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General Tabletop Discussion
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Medieval Warfare and its Effects on Society/Economics
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<blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 7807200" data-attributes="member: 4937"><p>If by Medieval warfare you mean war in Europe during the Middle Ages (which I'll define as roughly from Charlemagne to the Black Death), Medieval warfare was designed to have as limited of effect on the society as a whole as possible. </p><p></p><p>Fights were supposed to be exclusively between members of the warring class, which were almost universally heavy cavalry. Serfs were in theory completely outside of warfare, and though they had to support it in their taxes they weren't supposed to be fighting it. Medieval wars were fought on a comparatively small scale for the most part - often with only a few hundred on each side and major battles being a few thousand on each side. Without logistical infrastructure, campaigning was limited to seasonal forays when the small armies could be supported by the surrounding countryside. Castles were very hard to break down with available technology and served as very effective point defense. In the West, officially the church was opposed to any warring between Christian states, and while these sort of prohibitions had limited effect, they did have some and most of the truly impactful wars of the period come under the heading of 'crusades' of various sorts.</p><p></p><p>Wars don't get really impactful on society until you get out of the Middle Ages, and get into the age of absolute monarchs, standing armies, supply depots, and most of all the developing sense by the commoners that they are a part of the political system in some sense - which leads to Nationalism and ultimately Democracy/Republicanism.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Celebrim, post: 7807200, member: 4937"] If by Medieval warfare you mean war in Europe during the Middle Ages (which I'll define as roughly from Charlemagne to the Black Death), Medieval warfare was designed to have as limited of effect on the society as a whole as possible. Fights were supposed to be exclusively between members of the warring class, which were almost universally heavy cavalry. Serfs were in theory completely outside of warfare, and though they had to support it in their taxes they weren't supposed to be fighting it. Medieval wars were fought on a comparatively small scale for the most part - often with only a few hundred on each side and major battles being a few thousand on each side. Without logistical infrastructure, campaigning was limited to seasonal forays when the small armies could be supported by the surrounding countryside. Castles were very hard to break down with available technology and served as very effective point defense. In the West, officially the church was opposed to any warring between Christian states, and while these sort of prohibitions had limited effect, they did have some and most of the truly impactful wars of the period come under the heading of 'crusades' of various sorts. Wars don't get really impactful on society until you get out of the Middle Ages, and get into the age of absolute monarchs, standing armies, supply depots, and most of all the developing sense by the commoners that they are a part of the political system in some sense - which leads to Nationalism and ultimately Democracy/Republicanism. [/QUOTE]
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