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History of Technology 4: Iron and Siege Warfare 55 Views


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Description:

Catapults, and ballistas, and trebuchets, oh my!

Language:
English Language

Transcript

00:00

so we know that iron played a role in regular role stabbing and maiming in

00:07

warfare. but it also changed siege warfare. don't know what that is well go

00:12

google it what are we supposed to do everything for you okay well I guess we [boy sits at a computer]

00:16

are so that's a tall order anyway here we go.

00:19

well siege warfare was the kind of battle that wasn't fought with horses

00:24

and swords instead it was fought with cities walls

00:29

catapults and long months spent waiting for the people inside the castle to

00:34

starve. it was great for the waistline but not so great for well being alive.

00:39

siege warfare became more common in the Middle Ages when cities and castles had

00:44

walls built around them. a wall seemed like a good idea right keeps out the

00:50

riffraff you know the guys who like disembowelling everyone in sight.

00:53

but all these big walls also set off a sort of arms race. potential invaders

00:59

looked at these castle walls and said to themselves you know what would be [man walks castle walls]

01:03

awesome ? a giant machine that would bash those dumb walls down. and you know what?

01:10

they built those machines. isn't it nice when dreams come true? of course that

01:14

meant that castle builders started making bigger and thicker walls to stand

01:19

up to the machines. this of course led to others making bigger badder machines and

01:24

so on and so forth yeah. well the crudest of these devices was probably the

01:28

battering ram usually they're just big logs used to smash in doors and walls

01:34

which yeah it's not the most ingenious idea that's ever been had you know it's [men use battering ram]

01:38

kind of the Hulk and whole corner. but still if a fella wanted to bash in the

01:44

doors of a castle a battering ram was a good option especially if the Hulk was

01:48

around Olinda big green ham. iron did a lot to make battering rams more

01:52

effective. by putting iron tips on the logs battering ram builders are really

01:57

upped their game. a castle doors and walls weren't nearly as safe well things

02:03

got more complex and deadly with the catapult. these ancient machines

02:07

they're basically humongous slingshots they were great for hurling big rocks

02:12

too. no down castle gates and walls I think. it

02:15

also hurl rocks and giant balls of flaming pitch over castle walls to set [catapults hurl things at castle]

02:21

everything on fire inside of them wreaking havoc on the citizens therein.

02:26

well of course castle dwellers got wise and built catapults of their own

02:30

allowing them to hurl things back over the walls and say things like I fart in

02:35

your general direction. maybe that was from Monty python. it's kind of like the

02:39

neener neener. all right well ballista were another

02:43

kind of ancient catapult like thingamajig first invented by the Greeks.

02:47

these were basically gargantuan crossbows which shot equally gargantuan

02:52

arrows. and while Cupid's arrows spread love, ballista spread a world of hurt. [man uses ballista]

02:57

the baddest of these machines was the trebuchet invented in Europe around 1100.

03:03

well the trebuchet looked like a catapult okay pretty much was a catapult

03:07

except that it included a long sling at one end and wasn't powered by bending or

03:13

cranking anything down. instead it used a clever system of weights which were

03:17

suddenly dropped. that sling meant that trebuchets could throw stuff much

03:22

further and faster than simple catapults. for a while it looked like trebuchets

03:27

might end the long tradition of sitting outside the city's walls for weeks

03:30

playing solitaire and hoping everyone starved to death. but in general the

03:34

defense of building bigger tougher walls seemed to win.

03:37

well that and using trebuchets inside castles to smash the trebuchets

03:42

shaves outside castles. yeah how about that isn't it sad when trebuchet czar

03:47

turned against each other. [two trebuchets talk to each other]

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