Mobile Artillery in Italian Wars Artillery became mobile and effective

During the Italian Wars of the late 15th and early 16th centuries, the emergence of mobile artillery drastically altered the face of European warfare. Unlike the cumbersome siege engines of the past, these new cannons were designed for mobility and rapid deployment, making them effective in both prolonged sieges and dynamic field battles. The French were among the first to harness this innovation to devastating effect, using mobile artillery to smash through the formidable walls of Italian city-states with unprecedented speed. This demonstrated the sheer destructive power of gunpowder-based weaponry and forced military strategists to rethink centuries of fortification design. The impact of mobile artillery went beyond the battlefield—it catalyzed a transformation in military architecture. Traditional medieval walls, designed to repel ladders and scaling, crumbled under concentrated cannon fire. This led to the development of new defensive systems, including star forts with angled bastions and lower, thicker walls better suited to absorb artillery strikes. The Italian Wars thus mark a critical period of military evolution, where the interplay between offensive firepower and defensive innovation accelerated the transition into early modern warfare. \#MomentsOfLife #MoofLife\_Moment #MoofLife #ItalianWars #ArtilleryEvolution #MilitaryInnovation #GunpowderAge #SiegeWarfare #HistoryReimagined