The evolution of heavy infantry of the west: early to modern

The heavy infantry were soldiers that entered battle equipped with full armor and weapons that could do heavy damage to enemies. They were not very mobile and moved slowly but once they entered battle in their formations, almost none could break through them. Traditionally, heavy infantry wore armor that was heavy to pierce and grouped together to protect themselves and concentrate their forces to give heavy damage. I will talk about the evolution of the heavy infantry of the west.

First heavy infantry that was introduced was probably the hoplites. They had long spears, a huge round shield, armor that protected all of their upper body, head and the lower part of the legs. These men were grouped together in formation and would face the charging enemy. First, they would fight by spears to fend off the enemy and when some enemies managed to enter the formation, some of the men would drop the spears and would fight with short swords. This was extremely effective and is demonstrated in the ancient times when 10,000 hoplites managed to escape from the middle of the Persian Empire to their homeland, fighting off forces many times their number. But, they were inflexible and when striken in the rear or the back, they were sure to lose since the formation couldn't be moved very well. That's why the hoplites later lost to the agile and flexible army of romans. However, this formation became even more effective when their spears became even longer. This concept was introduced by Phillip of Macedonia and he conquered all of Greece with his army of hoplites. Later, his son Alexander the Great defeated more than 200,000 forces in total with only 42,000 men with this army.

Then, the heavy infantry moved onto Rome. Early Rome actually didn't have legions. Instead, they had three classes of armies. One was the Hastais, then the Principies and the Triarids. In here, only the Triarids were heavy infantry. The Hastais were poorly equipped and the Principies were also poorly equipped. However, the Triarids were from well-off families and could afford the cost of the armor and weapons (since in Rome, every men had to buy his own equipments for the army). The Triarids also followed the hoplite formation so I will not talk so much about them. After the revolution of the army, the whole concept of the army changed. The Roman army now had legions that were mainly heavy infantry. They would each divide into about 120 men led by a centurion. A soldier carried a big rectangular shield that could cover their whole body, armor that had bot chain and plate mail and a helmet. They also had two spears and a short sword that was really only good for stabbing. When they attacked an enemy, they would form a turtuoise formation so the enemy couldn't shoot arrows at them and when they faced the enemy in combat, they would keep their formation at all cost and block with their shield. Then, the soldier would stab diagonally so the enemy would be suprised.

In the medival times, the heavy infantry was very disorganized. In fact, the army itself was very disorganized and often consisted of poorly equipped peasants and the knights. Becoming a heavy infantry cost a lot of money so the poor peasants couldn't afford it since they couldn't even afford a decent sword, and the knights prefered to fight on horseback although some poor knights that couldn't afford a horse fought on foot and became heavy infantry. Therefore, the heavy infantry were made up of mercenaries. These mercenaries didn't have much discipline and often fought as individuals rather than groups. They really have the best morals so when faced with a heavy force, they would run away rather than fight so the heavy infantry wasn't very effective at this time.

Now, when the gunpowder was introduced and became developed, the heavy infantry became ineffective because of their lack of mobility but it is shocking that they used heavy infantry well into World War II. These pictures of men are both heavy infantry in the World War I and World War II. The first picture is a picture of a heavy infantry wearing SN-42 armor.