Forts by The National Archives

Author:The National Archives
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
ISBN: 9781472827623
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2018-10-15T00:00:00+00:00

In his Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, published between 1776 and 1788, Edward Gibbon presented such fortifications as a vital aid to European civilisation:

‘Mathematics, chemistry, mechanics, architecture, have been applied to the service of war; and the adverse parties oppose to each other the most elaborate modes of attack and of defence. Historians may indignantly observe that the preparations of a siege would found and maintain a flourishing colony; yet we cannot be displeased that the subversion of a city should be a work of cost and difficulty, or that an industrious people should be protected by those arts, which survive and supply the decay of military virtue. Cannon and fortifications now form an impregnable barrier against the Tartar horse; and Europe is secure from any future irruption by Barbarians.’

CHINESE ADVANCES

The same could be applied to Chinese advances into Central Asia, notably Mongolia, Xinkiang and Tibet. Fortresses were built, especially in Xinkiang, to protect centres of government and communication routes. Chinese fortification techniques, however, were different to those of the Europeans. The Chinese built with earth. These earth forts, which were certainly fit for purpose in this period, were to be surprisingly effective against British warships in the nineteenth century. In China’s cities, the élite banner units were based in segregated walled compounds.

Fortifications could also be used by China’s opponents, most prominently by the Tibetan minority of western Sichuan, who were known as the Gyalrong or Golden Stream tribes and have also been called Jinchuan. They used strong, well-sited stone fortresses and it proved very costly and time-consuming for the Chinese to take the towers, while bypassing them led to a vulnerability to attacks on Chinese supply lines. The 1747–49 war ended inconclusively despite major Chinese efforts. In the second war, that of 1771–76, the Chinese were again hindered by the numerous stone towers of their opponents, which were now strengthened against Chinese cannon by the use of logs and packed earth. Capturing the towers, in which the Chinese used cannon, took major efforts, but was finally successful.

In order to control the area, the Chinese then established fortresses of their own, in the shape of military colonies staffed with Chinese troops. This was a technique they used on both external and internal frontiers, for example in Xinkiang against the Dsungars and at Hami. It was a long-standing technique in Chinese history; just as it had been used by the Romans.

PERSIAN EMPHASIS ON BATTLE

In Persia (Iran), the emphasis was on battle, not siege, which often proved difficult. Strong in cavalry, not infantry, the Safavid (Persian) army sent to suppress an Afghan rebellion mounted an unsuccessful siege of Kandahar in 1711, and was heavily defeated as it retreated. In 1721, an Afghan army besieged Kirman in eastern Persia, but failed to take the citadel. In contrast, in 1722, advancing into central Persia, the Afghans, after defeating a far larger Persian army at Gulnabad, blockaded the capital, Isfahan, defeating attempts at relief, but lacking the numbers to storm the city and the artillery to breach its walls.

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