Blockhouse is a small fort built of logs or timber. It may be part of a larger defense system. Pioneer settlers of the United States and Canada used blockhouses as a defense against attacks by Indigenous (native) people. A typical blockhouse was a two-story square tower. It had room for 25 to 100 defenders who fired at the enemy through small openings in the walls. The second story sometimes had an overhang that extended over the first-story walls. In North America, defenders kept Indigenous people with firebrands (pieces of burning wood) away from the walls by firing at them from the overhang. Blockhouses were useless against enemy artillery fire. In Europe, the Normans built structures similar to blockhouses after they conquered England in 1066.
See also Pioneer life in America (Pioneers and Indigenous peoples).
