For battles in narrow aisles
This day was not good enough
European science, Cannons, horses and armor.
Heinrich Heine. "Witzliputsli". Translation by N. Gumilyov
Offensive weapons
The main weapons of the conquistadors were traditional swords, spears, crossbows, arquebusses and muskets with match locks, as well as small-caliber light cannons. They no longer looked like medieval ones. The blade had a length of about 90 cm, a handle with a simple crosshair and a figured pommel. Most swords had double-edged blades, but a blunt point so that it would not get stuck in the enemy's mail when struck. At the same time, in the 16th century, new technologies for hardening steel, including those borrowed by the Spaniards from the Moors, allowed Toledo gunsmiths to start making a rapier - a weapon with a narrower blade, which was lighter and sharper, but which was inferior to the old samples in strength and elasticity. The edge of the rapier, on the other hand, was sharpened, which made it possible with its help to hit the enemy in the gaps between the joints of the armor and even pierce the chain mail. The handle received a twisted guard of bizarre outlines. However, they served just not so much for decoration as in order to enable a skilled swordsman to "catch" the enemy's blade and thereby either disarm him, or … kill the disarmed one. The rapier was longer than the sword, so it was worn on a shoulder strap thrown over the right shoulder, the ends of which at the left thigh were attached to the scabbard so that it would hang obliquely. At the same time, with the left hand, it was possible to easily grasp its scabbard, and with the right hand, the handle, and thus in the blink of an eye, uncover the weapon.
Cristobal de Olid, led by Spanish soldiers and Tlaxcalans, attacks Jalisco, 1522 (The History of Tlaxcala, Glasgow University Library)
The technique of wielding such a rapier was as follows: a person stood frontally to the enemy and held a rapier in his right hand, and a parrying dagger in his left - a dagger. The blows were applied both stabbing and chopping. The swordsmen tried to catch the enemy's blade with special protrusions on the dag (sometimes she had a specially expanding blade!) And hit him with the guard of their own rapier to break his blade.
Spanish or Italian rapier and dagger left-hand dagger, approx. 1650 The length of the sword blade 108.5 cm. (Chicago Institute of the Arts)
Rapier for a boy, approx. 1590 - 1600 Length 75.5 cm. Blade length 64 cm. Weight 368 g.
Sword, probably Italian, 1520-1530 Total length 100.5 cm. Length 85 cm. Weight 1248 (Chicago Institute of the Arts)
However, wide swords continued to be used, and the conquistadors should have had them. The two-handed version of such a sword had a blade length of about 168 cm. And at first these swords were used in order to cut the pikes of the Swiss infantrymen. But it is not difficult to assume that such swords were supposed to produce real devastation in the dense masses of lightly armed Indian warriors who did not have plate armor. They had conquistadors and halberds, and 3.5 m cavalry spears, with which the riders could hit the infantry at a distance. And, of course, the Spanish infantry used both spears and pikes to create a "hedgehog" - a defensive formation that covered crossbowmen and arquebusiers while they were reloading their weapons.
German sword from Munich, work of Melchior Diefstetter, 1520-1556 Weight 1219 (Art Institute of Chicago)
In principle, the conquistadors could be armed with all of these. Well, if not they, then the people of their era. (Dresden Armory)
Although crossbows were known as early as the 3rd century. AD, as we are told, for example, by Ferdowsi's poem "Shahnameh", they were not very powerful and were used mainly for hunting. Only over time did medieval armourers learn to make crossbow bows from various hard woods, horn plates and bone, but in this case, too powerful a bow became difficult to draw. At first, the stirrup helped to facilitate loading - a leg was inserted into it and the crossbow was pressed to the ground, while pulling the bowstring with a hook and simultaneously cocking the trigger. Then the “goat's leg” lever appeared, and during the Hundred Years War a powerful gate with a chain hoist. By the XIV century. The crossbow has become an obligatory weapon of all European armies, no matter how the Pope himself curses it. Its twelve-inch bolt (approx. 31 cm) could easily pierce steel armor at close range. By the beginning of Cortez's expedition, the bow on many crossbows began to be made metal at all, which made the crossbow even more powerful. And already when the so-called "Nuremberg gate" appeared - a removable gate for tensioning the crossbow, it became quite good. Now the crossbow could be loaded by the rider in the saddle, and the crossbow itself, even with this rather complex mechanism, was still much simpler than the arquebus that competed with it throughout the 15th century. In the tropics of the Caribbean, Mexico and Central America, the crossbow was convenient because it did not need gunpowder, which at that time looked like a powder (they did not know how to granulate it!) And easily dampened. In addition, the destructive power of the crossbow at close range made it possible to pierce two, and possibly three people at once with one arrow, so that in terms of the effect on the dense structures of the Indians, the crossbow was not much different from the arquebus.
"Kranekin" ("Nuremberg Gate"), Dresden, 1570 - 1580 (Art Institute of Chicago)
By 1450, the prospect of meeting a peasant armed with something that fired smoke, fire, thunder, and a lead ball could intimidate any nobleman wearing the most expensive armor. No wonder the knight Bayard ordered to cut off the hands of the shooters from the firearms. Everyone already knew that lead is poisonous and therefore the infections and gangrene that occurred from wounds by such bullets were attributed precisely to its disgusting properties, and by no means to banal dirt and unsanitary conditions prevailing everywhere. But to prevent this from happening, the doctors cauterized the wounds inflicted with lead, red-hot iron, or disinfected them with boiling olive oil - a completely barbaric method of treatment, only increasing the hatred of the knights for arrows from firearms. Fortunately, it was rather difficult to aim and shoot with it at first, but after the appearance of the match lock in 1490, the situation quickly changed.
