What if flint locks were made befor wheellocks

[Ward]

how would the world's history changed if Flintlocks were discovered before the wheellock .

 

[Forum Lurker]

No noticeable difference, barring severe butterflies. There's not a whole lot of difference in tactics or tactical advantage.

 

[President Ledyard]

Pretty large differences: wheel-locks, while rather more effective than matchlocks, were quite expensive to manufacture.

So, bigger, more effective armies and you've probably also insured that percussion locks and minie balls are invented rather earlier as well - which means (American) Civil War levels of battlefield casualties among other things.

 

[Forum Lurker]

Wheellocks were never, so far as I'm aware, used by foot troops in any significant numbers; infantry would be unaffected. Cavalry stopped being the arm of decision long ago, so whether they carry flintlocks, wheellocks, or sharp sticks is relatively moot.

 

[David Howery]

there would be a significant increase in firepower, as flintlocks are faster and more reliable than matchlocks. I'm not sure if caplocks would be invented any faster, as you have to have certain technological developments to make percussion caps. The minie ball was an idea that could have been done a lot sooner than OTL... noone happened to think of it earlier, but there was no technological reason it couldn't have been done. History might be affected depending on which nations adopted flintlocks in large numbers first... mainly though, I think warfare that was fought by matchlocks in OTL would have simply been bloodier with flintlocks....