The Machete is a large cleaver-like knife. The blade is typically 32.5 to 45 centimetres (12.8 to 17.7 in) long and usually under 3 millimetres (0.12 in) thick. In the Spanish language the word is a diminutive form of the word macho, which means male or strong and was used to refer to sledgehammers. In the English language, an equivalent term is matchet, though it is less commonly known. In the English-speaking Caribbean such as Barbados, Jamaica, Guyana, Grenada and in Trinidad and Tobago, the term cutlass is used for these agricultural tools. A machete may also be classified as a sword, because it can be used like one. Many of the killings in the Rwandan Genocide were performed with machetes, and they were the primary weapon used by the Interahamwe militias there.[4] Machetes were also the distinctive tool/weapon of the Haitian Tonton Macoute. In 1762, the Kingdom of Great Britain invaded Cuba in the Battle of Havana, and peasant guerrillas led by Pepe Antonio, a Guanabacoa councilman, used machetes in the defense of the city. The machete was also the most iconic weapon during the independence wars in that country (1868–1898), although it saw limited battlefield use. Carlos Manuel de Céspedes, owner of the sugar refinery La Demajagua near Manzanillo, freed his slaves on 10 October 1868. Armed with machetes, he proceeded to lead them in revolt against the Spanish government.[8] The first cavalry charge using machetes as the primary weapon was carried out on 4 November 1868 by Máximo Gómez, a sergeant born in the Dominican Republic, who later became the General in Chief of the Cuban army. The machete was (and still is) a common side arm and tool for many ethnic groups in West Africa. Machetes in this role are referenced in Chinua Achebes Things Fall Apart. Some countries have a name for the blow of a machete; the Spanish machetazo is sometimes used in English. In the British Virgin Islands, Grenada, Jamaica, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Barbados, Saint Lucia, and Trinidad and Tobago, the word planass means to hit someone with the flat of the blade of a machete or cutlass. To strike with the sharpened edge is to chop. Throughout the Caribbean, the term cutlass refers to a laborers cutting tool. The Brazilian Armys Instruction Center on Jungle Warfare developed a machete with a blade 10 inches (25 cm) in length and a very pronounced clip point. This machete is issued with a 5-inch Bowie knife and a sharpening stone in the scabbard; collectively called a jungle kit
Posted on: Sun, 16 Mar 2014 05:00:47 +0000
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