Why did the introduction of European firearms have such an impact on warfare in Africa and the Americas?
Upvote:2
Answered my own question!
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0014498317301043
"In Europe, the strategic advantage of the gunpowder technology was its ability to pierce armor, something that was seldom worn in and around the rainforests of Africa. There the advantage was the projectile’s ability to cut through the thicket and overgrowth that often served as cover for troops and escapees. Kea describes how the flintlock revolutionized military formations and strategies along the Lower Guinea Coast. Thornton describes how the flintlock allowed marksmen to cover wider gaps in infantry formations to slow the advance of cavalry"
Upvote:3
Fire arms have a certain shock and awe to them that bows lack, which give them a psychological edge in a battle. The first 'Gatling' style guns were nearly unusable due to the rate they would fail, however they were still deployed as they were scary regardless of functionality.
Guns also fair a bit better in poor (windy) weather and cut through obstacles more readily (especially in a jungle). Archers tend to be best in favorable weather conditions, which couldn't always be counted on in a defence scenario.
But the slow rate of fire of early guns made them inferior to bows in every other way.
This is only correct with an assumption...a gun is inferior to a bow in the hands of a trained bowman. Given to an untrained person, a gun is superior in pretty much every manner. Archery tended to be a lifestyle, especially in England, where a person would learn to use a bow in their youth and hone the skill over many years of practice. Raising archers for your army from a populace that had this background was a relatively quick process. However it took a significant amount of time to raise archers from a population that didn't have this cultural background. Reversely a standing garrison can be given guns with a little training and be ready within a month or two.
Should put a side note in that the Native Americans did in fact face 'armored' beasts. A gun was capable of dropping a Bison far simpler than arrows ever would and was a superior tool when used for hunting big game. Not all weapon acquisition was for war.
More post
- 📝 What is this symbol in red box?
- 📝 Australian Immigration 1945-present
- 📝 What tactic/strategy won Napoleon the six-day campaign
- 📝 "Musketeer" beard, mustache and hairdress - where did they originate?
- 📝 Khagantes, Aghas, and Sultanates, a feudalism of the east?
- 📝 Why did Galileo decide to flame Fr. Grassi over the latter's theory of comets, making sure to lose the Jesuits’ support?
- 📝 What territories were lost or abandoned after Trajan?
- 📝 Which method of telephone calls was more popular: station-to-station or person-to-person?
- 📝 Why was the area now known as Liberia chosen as the location for repatriation of African slaves in the US?
- 📝 Why was 19th-century Japan able to modernize and not China?
- 📝 What is the origin of oak leaves in military insignia and decorations?
- 📝 Why were North American indigenous peoples underdeveloped?
- 📝 How did gong farmers see when cleaning out cesspits?
- 📝 Was early marriage of queens not considered pedophilia?
- 📝 Can the German success on the Eastern front be largely explained by superior air power?
- 📝 How much did a good sword cost in Medieval Western Europe?
- 📝 Roman gladiator games
- 📝 Power over the centuries: spiritual vs. political vs. economic
- 📝 What are the reasons of the ethnical fragmentation of the Caucasus?
- 📝 Was Plato sold into slavery?
- 📝 Was Winston Churchill really responsible for the 1943 Bengal famine?
- 📝 In Antiquity, were Persian arrows considered superior to their Greek counterparts?
- 📝 Did Saint Paul preach at the Theater in Philippi?
- 📝 When did the Arabic numerals appear on clock faces?
- 📝 Regional Customs for Leaving a King's Presence
- 📝 Have Germans expelled from Eastern Europe been re-enfranchised?
- 📝 When was this picture taken?
- 📝 Which ancient cults would cut out the hearts of live animals and offer them as sacrifices?
- 📝 Was Hitler hostile to Anglo-Saxons before he became hostile to Jews?
- 📝 Why were helmets and other body armour not commonplace in the 1800s?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 Why did the introduction of European firearms have such an impact on warfare in Africa and the Americas?
- 📝 Why did the Monitor and Merrimac (aka Virginia) have such radically different designs?
- 📝 Why did Empress Elizabeth and Catherine the Great of Russia have such different policies toward Frederick the Great?
- 📝 Why did Native Americans die from European diseases while Europeans didn't catch serious diseases from the New World?
- 📝 Why did the Soviet Union have multiple airplane manufacturers?
- 📝 Why did Stalin and the Soviet leadership have Leon Trotsky assassinated?
- 📝 Why did the film "The Longest Day" have the "cricket" training scene if the Allies received no intelligence about the hedgerows in Normandy?
- 📝 Why did the USSR have two sources of currency?
- 📝 How much of an impact did the Roman emperors' civil wars have on their decision to debase the coinage?
- 📝 Why did Stephen Ambrose believe that the election of Aaron Burr would have led to the end of the USA?
- 📝 Italian History from 1870-1913: Why did Italy have such a hard time becoming a "Great Power" like Germany?
- 📝 Which European countries did not have a revolution in the aftermath of the French Revolution and why?
- 📝 Why did the British have so few destroyers going into World War II?
- 📝 Why did helmets have this metal thing between the eyes?
- 📝 Did the Reformation have any impact in Orthodox countries?
- 📝 Why did Russians have guns towards the end of the Mongol Yoke, but not the Mongols?
- 📝 Why did the Germans wait until it was too late to reinstate their unrestricted submarine warfare in WWI?
- 📝 What impact did the Seven Years War have on the American Revolution?
- 📝 What impact did Trotsky's armoured train have on the Russian civil war?
- 📝 Why did the Roberts Treaty of 1833 have a Portuguese translation annexed to it?
- 📝 Did the Portuguese and the Spanish have slaves on European soil working for them?
- 📝 Why did some colonies of the British Empire have their own currencies?
- 📝 Why did Jefferson have to 'Stretch the Constitutional Breaking Point' for the Louisiana Purchase?
- 📝 Why did the Streltsy in Russia have no summer uniform?
- 📝 Did the Soviet Union's successful northern campaign have an impact on Swedish iron ore shipments to Germany?
- 📝 Why did the US getting involved in the European theater in WW2?
- 📝 Why did the southern states have to be readmitted?
- 📝 Why did the US have a plan for the event of war against Britain in the 1920s?
- 📝 Why did so many ruling European families hold on to Catholicism during the Reformation?
- 📝 Why did European writers and artists continue to depict the Moors as being black skinned, even though they were mostly Berbers and Arabs