Why did people stop using medieval castles for fighting and defence?
Gunpowder may not have caused the demise of castles but it did change them and thus stop them being built in a way that we would recognise as being a castle. But this was not a sudden change and happed over a long period. The change to which i refer is from the classic turreted castle of the middle ages to the Tras Italian fort of the 18th century. the classic style although sturdy was very seseptable to cannon fire due to its high profile. This was proved during the English civil war and 30 years war. And also the classic castle has many blind spots where defending muskets and cannon cannot see the attacking soldiers. Thus there was a change to large, lower profile forts. These were often partially buried so as to give the maximum defence against cannon (some had walls many meters thick) and most were pentagon shaped with pointed bastions on each corner. As such this allowed for every wall to be covered by racking cannon and musket fire from another. An example of this is Fort Nelson
