Siege

Siege Warfare: A Timeless Strategy in Military History

Imagine a city under siege, its walls standing tall against the relentless assault of an enemy army. This scene has played out countless times throughout history, from ancient civilizations to modern conflicts. What exactly is a siege? Simply put, it’s a military blockade with the intent of conquering by attrition or well-prepared assault.

Sieges occur when an attacker encounters a city or fortress that cannot be easily taken by a quick assault and refuses to surrender. The goal is to surround the target, block supplies and reinforcements, and reduce fortifications through various means such as siege engines, artillery bombardment, mining, or deception. How long can these sieges last? They can take many months or years depending on the size of food stores.

Historical Context and Fortifications

The history of siege warfare dates back to ancient civilizations in the Middle East, China, and Greco-Roman world. City walls and fortifications served a dual purpose: defense and showcasing the kingdom’s might. For instance, Uruk (Sumerian city) had 9.5 km long walls up to 12 m high, while Babylon was reinforced with towers, moats, and ditches.

Archaeological evidence of siege systems can be found in various locations such as Tell es-Safi/Gath (Israel), Lachish (Israel), and Alt-Paphos, Cyprus. Depictions of siege warfare are also present in ancient art, including Egyptian tomb reliefs from the 24th century BC and Assyrian palace reliefs from the 9th to 7th centuries BC.

Attacker’s Strategies

The attacker’s first act might be a surprise attack, attempting to overwhelm the defenders before they were ready. The most common practice was to lay siege and wait for the surrender of the enemies inside or coerce someone inside to betray the fortification. Negotiations would frequently take place during the early part of the siege, with generous terms offered to defenders who surrendered quickly.

As a siege progressed, the surrounding army would build earthworks to completely encircle their target, preventing food, water, and supplies from reaching the besieged city. If sufficiently desperate, defenders and civilians might resort to eating anything edible – horses, pets, leather, and even each other. Disease was an effective siege weapon, although attackers were often as vulnerable as the defenders.

Defensive Countermeasures

To counter fortifications, various methods were developed, including mining (digging a tunnel beneath the foundations of the walls) and undermining the fortifications, causing them to collapse. Fire was often used as a weapon when dealing with wooden fortifications, such as Greek fire, which contained additives that made it hard to extinguish.

The universal method for defending against siege is the use of fortifications, principally walls and ditches, to supplement natural features. A sufficient supply of food and water was also important to defeat the simplest method of siege warfare: starvation. During the Warring States period in China (481–221 BC), warfare became more practical, competitive, cut-throat, and efficient for gaining victory.

Technological Advancements

The invention of gunpowder-based weapons revolutionized siege warfare. The balance of power and logistics definitely favored the defender until the invention of cannon and mortars, which became more effective against a determined siege. The Mongols used innovative tactics, including constructing hundreds of siege machines and using catapults to launch corpses into besieged cities.

The Piankhi stela records how the Nubians laid siege to and conquered several Egyptian cities using battering rams, archers, and slingers and building causeways across moats. His engineers built a causeway that reached the range of his torsion-powered artillery, while soldiers pushed siege towers with stone throwers and light catapults.

Modern Fortifications

The most effective way to protect walls against cannon fire was found to be depth and angles, with towers reformatted into triangular bastions and walls lowered and backed. Star-shaped fortresses became difficult to capture, even for well-equipped armies. Fortresses built in the Italian style throughout the 16th century did not become fully obsolete until the 19th century.

The cost of building modern fortifications was high, and many cities were bankrupted or lost wars due to excessive spending on fortifications. The new style of fortification began to spread out of Italy into the rest of Europe in the 1530s and 1540s. Italian engineers were in demand throughout Europe, particularly in war-torn areas such as the Netherlands.

Modern Sieges

Siege warfare continued to dominate Western Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries, resulting in prolonged conflicts with a focus on slow, grinding victories by economic power. Relatively rare pitched battles resulted in expensive failures, except for the English, who valued decisiveness during the English Civil War.

In the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, armies were divided into all-arms corps that marched separately, bypassing fortresses and command lines. This approach led to the development of artillery, which made previously impregnable defenses useless. Sieges became shorter due to advances in artillery and transportation.

Conclusion

Siege warfare has evolved significantly over time, from ancient strategies to modern tactics. Whether it’s a city under attack or a hostage situation, the principles remain the same: control, endurance, and negotiation. As technology continues to advance, so too will the methods of siege and defense.