Forts of the Chieftains
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The Failure of UN Security Council Resolution 2286 in Preventing Attacks on Healthcare in Syria
The Failure of UN Security Council Resolution 2286 in Preventing Attacks on Healthcare in Syria January 2017 SYRIAN AMERICAN MEDICAL SOCIETY C1 Contents Acknowledgements C3 Foreword 1 Background 2 Methodology 2 Executive Summary 3 Attacks on Healthcare, June–December 2016 4 Advanced and Unconventional Weaponry 7 All Forms of Medical Facilities and Personnel Targeted 7 Conclusion 8 Appendix: Attacks on Medical Personnel, June–December 2016 9 ABOUT THE SYRIAN AMERICAN MEDICAL SOCIETY The Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS) is a non-profit, non-political, professional and medical relief organization that provides humanitarian assistance to Syrians in need and represents thousands of Syrian American medical professionals in the United States. Founded in 1998 as a professional society, SAMS has evolved to meet the growing needs and challenges of the medical crisis in Syria. Today, SAMS works on the front lines of crisis relief in Syria and neighboring countries to serve the medical needs of millions of Syrians, support doctors and medical professionals, and rebuild healthcare. From establishing field hospitals and training Syrian physicians to advocating at the highest levels of government, SAMS is working to alleviate suffering and save lives. On the cover: Aftermath of an attack on a hospital in Aleppo, October 2016 Design: Sensical Design & Communication C2 The Failure of UN Security Council Resolution 2286 in Preventing Attacks on Healthcare in Syria Acknowledgements None of our work would be made possible without Syria’s doctors, nurses, medical assistants, ambulance drivers, hospital staff, and humanitarian workers. Their inspiring work amidst the most dire of circumstances con- tinues to inspire us to help amplify their voices. -
The Early Effects of Gunpowder on Fortress Design: a Lasting Impact
The Early Effects of Gunpowder on Fortress Design: A Lasting Impact MATTHEW BAILEY COLLEGE OF THE HOLY CROSS The introduction of gunpowder did not immediately transform the battlefields of Europe. Designers of fortifications only had to respond to the destructive threats of siege warfare, and witnessing the technical failures of early gunpowder weaponry would hardly have convinced a European magnate to bolster his defenses. This essay follows the advancement of gunpowder tactics in late medieval and early Renaissance Europe. In particular, it focuses on Edward III’s employment of primitive ordnance during the Hundred Years’ War, the role of artillery in the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople, and the organizational challenges of effectively implementing gunpowder as late as the end of the fifteenth century. This essay also seeks to illustrate the nature of the development of fortification in response to the emerging threat of gunpowder siege weaponry, including the architectural theories of the early Renaissance Italians, Henry VIII’s English artillery forts of the mid-sixteenth century, and the evolution of the angle bastion. The article concludes with a short discussion of the longevity and lasting relevance of the fortification technologies developed during the late medieval and early Renaissance eras. The castle was an inseparable component of medieval warfare. Since Duke William of Normandy’s 1066 conquest of Anglo-Saxon England, the construction of castles had become the earmark of medieval territorial expansion. These fortifications were not simply stone squares with round towers adorning the corners. Edward I’s massive castle building program in Wales, for example, resulted in fortifications so visually disparate that one might assume they were from different time periods.1 Medieval engineers had built upon castle technology for centuries by 1500, and the introduction of gunpowder weaponry to the battlefields of Europe foreshadowed a revision of the basics of fortress design. -
Gloucestershire Castles
