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In which countries?


England and Switzerland come to the top of my mind, I’ll need to dig for a comprehensive list.


Nearly all of them, at least up through the end of the Napoleonic Wars.

I believe it became less popular with the popular revolutions of 1848 and the advent of universal conscription.


I'm not a historian, but this doesn't match my understanding; that true weapons like swords and crossbows tended to be restricted, and peasants used scythes, clubs, etc. instead.

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/268dmc/how_w...


Arround 1400, the King proclaimed that "every Englishman or Irishman dwelling in England must have a bow of his own height", at one point Tennis was banned to give more time to bow practice. By 1500s every man had to buy his 7 year old son a bow and teach him how to use it, and a bow+arrows must be kept in everyones house.

Crossbows on the other hand were practically banned, but this was more because a highly skilled longbowman was more deadly


That's fairly unique to England, though, whose military power relied on longbows in a way not matched by rivals.




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