A pike is a very long thrusting spear formerly used in European warfare from the Late Middle Ages and most of the early modern period, and ...
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were wielded by foot soldiers deployed in pike square formation, until it was largely replaced by bayonet-equipped muskets. The pike was particularly well known as the primary weapon of Swiss mercenary and German Landsknecht units. A similar weapon, the sarissa, had been used in antiquity by Alexander the Great´s Macedonian phalanx infantry.