Gloucestershire Archives Take One Castle Gloucestershire Castles The first castles in Gloucestershire were built soon after the Norman invasion of 1066. After the Battle of Hastings, the Normans had an urgent need to consolidate the land they had conquered and at the same time provide a secure political and military base to control the country. Castles were an ideal way to do this as not only did they secure newly won lands in military terms (acting as bases for troops and supply bases), they also served as a visible reminder to the local population of the ever-present power and threat of force of their new overlords. Early castles were usually one of three types; a ringwork, a motte or a motte & bailey; A Ringwork was a simple oval or circular earthwork formed of a ditch and bank. A motte was an artificially raised earthwork (made by piling up turf and soil) with a flat top on which was built a wooden tower or ‘keep’ and a protective palisade. A motte & bailey was a combination of a motte with a bailey or walled enclosure that usually but not always enclosed the motte. The keep was the strongest and securest part of a castle and was usually the main place of residence of the lord of the castle, although this changed over time. The name has a complex origin and stems from the Middle English term ‘kype’, meaning basket or cask, after the structure of the early keeps (which resembled tubes). The name ‘keep’ was only used from the 1500s onwards and the contemporary medieval term was ‘donjon’ (an apparent French corruption of the Latin dominarium) although turris, turris castri or magna turris (tower, castle tower and great tower respectively) were also used. -
The Theatricality of the Baroque City: M
THE THEATRICALITY OF THE BAROQUE CITY: M. D. PÖPPELMANN’S ZWINGER AT DRESDEN FOR AUGUSTUS THE STRONG OF SAXONNY PATRICK LYNCH TRINITY HALL CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY 1996 MASTER OF PHILOSOPHY DISSERTATION THE HISTORY AND PHILSOPHY OF ARCHITECTURE 1 CONTENTS: Acknowledgements. Preface. 1 Introduction to the topic of theatricality as an aspect of the baroque. i.i The problem of the term baroque. i.ii The problem of theatricality in the histories of baroque architecture: i.ii.a The theatricality of the Frame. i.ii.b The theatricality of Festival. ii The hermeneutics of theatricality: ii.i Hans-Georg Gadamer's formulation of play, symbol and festival as an interpretation of baroque theatricality. 2 The historical situation of the development of the Zwinger. i The European context. ii The local context. 3 The urban situation of the Zwinger. i Barockstadt Dresden. ii Barockstaat Sachsen. 4 A description of the development of the Zwinger. Conclusion: i Festival and the baroque city. A description of the Zwinger in use as it was inaugurated during the wedding celebrations of Augustus III and Marie Josepha von Habsburg, September 1719. ii Theatricality and the city. Bibliography. Illustrations: Volume 2 2 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: I would like to thank D.V. for supervising me in his inimitable way, and Dr. Christopher Padfield (and Trinity Hall) for generous financial support. This dissertation is dedicated to my family and friends, absent or otherwise and to C.M. in particular for first showing me the Zwinger and without whose care this document would not exist. PATRICK LYNCH 09/96 3 'Als ich nach der Augustusbrücke kam, die ich schon so gut aus Kupferstichen und Gemälden kannte, kam es mir vor, als ob ich schon früher einmal in Traum hier gewesen wäre.' (As I came upon the Augustusbrücke, which I knew so well from engravings and paintings, it seemed to me as if I had been here once before, in a dream.) Hans Christian Andersen 'This luscious and impeccable fruit of life Falls, it appears, of its own weight to earth. -
An Excavation in the Inner Bailey of Shrewsbury Castle
An excavation in the inner bailey of Shrewsbury Castle Nigel Baker January 2020 An excavation in the inner bailey of Shrewsbury Castle Nigel Baker BA PhD FSA MCIfA January 2020 A report to the Castle Studies Trust 1. Shrewsbury Castle: the inner bailey excavation in progress, July 2019. North to top. (Shropshire Council) Summary In May and July 2019 a two-phase archaeological investigation of the inner bailey of Shrewsbury Castle took place, supported by a grant from the Castle Studies Trust. A geophysical survey by Tiger Geo used resistivity and ground-penetrating radar to identify a hard surface under the north-west side of the inner bailey lawn and a number of features under the western rampart. A trench excavated across the lawn showed that the hard material was the flattened top of natural glacial deposits, the site having been levelled in the post-medieval period, possibly by Telford in the 1790s. The natural gravel was found