About Us
Overview
Bastions & Broadsides is dedicated to exploring and documenting European Military and Naval Architecture in the age of gunpowder.
The Beginning of the Age of Gunpowder
For the purposes of Bastions & Broadsides, the age of gunpowder began in 1453 with the Fall of Constantinople, when the Ottoman Empire's deployment of cannon to destroy the defences of Constantinople represented a turning point in siege warfare. The Fall of Constantinople resonated across Europe and necessitated Military Engineers to design fortifications that were capable of withstanding cannon shot.
The End of the Age of Gunpowder
For the purposes of Bastions & Broadsides, the age of gunpowder ended with the conclusion of the Second World War in 1945. In the course of the World War 2, even the most formidable fortresses on land and battleships at sea proved vulnerable to air attack. The proliferation of airpower and ever more destructive weapons in modern warfare rendered fortifications and capital ships all but obsolete.
Military Architecture
The study of Military Architecture focuses on the design of fortifications and other structures erected by Military Engineers for the purposes of defence. This includes forts, fortresses, defence lines, batteries, watchtowers, redoubts, bunkers and pillboxes, as well as supporting structures such as barracks, naval dockyards, airfields and communication facilities. For the majority of the age of gunpowder, bastioned fortifications were the defences of choice, until polygonal fortifications and underground fortifications became more prevalent in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries respectively.
Naval Architecture
The study of Naval Architecture focuses on the design of warships. The majority of the age of gunpowder overlapped with the age of sail, first using galleys and later using ships of the line. The latter half of the nineteenth century saw the introduction of warships featuring steam power, iron hulls and gun turrets. The launch of HMS Dreadnought in 1906 revolutionised warship design with the development of all big-gun battleships that would dominate the seas until 1945.
Artillery
The development of both Military and Naval Architecture was intrinsically linked to the evolution of artillery. Innovations such as gun barrel rifling, breach-loading guns, explosive shells and quick-firing guns revolutionised warfare and inevitably drove both fortification and warship design.
Media
Bastions & Broadsides aims to document European Military and Naval Architecture in the age of gunpowder primarily through the use of visual media, namely photos, videos, maps, diagrams and infographics. For this purpose, Bastions and Broadsides operates a drone.