Siege Warfare

Recommended Prerequisites

NA

Teaching Methods

The teaching of this course is based on theoretical and theoretical-practical classes, supported by iconographic elements, analysis of texts, group work, readings and individual work, with the presentation and discussion of issues arising from those works

Learning Outcomes

It is intended that students understand and contextualize the evolution of siege warfare in its strategic dimension and various tactical and technological processes across a broad chronology (1200 BC to 1992 AD). For each historical period and for each studied siege, specific models of analysis will be developed, taking into account the available sources

Work Placement(s)

No

Syllabus

1. Siege Warfare in Antiquity:

Siege of Troy (c. 1200 BC)

Siege of Syracuse (415 BC) – the Athenian siege

Siege of Saguntum (218 BC) – casus belli for the Second Punic War

Siege of Alesia (52 BC)

Siege of Masada (72-73 or 73-74 AD)

 

2. Siege Warfare in the Middle Ages:

Siege of Paris (885–886)

Siege of Lisbon (1147)

Siege of Acre (1189–1191)

Siege of Calais (1346–1347)

Siege of Lisbon (1384)

Siege of Constantinople (1453)

Siege of Asilah (1471)

Siege of Tenochtitlan (1521) – fall of the Aztec Empire.

 

3. Siege Warfare in the Early Modern and Modern World:

Siege of Badajoz (1812) – Peninsular War

Siege of Vicksburg (1863) — Union army besieged a Confederate city in the American Civil War.

Siege of Antwerp (1914) – World War I

Siege of Madrid (1936—1939) – Spanish Civil War

Siege of Malta (1940–1943) – World War II

Siege of Leningrad (1941–1944) – also known as the 900-Day Siege

Siege of Dubrovnik (1991–1992) – Croatian War of Independence

Assessment Methods

Assessement
Research work: 100.0%

Bibliography

1. FIELD, Fields, Syracuse. 415-413. Destruction of the Athenian Imperial Fleet, London, Osprey Publishing, 2008.

2. GRAVETT, Christopher, Medieval Siege Warfare, London, Osprey Publishing, 1990.

3. CAMPBELL, Duncan, B, Besieged: An Encyclopedia of Great Sieges from Ancient Times to the Present, London, Osprey Publishing, 2006.

4. CONNEL, Charles, The World’s Greatest Sieges, Odhams, 1967.

5. DAVIS, Paul K., Besieged: 100 Great Sieges from Jericho to Sarajevo, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2003.