to have been cut by a twelve-metre wide ditch around the base of the motte, together with pits and garden features. One pit was of late pre-Conquest date. 1 Introduction Shrewsbury Castle is situated on the isthmus, the neck, of the great loop of the river Severn containing the pre-Conquest borough of Shrewsbury, a situation akin to that of the castles at Durham and Bristol. It was in existence within three years of the Battle of Hastings and in 1069 withstood a siege mounted by local rebels against Norman rule under Edric ‘the Wild’ (Sylvaticus). It is one of the best-preserved Conquest-period shire-town earthwork castles in England, but is also one of the least well known, no excavation having previously taken place within the perimeter of the inner bailey. -
Landmine Monitor 2014
Landmine Monitor 2014 Monitoring and Research Committee, ICBL-CMC Governance Board Handicap International Human Rights Watch Mines Action Canada Norwegian People’s Aid Research team leaders ICBL-CMC staff experts I © December 2014 by International Campaign to Ban Landmines – Cluster Munition Coalition (ICBL-CMC). All rights reserved. ISBN: 978-2-8399-1160-3 Cover photograph © Jared Bloch/ICBL-CMC, June 2014 Back cover © Werner Anderson/Norwegian People’s Aid, November 2013 Cover design by Rafael Jiménez Landmine and Cluster Munition Monitor provides research and monitoring for the Cluster Munition Coalition (CMC) and the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL). For more information visit www.the-monitor.org or email [email protected]. Landmine and Cluster Munition Monitor makes every effort to limit the environmental footprint of reports by pub- lishing all our research reports online. This report is available online at www.the-monitor.org. International Campaign to Ban Landmines The International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) is committed to the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty (or “Ottawa Conven- tion”) as the best framework for ending the use, production, stockpiling, and transfer of antipersonnel mines and for destroying stockpiles, clearing mined areas, and assisting affected communities. The ICBL calls for universal adherence to the Mine Ban Treaty and its full implementation by all, including: • No more use, production, transfer, and stockpiling of antipersonnel landmines by any actor under any circumstances; • Rapid destruction of all remaining stockpiles of antipersonnel landmines; • More efficient clearance and destruction of all emplaced landmines and explosive remnants of war (ERW); and • Fulfillment of the rights and needs of all landmine and ERW victims. -
United States / Afghanistan
December 2002 Vol. 14, No. 7 (G) UNITED STATES / AFGHANISTAN FATALLY FLAWED: CLUSTER BOMBS AND THEIR USE BY THE UNITED STATES IN AFGHANISTAN Acronyms Used In Report........................................................................................................................................ iii I. SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS.........................................................................................................1 Methodology ..........................................................................................................................................................3 Outline of Report....................................................................................................................................................3 Recommendations ..................................................................................................................................................4 To minimize the humanitarian harm of cluster bombs during strikes ................................................................4 To minimize the aftereffects of cluster bombs ...................................................................................................4 To improve clearance .........................................................................................................................................4 To develop better cluster bomb controls for the future ......................................................................................5 II. WHAT ARE CLUSTER BOMBS?.......................................................................................................................6 -
Cluster Weapons – Military Utility and Alternatives
