In the middle of the second millennium C.E. the battlefield was dominated by armored cavalry and the romantic concept of the chivalrous knight in armor. However, a technological innovation was about to take place that would completely change warfare. The invention in question was called the "hackenbushce," or arquebus, probably a derivative of the Dutch word haakbus, meaning "hook-gun." The arquebus was one of the first effective examples of a handheld firearm.
By this time, using gunpowder to fire projectiles was not a new idea. Cannons had existed since the early 1300s, and smaller "hand-cannons" had developed to complement these. These early firearms were basically small cannons mounted on poles or on crossbow stocks, and were fired by touching the vent- hole with a match, which would ignite the powder and fire the projectile.
The particular innovation of the arquebus, which cannot be attributed to one person but is probably of Spanish origin, lay in the use of a pivoting mechanism with the slow-burning match at one end that allowed the arquebusier, or shooter, to hold and aim the weapon with both hands, and then simply pull the other end of the pivoting lever to touch the match to the powder and fire the weapon. This mechanism was, of course, an early forerunner of the trigger, ubiquitous on modern guns, and by freeing both hands allowed the weapon to be fired with greater accuracy.
Despite this advantage, the arquebus was still grossly inaccurate when compared to the longbow or crossbow, but it still caught on, probably due to the fact that use of the arquebus was relatively easy to learn; where the longbow took years of study and considerable physical strength to master, the gun could be fired by almost anyone.
