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Changes were going through Europe.There was engineering with stone and architectural designs. Castles were also upgrading in to stronger castles because Kings yearned to protect their fortresses and began to consolidate their castles. But their wealth was not enough to build stone castles. But the castles were very similar to Motte Bailey castles and were often called "Shell-Keeps"
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Crusaders brought home some engineering facts from places like Greece and Turkey. Now, Medieval castles had learnt stonemasonry which enabled them to make stone blocks to use for their castle. Many took up this idea to strengthen their strongholds.
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Up to this century there were many supreme towers of high quality standards. Although, most towers were in rectangular prism formations and were extremely vulnerable to battering rams and had blind zones. So ideas of round towers came to be. They were more stronger and less vulnerable.
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Building of castles stopped because of artillery inventions. Developments in technology and gunpowder came to existence and castles eventually became futile. Building a castle would take 10 years and would be easily decimated by enemy artillery. But they didn't, these structures became property of royals like Kings and Queens.
In 1330, cannons and guns took over. Weapons like swords and axes and shields all disappeared because of a new revolution of weaponary. -
The first castle structures were built as defensive positions. They were called Motte and Bailey and they were large mounds of dirt with buildings on top. Hundreds of these structures were built during the century because they were made from easy to get materials. The castle was divided into two parts, the top part, was called Motte, it was where the King lived and the second part Bailey where all the Peasants lived..
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The Evolutionary Stages of Medieval Castles