FFI-rapport/2007/02345 Cluster weapons – military utility and alternatives Ove Dullum Forsvarets forskningsinstitutt/Norwegian Defence Research Establishment (FFI) 1 February 2008 FFI-rapport 2007/02345 Oppdrag 351301 ISBN 978-82-464-1318-1 Keywords Militære operasjoner / Military operations Artilleri / Artillery Flybomber / Aircraft bombs Klasevåpen / Cluster weapons Ammunisjon / Ammunition Approved by Ove Dullum Project manager Jan Ivar Botnan Director of Research Jan Ivar Botnan Director 2 FFI-rapport/2007/02345 English summary This report is made through the sponsorship of the Royal Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Its purpose is to get an overview of the military utility of cluster munitions, and to find to which degree their capacity can be substituted by current conventional weapons or weapons that are on the verge of becoming available. Cluster munition roughly serve three purposes; firstly to defeat soft targets, i e personnel; secondly to defeat armoured of light armoured vehicles; and thirdly to contribute to the suppressive effect, i e to avoid enemy forces to use their weapons without inflicting too much damage upon them. The report seeks to quantify the effect of such munitions and to compare this effect with that of conventional weapons and more modern weapons. The report discusses in some detail how such weapons work and which effect they have against different targets. The fragment effect is the most important one. Other effects are the armour piercing effect, the blast effect, and the incendiary effect. Quantitative descriptions of such effects are usually only found in classified literature. However, this report is exclusively based on unclassified sources. The availability of such sources has been sufficient to get an adequate picture of the effect of such weapons. -
The Star Fort, September, 1814
D-JLJ- UNITED STATES DEPARTHEI'irrr OF THE INTERIOR NATIONAL PARK SERVICE FORT MCHENRY NATIONAL MONUMENT AND HISTORIC SHRINE BALTIMORE 30, MARYLAND \\St ARtftlOlOGY The .Star Fort, September, 1814 Prepared by: Dr. W. Richard Walsh Contract Historian · Georgetown University Georgetown, D.C. November, 1958 r~ , .. I . ,. .. - •• '' I• ,•' --:• ' . '·· ~ -,, .. ., . · .· .. :· .·. • , :: .:'~ .: :/ F.1 _r1 .. .J '~ l. \ '. \~ IJ li :i. /:i1('fl ---. \J .. •• 1 : ... .. .. .. ,,.. - l ~ j Table of Contents Page Frontispiece ••••••••••••••• • • • • ii I. Introduction • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 1 II. The Star Fort, September 12-14, 1814 • • • • • • • 7 24 III. Conclusions. • • • • • • • • • • • • 3 • • • • • • ._: I f ,\ .. i ) ~ ',...___/ Errata p .. 2, line 60 '0 indiaten should read '0 indicate.io p. 3, line 4o "war-fare" should read 10 warfareo 18 p. a, line 8. "amatuer" should read "amateur.~ p .. 7, fn. 1, line 5. "principle" should read ~principal." p. 9, line 12. "wa.tteries" should read "batteries. ~ p. 10, · line 10. Delete "which." p .. 10, line 11. "patforms" should read "platforms." p. 10, line 17. "Descius" should read "Decius." p. 13, fn. \:1 9 line 5. "Jessup" should read "Jesupn in this and all subsequent mention of the name. o. 19, line 16~ "orciinarilly" should read "ordinarily .. '° p. 26, line 5. "Carrol" should read "Carroll." p. 26, line 7. "confederates" should read "Confederates." .a- -. ( ... ~ "'·. / I Introduction In 1776, Baltimore prepared itself for. attack by the British~ Already apprehensive because of threats from the sea by His Majesty's vessel, the Otter, the Committee of Safety choose Whetstone Point as the best fortifiable site against enemy destruction to the Baltimore harbor. A fort of sorts was therefore erected, but because the threat of a general naval attack never materialized and the actual fight ing of the war of the Revolution by-passed Baltimoreans, a well armed Fort vVhetstone was not accomplished. -
The Dutch Wars of Independence and the Republic's Golden Age C.1570-C
