New France and Aboriginal Weaponry
By: Ryan Zhang
The War Between the Two
You know New France and the Aboriginal peoples right? If you do, good for you! If you don't than keep reading. It'll give you a slight idea of what life was like back then. Then again this is a poster about weaponry.
New France Weapons
Let's start with New France weaponry first. New France is more developed than the Aboriginal peoples as you might have guessed, but that doesn't mean their weapons aren't as similar as the Aboriginals. The New France weapons developed into deadly weapons that are used today. Some of these weapons are guns and axes.
Muskets
Muskets are a long range weapon that takes long to reload but gives heavy damage in return. This was a very deadly weapon in the 1600's - 1700's and were used quite often. This is sort of like a one shot, one kill sort of weapon. Other uses were also made for these weapons such as hunting. Muskets also came with an attachable bayonet (which is similar to a knife) that can be put into the front of the gun.
Melee Weapons
Two frontline weapons that are crucial to demolishing other armies and Aboriginal tribes are hatchets and swords. Hatchets were good for thrashing armor and striking people with a ton of force. Swords are good slashing weapons that can easily deal a killing blow to other people and can be very deadly to vulnerable areas. Both of them however cannot be stopped in the 1600's. However other two-handed melee weapons are undefeated in fights. These two weapons are the pike and the halbard. The pike is a two-handed spear consisting of one or more sharp edges. The halbard is a pole arm, or pole with an axe-head that is great for hitting vulnerable spots and dealing massive damage with the edge or the top part of the axe-head.
Hatchets
A basic melee weapon used for demolishing front-line.
Pike
Sort of like a spear, shouldn't be thrown, great weapon for striking hard.
Sword
Basic slashing weapon, great for a 1v1 situation.
Shields and Armor
Just as important as weapons are, what are you gonna do about defending their attacks? This is where defense comes in. Shields not only protect yourself from slashing blows but it protects from piercing blows too. Shields can also be a good way to wind your opponent by shield bashing them in the head, to stun them, or in the stomach area to knock them down. Armor is also very important. Leather armor can be good for protecting piercing blows and slashing but in reality, metal and steel is much better. Metal armor are good at protecting piercing blows and slashing but chain armor is extremely effective against slashing. It is not as effective against piercing blows.
Metal Armor
Wore on the outside, used for protecting piercing blows.
Shields
Shields were used for timing slashes and piercing blows.
Chain Armor
Effective against slashing blows, but extremely weak against piercing blows
Aboriginal Weaponry
Now you've seen the New France weaponry, I'll show you some of the Aboriginal weaponry. Aboriginals have some simple weapons but it's still a foundation of what we use today. These weapons were very effective back then and still a bit effective now, but they sure knew how to survive with these weapons.
Long Ranged Weapons
To be honest Aboriginals have a wider variety of long ranged weapons, but that doesn't mean they're better than the New France's though. Some of the deadly weapons they had were the bow (A classic). The bow is a piercing weapon that can snipe out vulnerable spots for a easy kill. They also had boomerangs, better for throwing and than charging in. They also had a spear that you can throw or use it for melee.
Bow
The bow had a low reload time and was very deadly. Used for hunting and in back-lines.
Boomerang
Not very effective, used to engage for a 1v1.
Spear
similar to a pike, it can be melee and can also be thrown.
Melee Weapons
These weapons were very basic and we have some other version of some of these weapons. Like the French they used hatchets which were, again, used for demolishing frontlines and sometimes throwing since these were wood and sometimes stone. They used spears as their piercing weapon of choice. It wasn't as effective because they didn't have metal and the French had metal armor, but it worked. These spears were also thrown. They also had clubs that had spikes on them. These were semi-effective but the spikes didn't help too much.
Axe
Used in front-line, thrashed armor, very deadly weapon.
Spear
Good piercing weapon, can be thrown, does fatal damage to vulnerable spots.
Clubs
Used for front-line, good for engaging for 1v1s.
Shields and Armor
They had leather armor which protected against piercing blows more than slashing but it still protected against it a little bit. They also had wooden shields that protecting against everything. Still pretty bad but better than nothing right? Wooden shields might be able to withstand a musket shot but just hope for the best with this type of protection.