Editing Pike (weapon) (section)

==End of the pike era==

The mid-17th century to the early 18th century saw the decline of the pike in most European armies. This started with the proliferation of the [[flintlock]] [[musket]], which gave the [[musketeer]] a faster rate of fire than he before possessed, incentivizing a higher ratio of shot to pikes on the battlefield. It continued with development of the [[plug bayonet]], followed by the [[socket bayonet]] in the 1680s and 1690s. The plug bayonet did not replace the pike as it required a soldier surrender his ability to shoot or reload to fix it, but the socket bayonet solved that issue. The bayonet added a long blade of up to {{convert|60|cm|abbr=on}} to the end of the musket, allowing the musket to act as a spear-like weapon when held out with both hands. Although they did not have the full reach of pikes, bayonets were effective against cavalry charges, which used to be the main weakness of musketeer formations, and allowed armies to massively expand their potential firepower by giving every infantryman a firearm; pikemen were no longer needed to protect musketeers from cavalry. Furthermore, improvements in artillery caused most European armies to abandon large formations in favor of multiple staggered lines, both to minimize casualties and to present a larger frontage for volley fire. Thick hedges of bayonets proved to be an effective anti-cavalry solution, and improved musket [[firepower]] was now so deadly that combat was often decided by shooting alone.

[[File:Pikeman 1668.png|thumb|upright|left|An English pikeman (1668), with steel cap, [[corselet]], and [[tassets]].]]

A common end date for the use of the pike in most infantry formations is 1700, such as the Prussian and Austrian armies. Others, including the Swedish and Russian armies, continued to use the pike as an effective weapon for several more decades, until the 1720s and 1730s (the Swedes of King [[Charles XII]] in particular using it to great effect until 1721). At the start of the [[Great Northern War]] in 1700, Russian line infantry companies had 5 NCOs, 84 musketeers, and 18 pikemen, the musketeers initially being equipped with sword-like plug bayonets; they did not fully switch to socket bayonets until 1709. A Swedish company consisted of 82 musketeers, 48 pikemen, and 16 grenadiers.<ref>Gabriele Esposito. "Armies of the Great Northern War: 1700-1720." Osprey: 2019. Pages 10 and 16.</ref> The [[Army of the Holy Roman Empire]] maintained a ratio of 2 muskets to 1 pike in the middle to late 17th century, officially abandoning the pike in 1699. The French, meanwhile, had a ratio of 3-4 muskets to 1 pike by 1689.<ref>Guthrie, William. "The Later Thirty Years War: From the Battle of Wittstock to the Treaty of Westphalia." Praeger, Feb. 2003. Page 33.</ref> Both sides of the [[Wars of the Three Kingdoms]] in the 1640s and 1650s preferred a ratio of 2 muskets to 1 pike, but this was not always possible.<ref>Reid, Stuart. "All The King's Armies: A Military History of the English Civil War: 1642-1651." Spellmount, July 2007. Chapter 1.</ref>

During the [[American Revolution]] (1775–1783), pikes called "trench spears" made by local blacksmiths saw limited use until enough bayonets could be procured for general use by both [[Continental Army]] and attached [[militia]] units.

Throughout the [[Napoleon I|Napoleonic]] era, the [[spontoon]], a type of shortened pike that typically had a pair of blades or lugs mounted to the head, was retained as a symbol by some NCOs; in practice it was probably more useful for gesturing and signaling than as a weapon for combat.

As late as Poland's [[Kościuszko Uprising]] in 1794, the pike reappeared as a child of necessity which became, for a short period, a surprisingly effective weapon on the battlefield. In this case, General [[Thaddeus Kosciuszko]], facing a shortage of [[firearm]]s and [[bayonet]]s to arm landless [[serf]] [[Partisan (military)|partisans]] recruited straight from the wheat fields, had their [[sickle]]s and [[scythe]]s heated and straightened out into something resembling crude "[[war scythe]]s". These weaponized agricultural accouterments were then used in battle as both cutting weapons, as well as makeshift pikes. The [[peasant]] "pikemen" armed with these crude instruments played a pivotal role in securing a near impossible victory against a far larger and better equipped Russian army at the [[Battle of Racławice]], which took place on 4 April 1794.

