By the turn of the 18th century across Western Europe, the rapid development of flintlock muskets and socket bayonets led European states to abandon body armor for standard infantry. Because making iron plates thick enough to stop high-velocity musket balls required excessive, exhausting weight, military strategists concluded that naked speed, strict drilling, and rapid movement were better defenses than heavy metal. Armies traded their iron plates for bright, thin textile uniforms.

The disappearance of traditional armor transformed the poetry of war, shifting it away from chivalric epics of armored clashes toward an emphasis on mechanical discipline and massive lines of uniform musketeers. This transition shaped the rationalist, structured approach of Enlightenment-era neo-classical verse.