The halberd was made in Central Europe; I'm not really sure where in particular, but it was made in the 13th-14th century.
It was an evolution of a couple weapons, such as the axe and spear, with some halberds having a hooked spike/beak.
The basic kind of idea was "What if we made a weapon that could poke, stab, and pull?"
Eventually the Swiss ended up using them a lot and ended up making the weapon famous. After struggling against heavy cavalry for centuries, they used the weapon along with other pikes, long spears, and eventually guns.
I'll put it into perspective: imagine being an infantryman, your average sword isn't really going to do much against armor.
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