The design was presented to arms manufacturer FN Herstal in 1897, with production commencing the following year (then under the designation Modele 1899). In 1900, an improved design featuring primarily a shorter barrel and wider grips was introduced as the M1900. These designations were applied retroactively after FN began manufacture of other Browning pistol designs; initially the M1900 was marketed as simply the "Pistolet Browning" (Browning Pistol). Production ceased only 11 years later, with a total of about 700,000+ units having been produced.
United States PresidentTheodore Roosevelt owned a mother of pearl-gripped Modele 1899, which he regularly kept on his person and in his bedside drawer. It now resides in the NRA Firearms Museum.[2]
Eugen Schauman, a Finnish nationalist activist, assassinated the Governor-General Nikolay Bobrikov (the highest Russian authority in the Grand Duchy of Finland) with a Browning pistol in Helsinki on June 16, 1904. The act was followed by spontaneous anti-Russian celebrations in the streets of Helsinki and after the 1917 independence Schauman was considered to be a national hero of Finland.[3]
An Jung-geun, a Korean-independence activist, assassinated the 1st Prime Minister of Japan and Resident-General of Korea Itō Hirobumi with this type of gun on October 26, 1909 in Harbin railway station.[4][5]
Socialist revolutionary Fanny Kaplan also used a FN M1900 in her attempted assassination of Lenin on August 30, 1918.[6]
The pistol was popular in China from its introduction through World War II and was often copied and used as the basis for other designs.[8] State-run arsenals produced serialized production runs for warlord militias, and local craftsmen produced one-off handmade versions.[9]
The North Korean Type 64 pistol [ja] is a copy of the M1900. Specimens examined by western authorities were marked with the date of 1964. A silenced variant was produced that featured a shortened slide to allow the threaded barrel to protrude far enough to attach the silencer.[10]
Finland - First acquired by police before 1917, in total up to a thousand were bought. The pistol was very popular in the civilian market and among early Finnish nationalist movement Voimaliitto. Also used by the State Railways and the Bank of Finland.[15]
France - 200 issued to officers of the criminal brigade in june 1912[16] Used by trench raiders during WW1[17]
German Empire - Privately purchased by military officers.[18] Bought by police agencies.[19]
^Zetterberg, Seppo (1988). Viisi laukausta senaatissa – Eugen Schaumanin elämä ja teko. Kustannusosakeyhtiö Otava. pp. 246–247, 268, 281. ISBN951-1-09266-9.
^Lee, Sung Joo (2019). 우라웍스 (ed.). 안중근, 사라진 총의 비밀 : 이토 히로부미를 저격하고 빼앗긴 M1900을 찾아서. 청림출판. ISBN9791155401569.
^Compendio histórico del Perú. La República (siglo XX). Vol. VI. Lima, Perú: Milla Batres. 1993. p. 254.
^"Browning 1900". Forgotten Weapons. 3 October 2014. Archived from the original on 10 July 2021. Retrieved 29 June 2021.
^McCollum, Ian (2021). "FN 1900 Copies". Pistols of the Warlords: Chinese Domestic Handguns, 1911 - 1949. Headstamp Publishing. pp. 334–461. ISBN9781733424639.