Matchlock

Timeline

1. 1500–1550Central European and Mediterranean firearms workshops · Central EuropeIn the first half of the 16th century, serpentine and lever-type matchlock mechanisms matured, allowing infantry to fire longer-barreled hook guns in battle; European states and the Ottoman Empire equipped them in bulk, while Japan introduced and locally produced matchlocks via Tanegashima and other channels.
2. 1551–1560Eurasian battlefields and camps · EurasiaIn the 1550s the matchlock became the core weapon of the Spanish pike square's forward musketeers, Ottoman janissaries, and Mughal infantry; Sengoku-period daimyo in Japan also fielded large numbers of teppō ashigaru. Slow to load and of limited range but with considerable penetrating power, it profoundly changed infantry–cavalry combined tactics.
3. 1555–1650European and East Asian arsenals · AsiaAfter 1560, barrel forging, rear-sight graduations, and stock ergonomics continued to improve, but the match's unreliability in wind and rain prompted Western Europe to develop the flintlock; East Asian matchlocks, by contrast, remained in use and were developed through the Edo period, producing a different retirement timeline from Europe's.