Civilian pikeman played a similar role, though outnumbered and outgunned, in the [[Irish Rebellion of 1798|1798 rising in Ireland]] four years later. Here, especially in the [[Wexford Rebellion]] and in [[Dublin]], the pike was useful mainly as a weapon by men and women fighting on foot against [[cavalry]] armed with guns.

Improvised pikes, made from [[bayonet]]s on poles, were used by escaped convicts during the [[Castle Hill convict rebellion|Castle Hill rebellion]] of 1804.

As late as the [[Napoleonic Wars]], at the beginning of the 19th century, even the Russian [[militia]] (mostly landless peasants, like the Polish partisans before them) could be found carrying shortened pikes into battle. As the 19th century progressed, the obsolete pike would still find a use in such countries as [[Ireland]], [[Russia]], [[China]], and [[Eureka Stockade|Australia]], generally in the hands of desperate peasant [[rebellion|rebel]]s who did not have access to firearms. [[John Brown (abolitionist)|John Brown]] purchased a large number of pikes and brought them to [[John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry|his raid on Harpers Ferry]].

{{Citation needed span|text=One attempt to resurrect the pike as a primary infantry weapon occurred during the [[American Civil War]] (1861–1865) when the [[Confederate States of America]] planned to recruit twenty regiments of pikemen in 1862. In April 1862 it was authorised that every Confederate infantry regiment would include two companies of pikemen, a plan supported by [[Robert E. Lee]]. Many pikes were produced but were never used in battle and the plan to include pikemen in the army was abandoned.|date=March 2025}}

[[File:US Navy 110823-N-AU127-179 Chief selectees perform boarding pike drills on the USS Constitution.jpg|thumb|American petty officers reenact boarding pike drills]]
Shorter versions of pikes called ''boarding pikes'' were also used on warships—typically to repel [[boarding (attack)|boarding]] parties, up to the late 19th century.

The great [[Native Hawaiians|Hawaiian]] warrior king [[Kamehameha I]] had an elite force of men armed with very long spears who seem to have fought in a manner identical to European pikemen, despite the usual conception of his people's general disposition for individualistic dueling as their method of close combat. It is not known whether Kamehameha himself introduced this tactic or if it was taken from the use of traditional Hawaiian weapons.{{citation needed|date=August 2011}}

The pike was issued as a [[British Home Guard]] weapon in 1942 after the [[War Office]] acted on a letter from Winston Churchill saying ''"every man must have a weapon of some kind, be it only a mace or pike"''. However, these hand-held weapons never left the stores after the pikes had "generated an almost universal feeling of anger and disgust from the ranks of the Home Guard, demoralised the men and led to questions being asked in both Houses of Parliament".<ref name=guard/> The pikes, made from obsolete [[Lee–Enfield]] [[rifle]] [[bayonet]] blades welded to a steel tube, took the name of ''"Croft's Pikes"'' after [[Henry Page Croft]], the [[Under-Secretary of State for War]] who attempted to defend the fiasco by stating that they were a "silent and effective weapon".<ref name=MacKenzie/>

In Spain, beginning in 1715 and ending in 1977, there were night patrol guards in cities called ''serenos'' who carried a short pike of {{convert|1.5|m|ft|abbr=on}} called ''chuzo''.
[[File:Vojnik - dugokopljanik (pikenir) iz 16-17. st. (Croatia).jpg|thumb|180px|''Pikenir'', a pikeman (16-17th century) from [[Croatia]] as an exhibit in the [[Međimurje County Museum]]]]
Pikes live on today only in ceremonial roles, being used to carry the [[colours and guidons|colours]] of an [[infantry]] regiment and with the [[Company of Pikemen and Musketeers]] of the [[Honourable Artillery Company]], or by some of the infantry units on duty during their rotation as guard<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URIS_PLn_pg Cambio della guardia al Quirinale – Infantry Passing out Parade] 8:41. YouTube</ref> for the [[President of the Italian Republic]] at the [[Quirinal Palace]] in Rome, Italy.