How Pikemen Changed the Face of European Warfare

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Pole weapons have been in use ever since men waged war. Most famously by the Spanish Tercios, the Swiss pikemen and the Landsknechts. But already the ancient Macedonian Phalanges were armed with a long pike, the Sarissa, and while the Romans preferred their javelins, pole weapons were on the rise again in the Middle Ages. A wide variety of such weapons was in use, but the pike quickly emerged as one of the most important infantry weapons. By the 16th century, central weapons in hand-to-hand combat such as swords, maces, and axes were largely replaced by pikes and similar but shorter weapons like the halberd. This is how modern historiography explains the rise of the pikeman:
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Our reading list on military history:
Duffy, C., Siege Warfare: The Fortress in the Early Modern World 1494-1660, Vol. 1, 1979. amzn.to/32dvvwM
Rogers, C.J., The military revolution debate. Readings on the military transformation of early modern Europe, 1995. amzn.to/3geVDMM
Rogers, C.J., Soldiers' Lives through History - The Middle Ages, 2006. amzn.to/3j2kQvG
Parker, C., The Cambridge History of Warfare, 2005. amzn.to/32ggn1L
Van Nimwegen, O., The Dutch Army and the Military Revolutions, 1588-1688, 2010. amzn.to/2E3Fc95
Bibliography
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Garrard, W. The Arte of Warre, London, 1591.
Literature
Rogers, Clifford J., Tactics and the Face of Battle, in: Tallet, Frank/Trim, D. J. B. (Ed.), European
Warfare 1350-1750, Cambridge 2010.
Schmidtchen, Volker, Kriegswesen im späten Mittelalter. Technik, Taktik, Theorie, Weinheim 1990.
Ortenburg, G., Waffe und Waffengebrauch im Zeitalter der Landsknechte (Heerwesen der Neuzeit, Abt. 1, Bd. 1) Koblenz 1984.