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 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.
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