzle loaded meaning gunpowder then the round lead shot rammed into the barrel
Serpentine held a smouldering peice of string
Pan filled with priming power which was highly explosive
When trigger was pulled it moved the serpentine to touch the string causing an explosion powering the explosion in the barrel sending a shot out of the rifle

Question 7

List four limitation of the matchlock musket?

Answer 7

Difficult to keep the smouldering cord alight in wet or damp wether which limited it’s usage to a certain extent
Short range of only 100 metres a lot less than the longbow
Where not accurate( only 3 shots a minute maximum aswell)
Explosion from the primer sometimes didn’t work 2/5 shots fail to fire in 1600