History of crossbows

Common card · No. 229186

It is not clear when the crossbow was invented, but it is believed to have appeared in China first by 7th century BCE and Greece around the 5th or 4th century BCE. In China, the crossbow was one of the primary military weapons from the Warring States period until the end of the Han dynasty, when armies were composed of up to 30 to 50 percent crossbowmen. The crossbow lost much of its popularity after the fall of the Han dynasty, likely because of the rise of the more resilient heavy cavalry during the Six Dynasties. One Tang dynasty source recommends a bow-to-crossbow ratio of five to one as well as the utilization of the countermarch to make up for the crossbow archer's lack of speed. The crossbow countermarch technique was further refined in the Song dynasty, but crossbow usage in the military continued to decline after the Mongol conquest of China. Although the crossbow never regained the prominence it once had under the Han, it was never completely phased out either. Even as late as...

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