Pike & Shot warfare blended firearms, pikes, and formations during the early modern period. Favoured by all European armies in the 16th and 17th centuries, including the famous Spanish Tercios and the armies of Gustavus Adolphus. Eventually rendered obsolete by linear firepower tactics. This tag highlights battles shaped by the transition from medieval to gunpowder tactics.
The widespread adoption of firearms by European armies created a new tactical dilemma. The previously invulnerable pike formations were now extremely vulnerable to gunpowder weapons, while the musketeers remained vulnerable to enemy cavalry. What was needed was a combined-arms system in which the relative advantages of the musket, pike, cavalry, and artillery could cover each other’s vulnerabilities.
February 2020, Ollantaytambo, Sacred Valley, Peru. I am exploring the site of a 1537 battle between Manco Inca’s indigenous forces and the Spanish Conquistadors under Hernando Pizarro. Part of the Spanish conquest of the New World.
Next stop in our battlefield explorations was the incredible 16th-Century bastion fortress of Rocroi. Here, in May 1643, two of the superpowers of the 17th century – Spain and France – clashed in the plain south of the fortress. The battle marked the end of the dominance of the Spanish ‘Tercio’ tactics that had dominated European warfare for the previous 100 years.
The Battle of Sacsayhuamán was a significant milestone in the Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire. While the Inca warriors demonstrated bravery and tenacity, they were unable to overcome the superior weaponry and tactics of the Spanish conquistadors. The Spanish victory at Sacsayhuamán ended the Inca attempt to reclaim Cusco.
The Battle of Flodden Field, fought on 9 September 1513, was a major engagement between the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Scotland, and one of the bloodiest battles in British history. The engagement was part of the larger War of the League of Cambrai, which involved several European powers, including France, England, and Scotland.