Can someone provide historical context for why castles were built

>>2855501
t. burger education

use your head dummy

>>2855501
Regional control centers
grain storage.

>>2855501
Status.
Power.
Fucking princesses in the ass.

Theres so much to list. They can be used as a lot of things.

To have a fucking home to begin with?
And defending against the muslims of their age it was essential as fuck.

>>2855501

Why did the Americans build forts all over the midwest?

>>2855501

Lets say you're a king.

You've got alot of enemies, so you need good defence.
You've got a lot of shit, so you need a lot of room.
You need bodyguards and security around 24/7 so you need alot of beds and bedrooms.
You'll also need cleaning staff, and you're too busy so kitchen staff as well.
You'll need a large dining area, and large kitchen because dinner parties are a great way to have diplomatic meetings with neighbouring rulers, the smell of good food should make them more agreeable.
You'll also need to travel alot to make sure shits going well, so you need stables and horses and chariots.

So, you don't just need a fort, you need a home too. One fitting for a king and his duties.

That is the purpose of a fucking castle. Bitch.

>>2855501
In England many of the first castles were built as centers of power for the Norman invaders to exert control over the native Saxons

They were bult to defend against Viking raiders.

You stay in the castle safe and sound, your buddies eventually show up to reinforce you.

However they were used by local lords afterwards to dominate the landscape rather than protect it

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>>2855510
Let me in your castle!!

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>>2855508
>be Englishman
>build a megastructure out of stone to fend of invaders
>a true monument and testament to your will to not flee your land and defend it in the face of an invasion force
>secure the right to live in these lands and for your children to prosper for generations
>only for your descendants to willfully hand it over to foreigners several generations later
>now your structures of stone are just tourist attractions as the men that should man them are too cowardly to do so

>>2855505
Anon5? Is that you? You sure do share his propensity for vapid generalities.

>>2855501

There's basically two kinds of castle.

1. Refuge. A place to hide your army so the enemy can't fuck you up. Most mountaintop castles with a cliff on three sides were meant for this. Perfect example is Srebrenik: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Srebrenik_Fortress Literally fucking impregnable.

2. Barrier. A fortress to slow or stop your enemy at a strategic chokepoint. They put these castles wherever the fuck the strategic chokepoint was - a mountain pass, by a river, a road they wanted to collect taxes on, shit like that. A perfect example is a castle in the City of Metz (a strategic choke-point between France and Germany going back so far that it was fortified in ancient times and in WWII as well,) where there's a "bridge castle," literally a castle built into (and over) a bridge:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metz#/media/File:Metz_Porte_des_Allemands_R06.jpg

You could build entire normal castles next to a river bridge or ford or whatnot, but building the bridge *into* the castle makes it even more explicit what the point was, natch.

>>2855501

When under attack everyone in the surrounding area could come inside and get comfy as fuck rather than raped/pillaged/killed. Eventually attackers run out of food and fuck off because they're hungry and all the food is in the castle and nothing's in the surrounding area is worth anything anyway and they can't get in without being shot with arrows or having boiling liquids poured on them. Castle have lots of chokepoints built into them so a few men can defend against many.

In the UK I think everyone has visited a real castle at some point in their lives. I don't think disneyland's castle counts.

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>>2855501
Show me a better castle as in harder to conquest.
Pro tip: You cant.

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>>2855516

Think this one could give'er a run for its money.

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So I could have badass Lego sets when I was a kid.

>>2855517
Does it have a cistern?

>>2855518
Holy shit that nostalgia.

I had the same one.

>>2855501
They were pretty damn cool.

>>2855501
Live in a country that has castles and post later

>>2855522
They say Romania is fool of gypsies and vampires.

>>2855516
Protip: conquest is a noun, not a verb.

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>>2855501
She won't say no when she's within your walls. She can, of course. But she won't. Because of the implications.

>>2855514
We used lake for keeping the bad guys out with this castle

>>2855523
Don't forget the trannies. Romania has more trannies per capital than even Thailand.

>>2855513
That's one way to look at it.

>>2855501

Why do modern rich people live in mansions?

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>>2855501
>other than "defense against aggressors"?
That's reason enough. And of course, once they are built and the country is at peace they got used for other stuff. But their reason for existence is as defensive works.
>>2855516

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>>2855526
Forgot pic

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>>2855524
ExpertTip: Sweden is a shithole, not a country.

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>>2855512

>>2855532
I know, I am using a VPN for the bantz.

>1 post by this id

Slide thread. Sage.

>>2855516
to conquer*

>>2855501
Castles for protection of forts control, first invented Classical period! Castles both for people and grains, also other animals. Large wall stop attacks, but soon large gun make wall less off military relevance! This is history of castle buildings of feudalism of Europe.

