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Message: <blockquote data-quote="SKyOdin" data-source="post: 5382275" data-attributes="member: 57939">I just had a thought about the castle issue. The general claim is that castles fell out of use because cannons made them obsolete, and Europeans instead switched to a mix of dedicated forts and nonmilitary palaces. However, the segregation of palaces and forts was hardly a new thing in the world at large. The ancient Romans had palaces and dedicated forts, but didn't build true castles for the most part. Ditto for the Chinese dynasties. When you look outside of Medieval Europe, there is a wide mix of civilizations that either built castles or built separate palaces and forts, and cannons cannot be used as a reason for why these various civilizations made the choice one way or another.I would actually suggest that cannons had nothing to do with why Europe switched from building castles to building palaces and fortresses. If you look at the broader picture, castles tend to be built in periods and places where power is heavily decentralized or where conflict is common. On the other hand, well-organized societies where power is centralized seem to tend to build a mix of civilian palaces and military fortresses.Europe just happened to arm its armies with guns and cannons around the same time that it was making the transition from a decentralized feudal society to organized nation-states with absolute monarchs.</blockquote>