Colonial Weaponry
Introduction
“Did
you know that pikes were between 12
and 16 feet long?” That's half the length of an average school bus! Have you
ever wondered where the colonists even got the materials to build their
weapons? Flintlock muskets were invented in France in the early 17th century by
Marin Le Bourgeoys. So you can probably tell that it had some flaws. Or who has
better weapons for a fight, Native
Americans or the colonists? Or
possibly who used what weapons more, pirates
or the colonists? Imagine that you are in a war firing a musket and once you
shoot it, you have to take 10 seconds to reload it, and while you are doing
that you risk getting shot. There is much to learn about about colonial
weapons.
Chapter 1
Blacksmithing
The Shooting Mechanism
and splash water over it to get the flint. A con is when they are mining
and hit the flint with their iron pick axe.
It will create sparks, therefore, setting them on fire. Today it's known as
flint and steel, but today it's actually mostly titanium and a magnesium rod.
When it comes to the weapon itself, they obviously didn't bring over tons of guns, because if they died then all of those guns would be wasted. So maybe they brought over only a few muskets and then they took one apart and created more. But then that brings us back to the first 2 problems. Is it possible though, that they brought around ten guns and traded all of them or at least around 7 to the tribes and got around 5 bows for each? Then when British troops came for the Revolutionary war they brought over all of the guns. So maybe historians have been wrong this whole time and they found guns by the British coming over.
Chapter 2
Offense weapons
When
it comes to the offense weapons of
the colonists and the weapons of the Indians, it depends on what you mean by offense weapons. By offense
weapons, bows and guns. Bows were more
accurate, easier to reload, and more effective, but you had to retrieve your
arrows. Guns on the other hand, you didn't need to retrieve your ammo but were
not as effective. Even though the Indians had better offense weapons, bows were
easy to make so the colonists could have made their own. Also since the
colonists had armor,
the arrows were basically useless unless they hit the head or joints.
the arrows were basically useless unless they hit the head or joints.
Armour
When
it comes to armour, the colonists had strong, resistant armour. Except it could weigh up to 24lbs! With the
Native Americans they didn't have any armour they barely even had clothes! But
Native Americans could have stacked tough leather
on themselves for armour but it was nothing compared to the colonists armour.
But Native Americans had the skills, they could climb trees and take the
settlers by surprise. With the colonists, you think they would learn to do the
same which they most-likely did, but, having the extra weighted armour they
couldn't climb, they could barely run with it on! So probably the colonists
went head on, well the Indian did stealth.
Defense
Weapons
Now we did offense
weapons, but what about defense
weapons? The colonists had knives but so did the Indians, they also had bayonets for their muskets for jabbing
their enemy. The Indians had tomahawks
and hunting swords. But the thing with a hunting sword is that they were
smaller than normal swords. A cutlass
was also another sword but it was used by pirates. Colonists used throwing knives and daggers. Native Americans used scalpers and skinners, usually for hunting. They both could have also used pole
arms, which include, pikes, spears, halberds, partisans, and spontoons. All of
those in a simplified version is a close-combat weapon with a blade attached to
end of a long wooden stick. Also colonial officers carried a saber by their side, which they could
only stab with, but it was light straight and slender. Plus the fact that it
was light meant that the officers could run with it easily. Unfortunately it
was usually only for directing troops. It could be easily retrieved out of the
stash from which it was stored.
Chapter
3
Colonist
and pirates rarely if ever met. Even though 1 tried to conquer land and the
other tried to conquer sea they both had weapons that the other one could of
used more. Such as the famously known cannon. This huge 8 ft long weapon that
took 14 men to operate was invented in the late 13th century and has been used
ever since. Pirates typically used it for shooting at the enemy's ship,
therefore putting a hole in the ship, sinking it. When the colonists used this
they could only take out 1 person if they were lucky. Sense a giant, solid,
ball of complete iron isn't that light it moved slow, so an enemy could easily
dodge it. And if it did hit them that was probably because they were smoking
tobacco. Were as a ship moves slower so it could hit it easier. If it did hit a
colonist though, it would blow one heck of a hole in them! So pirates probably
used cannons more.
The Flintlock Musket
Now
for the well known flintlock musket. Muskets were the most advanced weapon of
that time. Muskets usually had a bayonet attached to the barrel for stabbing
the enemy. Based on the distance between 2 pirate ships, a musket just didn't
have the range or accuracy. So
instead they used cannons and if they wanted to raid the ship they used
pistols. They used pistols which have even less range than a musket because in
order to raid a ship they had to be on
the ship where fights were close. Well on the land, battles happened pretty
close. Muskets were not accurate but it was close enough to hit someone 1 in
every 5 shots which isn't actually that many. So the point goes to the
colonists.
The
Bowie Knife
Conclusion
Clearly colonial weaponry was very important to the success of
America. In this book, hopefully you've learned about the resources they had back
then based on what we have now, who could have survived longer, the colonists,
or the Native Americans, and whose weapons could have been used more by the
colonists and the pirates. Even though pirates and colonists had other weapons
they both still survived. Did you you learn about a couple of facts? The colonial time period was such a
long time period with lots of important and well remembered historical events.
Now you might think that a cannon can do a ton of damage, which it can but it's
nothing compared to what we have today. Possibly history was a whole other way
due to the ideas they had to come up with. So there is still much to learn.
GLOSSARY
PIKE-A 12-16ft long spear that originated in Ancient
Greece
NATIVE AMERICAN-The original people who colonized America
approximately
10,000 years ago
10,000 years ago
COLONIST-The Englishmen who came to America to have a better
life
PIRATE-A mercenary who sailed the world
MUSKET-An old in-accurate rifle
ACCURACY-How close
something is to hitting another thing
CHALK-A mineral that contains flint that can be used to draw
with
LIMESTONE-A soft mineral containing flint that dissolves in
water
FLINT-A combustible material found
PICK AXE-A tool used for mining
MAGNESIUM-It is chemical element number 12. Used for being
striked with a piece of metal and then makes a white spark
OFFENSE-To fight pushing forward
LEATHER-Tough skin
usually from horses and cows
BAYONET- A dagger attached to the muzzle of a gun for stabbing
CUTLASS-A straight sword, with a ring around the handle to
protect the hand used by pirates
THROWING KNIFE-A knife
specially made to be thrown at an opponent
DAGGER-A knife with a 7in blade
SCALPER-A type of hunting knife
SKINNER-A knife used to skin animals
BOWIE KNIFE-A popular knife usually by a soldiers side
THE COLONIAL TIME PERIOD-A wide range time period were life
was like this
book, ranging from the 1600s-1800s
TOMAHAWK-A small throwing axe invented by the Indians
RESISTANT-To not let get in or through
DEFENSE-To fight staying back
SABER-A straight, flimsy sword now used in fencing
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