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>>2855516
The last time someone tried to assault a castle built on an island they had to build a peninsula to reach it.

>>2855527
are trannies vampires?

>>2855540
All Transylvanians are trannies.

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>>2855520

The same reason pirate ships were built.

>>2855527
Wat, got any more informations on that ?

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>>2855501
Because castles are fucking awesome

>>2855540
Well, maybe some are both. So they can be freaky in two ways, hurray!

>>2855540
Imagine trying to figure out what gender tranvamps identify as. Good thing thing none of them live in Canada, the poor leafs would be legally required to use their proper vampiric multigender pronouns.

>>2855524
Spelling mistake. Go back to your wooden long house. This is a stone infrastructure thread only.

>>2855543
Sure thing, senpai:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCOmSnH7hOQ

>>2855519

Yes, I believe. Apparently a vast part of the cost of building a castle on a hill was always just digging the fucking well; they must've been huge wells, like a mineshaft you could physically walk down via a circular stair.

>>2855531
>gunpowder era star fort

breddy kewl shit imo

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Just coming through with the best form of fortification ever invented.

>>2855501
Defense against peasants uprising during famines

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>>2855501
to impress your rivals
and who doesn't want to live in a fancy house ?

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>>2855549
This is the one in the castle i showed.

>>2855542
This fucker is still sitting halfway intact in my parents' attic somewhere.

When Nobunaga and Hideyoshi captured Gifu, the legend goes that they build a castle right fucking next to it in order to do so...

Not sure how true, or even how that works. But it seems castles were okay for attacking in some contexts I guess.

Otherwise, they are imposing and intimidating structures. Especially when anyone who wants to rebel would have to contend with the men fortified inside.

>>2855501
Mosty against muslim invaders as in the beginning castles stopped them and helped the local populace in case of emergency. Like when they came to take away (literally slavers) your people they took shelter in castles.

>>2855531
>>2855526

You forgot to mention the really strong currents

>>2855552
How? A wall of wooden poles would suffice.

castles were also used to siege other castles and stuff -> Trutzburg / Counter-Castle

>>2855557
Would have been more effective just to coat your surfaces in bacon.

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>>2855551
french architecture right here mang

>mods
>fun

>>2855563
This isn't a bad place for this but...

I miss my flags.

We could have simulated history using just our flags.

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>>2855563
>mods
>moving /pol/tastic threads away from /pol/
It's like they want us to redpill the normies!

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The mootwo giveth, the mootwo taketh away.

>>2855501
a) defense
b) are control

end of valid reasons.

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>>2855501
I know it might not look like much, but there used to be giant wood structures on top of the brick wall, the main moat was way wider, plus there was an inner moat around the bastion (the main turret in the lower part of the picture), the bastion had dry food capable of lasting months and a water source directly inside the bastion, plus secret tunnels (they've begun discovering them only now) going on until some km outside the town (usually ending up in churches/monasteries) to send someone to call reinforcements
Plus the HR Emperors used to visit it to admire how well it was built
It's a shame that during the Cambrai wearisome fucker decided to use cannons against it, the wall even resisted the first blow, but when they changed their aim for one of the smaller turrets a whole section fell down
>t. living inside the walls of this very town
I just love my hometown
no bully plz

>>2855602
i wish it was like this the shitskins are just flooding europe

>>2855614
*cambrai war*

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>>2855612
Status symbols.

>>2855501
Isnt that the only reason?

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>>2855623

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>tfw your entire country used to be a literal fortress city
>then the eternal Anglo made sure you lost a war and had to pull down all the walls and fortresses

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>>2855563

>>2855501
1. serve as local center of government for an area
2. house and equip local security forces to enforce law
3. serve as a defensive center when under attack
4. serve as a staging area for resources and reinforcing elements while conducting combat operations in a given area
5. serve as communications center
6. serve as a place to secure local treasuries

They were pretty effective at doing all of the above.

>>2855623
Na, that came much later.

Power projection

Most enemies simpled walked around them and continued to destroy the rest of the region.

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>>2855645
But still it came.

>>2855652
Not really, those weren't castles but Mansions in fantasy style and had no defensive purpose.

ctrl+f
prison
dungeon
0 results

They were also pretty instrumental in judicial processes.

>>2855686
Medieval justice was more direct: death, mutilation or bloodgeld. None of that pansy imprisonment and doing time.

>>2855554

Fuck me, that's big. Guess you'd need it on a rocky outcropping where you can't dig a well.

