MILITARY TECHNOLOGY IN THE MIDDLE AGES

1. MILITARY TECHNOLOGY IN THE MIDDLE AGES Nicolás Gómez C.

2. Introduction Since the beginning of humanity, humans have tried to defend themselves with objects such as sticks and rocks. Then they developed stabbing weapons such as swords and arrows. Without the development of these weapons, people won’t have been able to resolve or defend themselves against animals and other humans. Weapons helped humans to defend their ideas and what they believed in. During the Middle Ages, military technology was drastically important for those times. Because people, in the Middle Ages were invaded regularly invaded, they developed military technology to defend themselves.

3. Timeline

4. Whymilitarytechnologyisimportant? The Middle Ages were a point in time with lots of conflicts. It was a time where people had a lot of fighting to do. They had to protect their land, their animals, and themselves. Therefore, humans developed military technology with the purpose of being safe. Since people lived in castles, defense against invaders was very important.

5. Howcastleswere defended? In the second place, castles were homes for many people. They were huge rock structures with tall walls and enormous bridges. Defense was necessary because invaders attacked constantly. The most common defense weapons were the archers who stepped in something called arrow slits. These protected the archer against coming arrows. These slits were narrow holes in the walls where the archer stood inside and could shoot but could not be shot at.

6. Another common weapon was oil. The oil would be thrown from big barrels from the tall walls. at the enemy. Surprisingly, moments later it was lit on fire. This would certainly kill the enemy. There was still another weapon called the trebuchet. It looked like the catapult, but the trebuchet used weight to shoot the 200 pound rock with a rotating arm. On the other hand, the catapult did the same except it used a horizontal stick to stop the lever and shoot the rock. The positions where the weapons were placed were very important. This helped the castle to be more prepared for the attacks. The closest weapons to the enemy were the archers and the oil. The oil was almost at the door and the archers were all around the walls. Some castles didn’t use the trebuchet, but if the castles had one, it would be in the inner part of the castle.

7. Howpeople defended themselves? Most of thepeasantdidntcarryweaponsbuttheywillcarrysomehomadedager. Theywillprobably do itwithrocks. Theweapons of thehighclasswereespecificallydeciendforthe persone. Theywereswords of highcuality.

8. Short rangeweapons A rangedweaponisanyweaponthat can kill at distance. Thisweaponswerenormalyforcastledefencebecausetheyprobited a gooddistancefromtheenemywishprebentedgettingharmedbyothersoldier. Onekind of weaponused in themedilages as a short rangeweaponwouldbetheoilbecauseyoudropedit at someonesheadsfromthe top. Otherweaponusedwouldbe a short bowor a slingshot.

9. Medium rangeweapons Otherweapons of middlerangewouldbethelongbow, wishwas similar tothe short bowbutitsabletoshootfarder. Otherweaponwouldbethecrossbow, thiscrossbowswouldbecapobultoshootlongrangesbutittocklots of time toreloadanarrow.

11. High rangeweapons Themostwantedweaponsfortheempirewouldbethehighrangeweaponsbecause of itsincredibledamege. One of themisthecatapult, themostrecognisedhighrangeweapon. Otherwouldbethetrebuchetwishis similar to a catapultbutit has a longerarm and workedwithweight.

13. Thecreators of theseweapons Thefirstweapons in theworldwerecreatedwithrocks and stick. Thisweaponswerecreatedbythehomoerectus, wishwasanearlyhuman. Thisweaponswereusallyknifes and pointythings.

14. Importantwars The time of thedevelopment of theweaponsmostlikelyhapened in thecrusade, acordingtoanswers. com, “The Crusades lasted many decades and the development of weapons changed drastically over this time. At first, standard weapons like Long Swords, Maces, Spears, and arrows were used. By the end of the crusades the use of gunpowder and explosives were used, but still very much in its infancy. Things like early cannons and whatnot were used heavily in the Navy and even some on the battlefield.”

15. Strategies In anattackto a castlethegoalwastodestroythewalls and enterthecity. Forthistheyusedcatapults. Iftherewerearchers in thewallstheywill use otherarcherstokilltheotherarchers. Tosackthecitytheywill use knights. Butitwasdificulttogettothewallbecausetherewere so manyarchersthatitwill look like a storm of arrows.

16. Conclusion A. Whatdidmilitarytechnologydidtothemiddleages? In my opinionmilitarytechnologyimprovedthemiddleages. Ithelpedpeoplegainhumanrights. B. Howthischangedthemodernlife? Iftheweaponsneverexcistedwemayobeyotherreligionssuch as theislamisimbecause of thecrusades. Ormavewemayhaveless r Humansrightsbecause of diferentcomfilcts.

17. http://www.raisonsbrassband.com www.answers.com http://blog.medieval-castle.com/2008/02/medieval-blog-launch.html http://www.familyhomesecurity.com/defensive-security-in-the-middle-ages/ http://uncrate.com/stuff/medieval-crossbow/ http://fourriverscharter.org/projects/Inventions/pages/europe_longbow.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trebuchet http://twipa.blogspot.com/2011/05/k-is-for-knife.html