The Dutch Wars of Independence and the Republic’s Golden Age c.1570-c.1680 Marjolein C. ’t Hart University of Amsterdam [email protected] 1 Contents Introduction – The Dutch Revolt, the Global Context, and the Military Revolution Interpretations of the Dutch Revolt The Military Revolution and its Societal Impact Warfare, Territorial State Formation, and Capital Accumulation About this Book Chapter 1 - The Wars: from the Dutch Revolt to ‘la Guerre de Hollande’, c. 1570-c.1680 The Dutch Revolt and the Struggle for Survival, 1570s-1580s Respite and Consolidation in the 1590s Stalemate and Truce, 1600-1621 Frederick Henry’s Counteroffensive and the Renewed Stalemate, 1620s-1640s Independence, the Stadholderless period, and the Wars with England and Munster 1672: The Year of Disaster and its Aftermath Conclusion: The Different Strategies of the Belligerents Chapter 2 – A Professional Military Force in the Making From Beggars and Landsknechts to a Standing Profeesional Army Pay, Mustering, Medical Care and the Prisoners of War Appointment of Officers and Decreasing Professionalization after 1648 Conclusion: Civilian Control over the Army Chapter 3 – The Dutch “Schoole of War”: Drill, Tactics, and Siege Warfare Increasing Standardization and the Proportion of Firearms Regular Exercises and New Formations Fortresses and Fortifications The Art of Siege Warfare Tactical Limits, Provisioning, and Army Size Conclusion: The Model of a Disciplined Army Chapter 4 – Garrisons and Civic Communities: Strengthening the Local Bonds The Difficult Start in -
Park Report Part 1
Alcatraz Island Golden Gate National Recreation Area Physical History PRE-EUROPEAN (Pre-1776) Before Europeans settled in San Francisco, the area was inhabited by Native American groups including the Miwok, in the area north of San Francisco Bay (today’s Marin County), and the Ohlone, in the area south of San Francisco Bay (today’s San Francisco peninsula). Then, as today, Alcatraz had a harsh environment –strong winds, fog, a lack of a fresh water source (other than rain or fog), rocky terrain –and there was only sparse vegetation, mainly grasses. These conditions were not conducive to living on the island. These groups may have used the island for a fishing station or they may have visited it to gather seabird eggs since the island did provide a suitable habitat for colonies of seabirds. However, the Miwok and Ohlone do not appear to have lived on Alcatraz or to have visibly altered its landscape, and no prehistoric archeological sites have been identified on the island. (Thomson 1979: 2, Delgado et al. 1991: 8, and Hart 1996: 4). SPANISH AND MEXICAN PERIOD (1776-1846) Early Spanish explorers into Alta California encountered the San Francisco Bay and its islands. (Jose Francisco Ortega saw the bay during his scouting for Gaspar de Portola’s 1769 expedition, and Pedro Fages described the three major islands –Angel, Alcatraz, and Yerba Buena –in his journal from the subsequent 1772 expedition.) However, the first Europeans to record their visit to Alcatraz were aboard the Spanish ship San Carlos, commanded by Juan Manuel de Ayala that sailed through the Golden Gate and anchored off Angel Island in August 1775. -
The Halifax Citadel
THE HALIFAX CITADEL National Historic Park Halifax, Nova Scotia Issued under the authority of the Honourable Arthur Laing, P.C., M.P., B.S.A., Minister of Northern Affairs and National Resources HALIFAX CITADEL NOVA SCOTIA THE HALIFAX CITADEL Halifax, Nova Scotia Halifax was founded in 1749 to provide a base for the British Navy and Army and a springboard for attack on the French at Louisbourg and Quebec, because the final contest between France and England for possession of the North American continent was clearly approaching. Citadel Hill was always the innermost keep and chief land defence of the Halifax Fortress. Four forts were built, at different periods, on its summit. The first was part of a wooden palisade around the young settlement, designed to protect the settlers from Indians. The second was built at the time of the American Revolution and was intended as a stronghold and base against the rebels. The third was built while Napoleon Bonaparte was trying to conquer the world, and this one was later repaired for the War of 1812 with the United States. Because of the latter war, Britain knew she must have a permanent fortress here as Atlantic base in time of peril, and so the fourth, the present one, was constructed. Not one of these forts was ever called upon to resist invasion. No shot was ever fired against them in anger. However, it is safe to say that they had served their purpose merely by existing. The First Citadel When the Honourable Edward Cornwallis arrived at Chebucto Harbour on June 21, 1749, accompanied by more than 2,500 settlers, one of his first thoughts was to secure the settlement from attacks by marauding Indians, ever ready to molest the British during periods of nominal peace between England and France.