>>2855686
Lords would also use them to imprison bourgeois, nobles, soldiers from a rival town and demand a ransom

>>2855556
Hideyoshi probably just threw up an earthworks fort overnight and when Inabayama (the og name of the castle) woke up, boom, Oda forces.

>>2855629
When did that happen?

>>2855512
You want people to use ancient buildings as fortresses?

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Another reason: defence against your inhabitants

pic related is my hometown Passau in southern germany

The fortress in the red circle was built in the 13th century by the prince-bishop in order to maintain his power, because the citizens wanted to overthrow him and live in a self-governed free imperial city.

They actually unsuccessfully besieged the fortress a few times over the centuries

By the way, it was used as a prison later in history, so that'd be also a reason to have a castle

>>2855509
THIS

Castles are meant to control key areas; they're forward operating bases as well as sally points to harass and disrupt enemy communication and logistics.

Nobody wants to endure a siege even though that's what a lot of early medieval warfare consisted of. But if you dotted the landscape with strongholds, good luck to an aggressor that has to wade through all of that.

>>2855661
post more castles, pls

>>2855555
qvint qvint

>>2855509
>native
>saxons

>>2855675
>>fortification on top of a hill with two walls
>>no defensive purpose
Wut

>>2855504
>Fucking princesses in the ass
Fucking handmaids in the ass
FTFY

>>2855539
>>2855537
That was before trebuchets were built if youre talking about alexanders conquest. A trebuchet could rain shit on that since it isnt overly far from the shore not to mention the tide draws back enough for ot to be placed closer. The walls dont cover the vital parts.

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>>2855531
>>2855539
hey it worked for Malta; the island is basically a giant 300km^2 maze of forts castles and cathedrals that finally managed to fuck over the Turks in the 1500s

>>2857843
I like memeisland.

>>2855688

It was actually much more along the lines of paying a fine or being put in the stocks for a few hours. You needed to do something pretty bad to get executed or mutilated.

>>2856057
Why's that water so weird?

>>2857943

Stagnant water + fertilizer runoff = lots of algae and plant growth

>>2857943
it usually occurs when a river meets the ocean or two rivers of vastly different composition converge

its caused by a difference in salinity, turbidity, density and nutrient content

>>2855507
Military strongholds and operations centers

>>2855555
witnessed

>>2855514
>>2855517
>>2855554
I didnt know anyone knew about srebrenik castle, i always found it to be very neet

>>2855538
>English

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This castle has been in hands of my grandfather's family for centuries. It's not a beautiful building, but rather a strategic building between two important areas.

>>2858450
Get the fuck out with your bullshit
> In 1957, the Friends of Gelderland Castles Foundation bought the Castle
>From 1976 until 1999 the castle was used not only as a tourist attraction, but also as an official town hall and meeting place for the local municipality. After the Ammerzoden municipality ceased to exist in 1999, the meetings were moved from the castle.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ammersoyen_Castle

Wait a second. Was this moved from /pol/?

>>2858539
Doesn't seem like it.

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>>2857364

>>2855501
Refuge from peasants.

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>>2858550
>>2858539
It started as a thread in /pol/


On that topic, do you think walled settlements will come back into fashion in these uncertain times?

I sure hope so. Even if nothing happens they are true patrician-tier and if something does happen then you've got a solid base rebuild Europe.

Castles tie up the enemy on your border regions, they have to take them to secure their supply lines and progress further into your territory. After weeks of siege with foot and mouth killing off horses and knights trained from infancy dying of dysentry you finally arrive with your fresh army to lift the siege.

Castles are also useful for lesser lords making it more difficult, risky and expensive to oust them and any clique they are a part of. Could their rival take the castle before your allies arrive? Does a King want to spend the next few years fighting them or just agree to their meager demands? It is a bargaining chip.

>>2855509

Wrong.
Castles were built in the Roman era to control the saxon shore and stocked with a garrison to maintain the connection to the shores of Gaul. These fell in disrepair, and mott and bailey forts took their place as a response to the locals being unable to do mass stone projects.

This was changed again during the reign of Alfred the Great who instituted national castle building efforts. They were essentially fortified towns in minute, people wouldn't be living there but if a viking raid was called people could flee and seek refuge inside the wall while the Fryd (peoples militia) organized. Additionally inside the wall excess grain was stored, and there were warehouses for merchants.

Of course the Normans also used them as refuges in a hostile landscape.

The next big effort was around the Marches near the Welsh border, where lords there fortified their castles against welsh raiders and would push in and conqueor land extending English control further into Wales before it was wholly conqueored. In response to this, Castellation was reduced and heavily curtailed by the King, outside of few border areas where it was permitted.

>>2855522
Albania?

>>2855527
Well duh, of course there's a bunch of Transylvanians in Romania, their homeland is there!

