musketeer

A musketeer ( ) was a type of soldier equipped with a musket. Musketeers were an important part of early modern warfare from the mid 15th to mid 19th centuries, particularly in Europe, where they normally comprised the majority of their infantry after 1600. The musketeer was a precursor to the rifleman. Muskets were replaced by breech loading rifles as the almost universal firearm for modern armies during the period 1850 to 1870. The traditional designation of "musketeer" for an infantry private survived in the Imperial German Army until World War I.

==Historical antecedents== The hand cannon was invented in Song dynasty China in the 12th century and was in widespread use there in the 13th century. It spread westward across Asia during the 14th century. The hand cannon evolved into the arquebus that appeared in Europe and the Ottoman Empire during the 15th century. The term musket was originally used to describe a heavy arquebus capable of penetrating heavy armor. Although this heavy version of the musket fell out of use after the mid-16th century with the decline of heavy armor, the term "musket" remained as a general descriptor and lent its name to the infantry type known as the musketeer.