Gunpowder has greatly changed sieging. It has changed how sieges were fought and defended. Others have also been influenced to become humanistic thinkers because of gunpowder. The purpose of this essay is to demonstrate the effects gunpowder has brought on how sieges were fought and defended against and how it influenced others to become humanist thinkers. Gunpowder has changed how sieges were fought. Before gunpowder, sieges were fought differently. They would mostly use one of seven tactics. Bombardment, Trenches, Tunneling, Starvation, Germ Warfare, Assault and Negotiation. Each tactic had its own benefits and downfalls, for example, Germ warfare, a tactic where diseased corpses would be thrown behind enemy walls, could get the attacking …show more content…
Before gunpowder, sieges were defended differently. Walls were a very important aspect of the siege, if it crumbled so would the defending army. Before cannons, walls were the most crucial part of a defence. This was because walls were very difficult to break or climb over. For this reason, walls were built as tall as possible to reject incoming forces. During a siege, the defending side would almost always have the advantage. At times fortifications would be powerful enough to deny the opposing army and all of their tactic making the only effective strategy to be starving the defending army . After gunpowder defending from sieges became strikingly more challenging. With the cannon in play, thin, tall walls no longer played a role in sieges. To counter the large iron balls, walls had adapted. Walls had become thicker and angular in order to withstand the iron balls and to deflect as much kinetic energy as possible. Because of the cannon, attacking forces had taken the advantage. Defenders could never hope to stand against the cannon, for they were fast, destructive and were at a distance that arrows would not reach. Due to this defenders had to come up with new tactics to defend against the cannon. Even though there are many alterations because of gunpowder, not everything had changed. Traps to deter the attackers such as drawbridges and moats would still remain. Other traps such as murder holes, where arrows would be shot out of holes in stairways, would also remain in towers for some time. Due to financial reasons, some castles were not rebuilt but rather repurposed. Holes originally used for archers were slightly opened up so gunmen could effectively fire. If the city-state did not have enough money at times they would build slowly, creating artillery towers and storages instead of remaking the