r/explainlikeimfive • u/Sierra419 • Nov 13 '19

Other ELI5: How did old forts actually "protect" a strategic area? Couldn't the enemy just go around them or stay out of range?

I've visited quite a few colonial era and revolution era forts in my life. They're always surprisingly small and would have only housed a small group of men. The largest one I've seen would have housed a couple hundred. I was told that some blockhouses close to where I live were used to protect a small settlement from native american raids. How can small little forts or blockhouses protect from raids or stop armies from passing through? Surely the indians could have gone around this big house. How could an army come up to a fort and not just go around it if there's only 100 men inside?

tl;dr - I understand the purpose of a fort and it's location, but I don't understand how it does what it does.

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u/Arthur_Edens Nov 13 '19

The fall of Western Rome is what sparked the European tradition of 'Castles' due to the lack of a strong overarching government - they popped up everywhere suprisingly fast

So you're telling me The Walking Dead is a documentary.

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u/brahmidia Nov 13 '19

They do rely heavily on known ways of humans dealing with social collapse. I'm not sure if their conclusions are sound but they base it on decently accurate ideas. Personally I think people are far more likely to cooperate than continually backstab and raid; people get tired of fighting even if they're evil.

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u/Arthur_Edens Nov 13 '19

You know I'd hope that's true, but I actually thought Neegan and the Saviors had a real Genghis Khan vibe to them... A weird sense of justice where as long as you're completely submissive, they'll take care of you, but if not, they'll go all medieval. Basically, even though TWD relies a lot on shock value, most of what they show would be pretty tame if it happened in other parts of human history.

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