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Castle or Not?
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<blockquote data-quote="TwinBahamut" data-source="post: 5388813" data-attributes="member: 32536"><p>I think you are getting things a bit backwards here.</p><p></p><p>I don't think, at any point, the design of fortifications led to any change in their status as castles or not. The change in the physical design certainly did not directly cause the transition from the castle system to a capitol/fort system. A loss in the prestige of regional defensive fortification is caused by their transition from castles to forts, not the other way around.</p><p></p><p>Think about things this way... Castles are prestigious because they are occupied by powerful regional lords and officials. The centralization of power by larger governments weakens that regional power, reducing their prestige. The end result of the centralization of power is the creation of a strict divide between military forces and civilian government, where regional defense is controlled by military forces loyal to the capital (who live in forts) rather than autonomous regional lords and governors (who live in castles). There is no direct correlation between functional changes to castle design (like you see with the transition to star-shaped forts in Europe) and any level of prestige in the fort.</p><p></p><p>To make a few examples of this... Most major Japanese castles were built for the exact same type of warfare as European star forts. This is certainly true for the famous Osaka and Himeji castles, which were built a century later than the earliest of the European star forts, and used a lot of the same defensive technology. They looked very different, but that is mostly the differences of Japanese architecture and the functional different needs of castles and forts. Himeji and Osaka castles had prestige because they were the homes of powerful rulers, and this had nothing to do with the necessities of their defensive technology.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="TwinBahamut, post: 5388813, member: 32536"] I think you are getting things a bit backwards here. I don't think, at any point, the design of fortifications led to any change in their status as castles or not. The change in the physical design certainly did not directly cause the transition from the castle system to a capitol/fort system. A loss in the prestige of regional defensive fortification is caused by their transition from castles to forts, not the other way around. Think about things this way... Castles are prestigious because they are occupied by powerful regional lords and officials. The centralization of power by larger governments weakens that regional power, reducing their prestige. The end result of the centralization of power is the creation of a strict divide between military forces and civilian government, where regional defense is controlled by military forces loyal to the capital (who live in forts) rather than autonomous regional lords and governors (who live in castles). There is no direct correlation between functional changes to castle design (like you see with the transition to star-shaped forts in Europe) and any level of prestige in the fort. To make a few examples of this... Most major Japanese castles were built for the exact same type of warfare as European star forts. This is certainly true for the famous Osaka and Himeji castles, which were built a century later than the earliest of the European star forts, and used a lot of the same defensive technology. They looked very different, but that is mostly the differences of Japanese architecture and the functional different needs of castles and forts. Himeji and Osaka castles had prestige because they were the homes of powerful rulers, and this had nothing to do with the necessities of their defensive technology. [/QUOTE]
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