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Why were certain weapons more popular than others? For example, all over Europe we have swordsmen and sword fighting styles... but we don't see as much popularity or systematic training in weapons like the battle axe or flail.
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Glad you like the thread Des. I'm just enjoying doing it. It's aiding my understanding of the subject matter, if no one else's!
The popularity of one weapon over another generally seems to be down to environment. From the geology of your region to the style of your opponent's armour to your society's fashion sense, all these and more seem to play a part. However, as you point out, the popularity of the sword is particularly interesting, purely because it was so widespread.
I think we first have to point out though that the sword as an object in itself was nowhere near as popular as weapons such as the spear or knife; it was perhaps the "cult of the sword" that was popular. This seems to stem from the fact that the sword, from earliest times to the most recent, has always been an expensive weapon to produce. Practically anyone could afford and make use of a spear, but a sword that was actually worth its weight in battle was a pricey piece of gear. It therefore followed that the only people who could afford a sword were going to be those of noble blood or the professional warriors who served them and this is why, I believe, the sword came to be associated with the warrior soul in so many cultures. The cannon fodder, for want of a better term, would've carried a spear or poleaxe and not much else. The professional warrior, the Japanese samurai, the Saxon huscarl, the Indian Sikh, would've fought with the best weapon money could buy: the sword.
And I think this is why we have a lot of sword systems. A foot soldier often had to hold down another job when he wasn't called up to fight, so he didn't have time to develop complex spear methods. A professional warrior has nothing else to do other than practice his martial skills and with the sword being the predominant weapon of this warrior class, that's the weapon that was practiced most. Of course, such a soldier may well have used other weapons but often this was down to personal taste and generally the knight using a morning star would've carried his sword as well. The Japanese tetsubo, or iron staff, is another good example. It is known that this was carried by a few particularly strong warriors, sometimes samurai but particularly sohei. However, it was not a weapon taught on the curriculum of a single ryuha; it was obviously a matter of devising a personal system.
This all said, systems for more unusual weapons have been found. There is a fifteenth century French manual on axe combat entitled
Le Jeu de la Hache, while medieval and Rennaisance weapons masters weren't averse to teaching weapons other than sword. Liberi's, Talhoffer's and Meyer's works all have chapters on poleaxe combat. Talhoffer's also details techniques with a highly unusual weapon called the hackenschilde, a long two-handed shield that made use of offensive blades and spikes on its ends. However, these all appear to be exceptions that prove the rule.