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Like this thread on catapulting diseased dead bodies, the pouring of boiling oil and tar did happen - though not so commonly. Remember that many castles never saw action. Many more castles were built decoratively as a fashion rather than because defence was needed. However, when you look to city wall and city gates, here you see more use. Also a city will ...

In the case of Conway (and most other places on borders) - it's more a castle than a town. There is no point in having a well fortified castle, if around it you have an undefended town to give your attackers a base to live in while they attack you. The walled part of the city is really just the first line of castle defence for a siege. Conway s part of ...

From Global Security: Russian Military Spending: In 1988 military spending was a single line item in the Soviet state budget, totaling 21 billion rubles, or about US$33 billion. Given the size of the military establishment, however, the actual figure was at least ten times higher. Western experts concluded that the 21 billion ruble figure reflected only ...

Boiling oil is a good weapon, because its boiling point (400 degrees Fahrenheit) is much higher than that of water (212 degrees). It was a moderately effective weapon against men. But by its boiling and burning properties, it was a very effective weapon against ladders, rams, catapults, and other war instruments made of wood. Also, if successfully used, it ...

Aside from attacks during the two already mentioned time periods - European colonisation and the Japanese attacks during WW2 - there was another attack on Australian soil, though not on the continent itself: In the early morning of 2004-09-09, a car bomb was detonated at the Australian embassy in Jakarta, Indonesia. Of course, an embassy's area isn't, ...

A Japanese submarine bombarded the suburbs of Sydney, including Rose Bay, with a small cannon. As part of the initial attacks on Northern Australia, there were air raids at several points including a devastating attack on a seaplane base at Broome in North-Western Australia. Eventually the Japanese had to re-deploy the carrier forces that led these attacks ...

It's a simple (or not) optimization problem. Is the cost of the wall to protect the surrounding farms + cost of defending that wall (marginal cost compared to just the wall around the city) more or less than the cost of losing and rebuilding the farms (land improvements, buildings, stocks that can't be moved to the city and possibly farmers)? Judging by ...

City walls were for more than defense from attackers. Walls would help a city control immigration and trade, keeping out undesirables would be vital to a city remaining healthy especially preventing epidemics that could devastate a city. Walls Can also help with fighting crime to a degree by making entry/escape more challenging for criminals.

To answer your first question, yes attacks were frequent. This is what prompted many of the earliest 'settlements' to build a surrounding and protective wall in the first place, to stop constant raids from stronger 'warrior' nomadic tribes killing, enslaving people and stealing food. To answer your second question, the farmers and dry grain/food supplies ...