>>2855607
>those walls
T H I C C

>>2858480
I meant in previous times, not in current times.

>>2855614
neato

>>2855535
ottizem

Fulk III of Anjou used extensive castle building to increase his domains by steadily encroaching on his neighbors' domains.

>>2855602
wait, is this actually meant to be pro immigration?
i mean fucking look at it

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>>2855539
Alexander did it at Tyre

>>2855551
Agreed, but only until they invented "obus fusants", or shrapnel shells.
Someone here once said star forts basically became bunkers without a roof

>>2855607
I don't get why the towers don't have slits for the cannons, except directed to the inside

>>2858650
I read a funny greentext on this one once. What was it again ?

>>2857843
>>2857863
Then Napoleon took it in two days-

>>2855650
If you where just raiding, yes. If you wanted to keep the area you had just invaded though, you had to take out that castle.

>>2862945
Helps if the entire fortress's occupants (Hospitaller order of St John) had sworn oaths only to fight non christians, yeah?

How would castles look if in the middle ages they had concrete similar to ours and a way of producing it?

>>2863073

they had the concept of concrete already

roman concrete is just as good if not better than many common modern applications of concrete

>>2863080
not sure concrete was use effectively after the roman times. Maybe more like mortar between bricks or stones.
>>2863073
Also not sure concrete is more sturdy than stone wall. Only easier to produce (no need to bring stones, you can make it on place). It would not have stopped the flatting (?) of the castles (transition from the high castle walls to the flat star forts because of gunpowder strength)

>>2855518
Nice

>>2855518

had a bunch of those as a kid from a bin me dad picked up at a yardsale

>>2855501
Castles were all about the lesser dukes and counts asserting their local power and independence from the king. They wanted the king to fuck off and leave them alone as much as possible, and building castles was the way to do it. With enough castles you were truly lord of all that you surveyed, so dukes and counts built and built until finally cannons made them useless.

>>2855501
Control over a region

>>2863127
Also note that this reasoning explains castle density. Castles are most commonly found in France and Germany rather than England. This is because royal authority was much weaker in France and Germany for much of the castle age, while in England a strong centralized administrative government was able to curtail castle barons from building too many.

>>2863127
>finally cannons made them useless
only one of the factors. The measures taken by Louis XIV also tamed the lesser nobles. I think Richelieu then destroyed the castles inside of France (because of wars of religion ?)

>>2855501
Everything you want to know about castles and medieval warfare can be found on Shadiversity's youtube channel

>>2855537
Comfy

>>2855537
>>2855539
This looks amazing.

>>2855610
Alterac Valley?

>>2855501
Religion

>>2855506
Yeah that's why the Byzantine Empire had a lot more castles then France and Germany

Oh wait it didn't.

>>2855645
No it fucking didn't. Status and power were pretty almost the same fucking thing for a really long while.

>>2857967
Nah you are wrong
>>2857943
A river that has been travelling through the lowlands for a long time picking up lots of mud from the bottom meets a river that recently came down from the mountains and hasn't picked up as much mud and sand.

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>>2855516
I raise you from castle to city. Two drawbridges near the main entrance, the river providing a natural moat and 40 meter vertical cliffs bellow the walls.

>>2855525

Underrated.

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>>2863534
Reminds me of Kamieniec

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>>2863582

>>2855501
A S C E T I C S
S
C
E
T
I
C
S

>>2863592
Yeah very similar looking

>>2855501
Nah, it was only defense against aggressors.

All these other excuses boil down to "defense against aggressors." People say "control." Well how? You've got a bunch of soldiers in the castle, and you can send them out to bully the peasants, and if there's ever a revolt you can run back in and defend against the aggressive peasants. Etc. Yes, there's status. But you keep the status behind the walls, so that aggressors can't take it from you. Otherwise you just build a fancy palace with more status for a fraction of the cost. They're all defensive forts, though the tactics and strategies behind various castles changes.

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>>2863132
>a strong centralized administrative government
>UK history
What, really? What about Magna Carta? Wasn't that the provincial nobles shitting on the weak king? And Parliament puppeteering monarchs for centuries?

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>>2863250
It really is an amazing place, even at low tide.

>>2855507
Indian genocide

>>2855562
Wasn't it an Italian invention brought upon by the French use of cannons in their wars in Italy?

>Can someone provide historical context for why Battleships were launched other than "power projection"?
Equally obnoxious question.

>>2855501
The Ottomans, being foreign to the land they ruled, built citadels not for defense but to segregate themselves from the indigenous population.

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Commie fortress pm top of a mountain.

>>2868284
Why did they hate the human soul so much?

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>>2868337
Because they lack it.