As I understand it, the main infantry sword for much of the 16th and 17th centuries in Western Europe was the tuck or estoc, only able to thrust, while infantry in the 18th century mostly carried 'hangers' with broad, curved cutting blades. When did this transition occur, and what were the ancestors of the hanger?

I was trying to look into this myself, trying to figure out what a "tuck" of the English Civil War pike man looked like, and what I found was that hangers were used in the 1600's and used as sidearms by infantry, but never found an example of the thrusting tuck, which I'd like to see.

I'd imagine from this that they were contemporary and the tuck was slowly abandoned over time, but that just an assumption from light reading.

I could be totally wrong on this but I think the word tuck, when used in the context of a 16th or 17th century infantry sword, was just another term for a hanger. The confusion lies in the fact that an estoc was also sometimes called a tuck.

why were tuck estocs even called tucks anyways?

was it due to the aspect of estocs being 'tucked' under the arm as a backup lance?

Deepeeka has a pre "hanger" tuck
http://deepeeka.in/english-tuck-sword.html

The short straight blades were favored by the French until the briquet sabres with cast grips. Both double and single edge.

The US made good use of short backsword blades with nco swords from both Rose and Starr from the early 19th century until the 1820s and beyond.

Cheers
GC

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Sabre Troupes Marine

Half hilt

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Starr 1818

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Rose brief [ Download ]

As I understand it, tucks weren't a particularly common infantry weapon through the 17th century-they seem to have used the usual assortment of cut-and-thrust swords, hangers, backswords, the occasional rapier etc. as sidearms. I think the idea of tucks as an infantry sidearms comes from military manuals like the Duke of Albemarle, where he wanted all soldiers(cavalry got long tucks, infantry got tucks "not too long") to carry tucks out of frustration with them wrecking the edges of their swords using them to chop firewood. All the antique tucks I'm aware of are quite long and seem to be either edgeless rapiers or the western European equivalent of a koncierz.