It would be very interesting to consider it proven that Cortez wore armor like this. And he really wore them. But the question is: which ones? Maybe it was Milanese armor, like this field headset and at the same time tournament armor for fighting with a barrier? OK. 1575 Height 96.5 cm. Weight 18.580 (Art Institute of Chicago)
The first wick guns had an S-shaped lever mounted on a rod, called a "serpentine" (coil), in which a smoldering hemp wick was attached. To fire, it was necessary to push the lower part of the lever forward, then the upper part, on the contrary, moved back and brought the smoldering wick to the ignition hole. And immediately there were many different options for the trigger mechanism, including the completely original push-button trigger.
During the XVI century. the trigger took on a form very similar to that used in modern firearms - that is, it turned the serpentine with a spring-loaded trigger. Then the triggers became smaller in size and a safety guard was attached to them, protecting them from accidental pressing. They fired with round bullets cast from lead, but not only. It is known, for example, that in Russia at that time squeaks and muskets could be loaded with “seven cuts for three hryvnias” and … how could this be understood? And it is very simple - bullets were not poured, but were chopped from a pre-cast calibrated bar and laid as many as seven "cuts", that is, bullets weighing three hryvnia. Whether or not a similar method of loading was used by the conquistadors is unknown. But why not, the technique is very rational. After all, the Spaniards, unlike the warriors in Europe, were required to shoot not at individual horsemen in armor, but at the dense mass of advancing Indians, who sought to crush them with their numbers and not so much kill them as take them prisoner and sacrifice them to their bloodthirsty gods. Therefore, it is logical to assume that they put into the barrel, if not cylindrically chopped bullets, then at least several bullets at once. Flying apart when fired to the sides, at a relatively close distance, they killed several Indians at once or inflicted wounds on them incompatible with life. Only in this way could they stop their desperate attacks. After all, it is known that the same Aztecs did not suffer from a lack of courage!
It is possible that in the battle of Otumba, this is how the armed horsemen decided the outcome of the battle. But this is nothing more than an assumption. Austrian armor from Innsbruck, c. 1540 g. Height 191.8 cm. Weight. 14, 528 kg. (Art Institute of Chicago)
By the way, before the standardization of Spanish arms production under Charles V, handguns had many different names. The most common names were espingard (pishchal), arquebus (in Spanish arcabuz) and even eskopet. The famous Cordoba became the commander who managed to understand the advantage of numerous arquebus-armed shooters and find a place for them on the battlefield. After all, only with the help of firearms it was possible to break through the square structures of the Swiss pikemen, who were also dressed in metal armor. But now a large detachment of Spanish arquebusiers could, from a safe distance of 150 yards (about 130 m), sweep their first ranks in one salvo, after which soldiers with shields and swords cut into their disordered mass and completed the job in hand-to-hand combat.
Breech-loading iron cannon, approx. 1410 (Paris Army Museum)
As for documentary references to weapons supplied specifically to America, the first of them is in Columbus's request for 200 breast cuirasses, 100 arquebus and 100 crossbows, made by him in 1495. It was weapons for a detachment of 200 soldiers, and according to he can see that both arquebus and crossbows in the New World were used equally, and in addition, all these warriors had cuirasses. But they did not need long peaks at all, since the Indians did not have cavalry. They fought in large, dense masses, consisting of lightly armed infantry, and the conquistadors had most of all to fear that they would simply crush their ranks before they could use their advantage in weapons. Descriptions of battles with Indians, made by Cortez, Diaz, Alvarado and other conquistadors, clearly demonstrate to us what efforts it took the Spaniards to keep the enemy hordes at a distance. At the same time, the arquebusiers inflicted huge damage on them with their shots, but loading this weapon was a long matter. The crossbowmen, who loaded their crossbows much faster, provided cover for the arquebusiers at this time. Swordsmen, however, entered into battle with those who broke through the fire of both those and others, and found themselves directly in front of the Spaniards. When the first onslaught of the enemy weakened, the Spaniards immediately set in motion their artillery, the volleys of which could hold the Indians at a great distance almost indefinitely.
The Spaniards and their allies fight the Aztecs. ("History of Tlaxcala", Glasgow University Library)
As for the artillery, the conquistadors had at their disposal two or three inch guns, which were called falconets. In general, these were ship guns, discharged from the breech and placed on the sides for firing at the enemy boarding, but the conquistadors quickly thought of removing them from the ships and putting them on wheeled carriages. At a distance of 2000 yards (about 1800 m), they killed five or more people at once with just one well-aimed cannonball. The sound of a shot almost always caused superstitious horror among the natives, since in their view it was associated with such supernatural phenomena as thunder, lightning and a volcanic eruption.
During the capture of Mexico City by the Spaniards, heavier guns were also used. Scientists are still debating what sizes and what calibers these coolevrinas and pawnshops had. For example, Cortes in Veracruz in 1519 had four falconets and ten bronze pawnshops. Falconets were later lost by the Spaniards in the "Night of Sorrow". The pawnshops turned out to be too heavy for maneuvers on the battlefield and were used only to defend the coastal fortress of Cortez Villa Rica. But then they managed to make suitable vehicles for them and deliver them to Tenochtitlan, where they were used in 1521.
